KMHD's Bryson Wallace reflects on Portland's jazz history

🎶 As the Portland Jazz Festival continues, we checked in with Wallace to learn more about the city's jazz scene then … and now.

Flashback: Oregon's shipbuilding industry during World War II brought in thousands of jobs and increased the state's African American population nearly tenfold. And it also ushered in a vibrant era of jazz music.

• Dozens of jazz venues, like the iconic The Dude Ranch, began popping up along Williams Avenue throughout the 1940s — quickly turning the Albina District into the premier neighborhood for Black life in Portland.
• Soon, Rose City became a hot spot for touring artists like Coleman Hawkins, Billie Holiday and Art Tatum.

Everything changed a few decades later with the development of the I-5 freeway, which obliterated Portland's historic Black neighborhood.

• Many of the Black-owned nightclubs on North Williams were displaced, and the city's jazz scene became more subdued.

State of play: While that era may be over, jazz here isn't dead, Wallace said.

• "Artists like trumpeter Chris Botti, Omari Jazz and institutions like Albina Music Trust make it possible to unearth the heavily silenced music of the past that reflected Portland lifestyle with the lens of jazz-funk."
• He pointed to historical venues like The Jack London Revue — "one of the oldest buildings to thrive during prohibition" that continues to attract "top talent."
• Spots like Fortune and The Goodfoot also routinely host local jazz artists like Sam Durazzo, Machado Mijiga and BrandonLee Cierley, he added.

What's next: You can catch Wallace's DJ set during the Jazz Festival at Multnomah Whiskey Library on Feb. 29 from 8-10pm.