Here’s a bright spot on the calendar: Garfield High School’s award-winning jazz program will perform at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley on April 7 in tribute to one of their own — Quincy Jones, Class of 1950.

The fundraising concert, titled, The Birth of a Band! Garfield Jazz Tribute to Quincy Jones, focuses on the era from 1958 to 1966, when Jones was arranging and conducting for icons such as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and the Count Basie Orchestra. Expect selections from Sinatra at the Sands alongside some of Quincy’s most iconic compositions.

Jones, who passed away in November at age 91, was a lifelong advocate for music education. In 1991, he launched the Quincy Jones Listen Up Foundation to help break cycles of poverty and violence by expanding children’s access to education, technology, culture, and music. He also founded the Quincy Jones Musiq Consortium in 2009 to bring educators, nonprofits, and artists together in support of music in schools. In 2023, he made a personal donation to save a Seattle Public Schools middle school band program.

“If I didn’t find music as a kid, I would either be in jail or dead,” Jones wrote in a Facebook post in 2022. “Music education is incredibly important, not only for creative development, but as a way out for the many kids who have none.”

At a time when school budget cuts continue to threaten arts education, this is a chance to support the students who show up, rehearse, and play their hearts out — and to honor a musician who believed deeply in music as a source of joy and connection. Under the direction of Jared Sessink, Garfield Jazz carries that legacy forward with heart, talent, and hard work. 

Garfield High School, a public school in Seattle’s Central District, draws students from diverse backgrounds. After a major remodel in 2008, the school auditorium was renamed the Quincy Jones Performance Center in his honor.

Tickets for the concert are $100 and benefit the Garfield Jazz Foundation, which supports over 90 student musicians with travel, instruments, and resources. Doors open at 6 p.m., and the show starts at 7. More information here.