Scene Report · Seattle Jazz
John Coltrane would have turned 100 on Wednesday.
He wasn't from Seattle, but in the fall of 1965 he played a weeklong run at the Penthouse on First Avenue. One of those nights became Live in Seattle. Another, recorded two nights later, would surface more than half a century later as A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle.
The club is long gone. Seattle's habit of finding jazz in small rooms isn't.
There is plenty of jazz happening around Seattle this week. What makes these four worth pulling out is how different they are: a free late-night organ session, a centennial listening party, a celebration of a Seattle jazz legend in a Pioneer Square basement, and a $5 Sunday matinee at an art museum.
Four shows. Four neighborhoods. Nothing over $24.
The occasion
Why Wednesday matters
John Coltrane was born September 23, 1926, in Hamlet, North Carolina. He died at 40, after a remarkably short career that changed the direction of jazz.
Seattle has its own place in that story.
From September 27 through October 2, 1965, Coltrane and his band played the Penthouse, a jazz club on First Avenue. The September 30 performance became Live in Seattle. On October 2, the band performed A Love Supreme live, a recording that wasn't released until 2021.
More than sixty years later, Seattle is marking Coltrane's centennial the way it knows how: in listening rooms, neighborhood bars and small jazz spaces across the city.
If there's one thread through the week, it's this: Coltrane came to Seattle to play this music in an intimate room. Seattle is still listening the same way.
The four nights
What we'd actually go to
In day order, because that's how a week works.
✦ Tue Sept 22 · Wallingford
Joe Doria Presents
Joe Doria has been holding down Tuesday nights at Sea Monster Lounge for years.
The Hammond organ is at the center of it, with Doria joined by musicians from around Seattle for a late-night session that feels less like a formal concert and more like dropping into something already in motion.
No cover. Donations welcome. Music starts at 10.
If you've never been to a jazz session and don't want to buy a ticket to find out whether it's your thing, start here.
📍Sea Monster LoungeWallingford
✦ Wed Sept 23 · Ballard
John Coltrane Turns 100
On Coltrane's actual 100th birthday, Shibuya HiFi is putting the records at the center of the room.
At 5 PM, Studio Q hosts a full listen to Blue Train. At 8 PM, Casual Hero takes over for A Love Supreme.
Shibuya is built for this kind of thing: a dedicated hi-fi room, serious speakers and an atmosphere designed around focused listening. No tribute band. No reinvention. Just two of Coltrane's defining albums, played front to back on the day he would have turned 100.
Simple. Appropriate. Very good.
Get tickets →✦ Fri Sept 25 · Pioneer Square
Julian Priester Day
This one has some Seattle history behind it.
Julian Priester played with Duke Ellington and Sun Ra, joined Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi sextet, appeared on a remarkable run of Blue Note sessions and made his own records for Riverside and ECM.
Then he came to Seattle.
Priester joined the faculty at Cornish in 1979 and taught there for more than three decades, becoming a major influence on generations of musicians in the city. In 2023, Seattle officially proclaimed September 25 Julian Priester Day.
Now 91, Priester is scheduled to perform at the Seattle Jazz Fellowship alongside Alex Chadsey, Jeff Busch and Farko Dosumov.
The setting fits: an intimate basement in Pioneer Square, first-come seating, all ages and a $20 suggested donation.
📍Seattle Jazz FellowshipPioneer Square
✦ Sun Sept 27 · First Hill
Jazz in the City: Jovino Santos Neto Trio
Jovino Santos Neto spent fifteen years playing with Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal before moving to Seattle in 1993.
He's been part of the city's music scene ever since.
A three-time Latin Grammy nominee, Santos Neto moves between Brazilian traditions, jazz and improvisation without making much distinction between them. On Sunday, his trio plays the Frye Art Museum's auditorium as part of its Jazz in the City series.
Tickets start at $5. The show starts at 2. You're out by 4.
Hard to beat.
📍Frye Art MuseumFirst Hill
Also this week
A few more worth knowing about
Those are the four we'd build the week around. But they're far from the only options.
→Zig Zag Café, Sunday through Wednesday. Live jazz from 8 to 10:30 PM in one of Seattle's classic downtown hideaways. A very good answer to, "Is anything happening tonight?"
→Seattle Jazz Fellowship Jam, Monday. Same Pioneer Square basement as the Priester show. The house band starts at 7:30 before opening things up for the jam. Bring a horn or just listen.
→Emma Smith at the Triple Door, Wednesday. The British vocalist and Ronnie Scott's regular comes to Seattle for a proper sit-down show. Tickets are $30–35. The only problem: it lands directly against the Coltrane centennial listening session.
→Seattle-Kobe Female Jazz Vocalist Audition, Sunday. Finalists perform at the Triple Door for the chance to represent Seattle in Kobe, Japan, with 2026 Kobe Jazz Queen Kumiko Hisano also appearing in her Seattle debut. Tickets are $10, or $5 for students and seniors.
Seattle is still a city where jazz happens in small rooms.
A Hammond organ after dinner. Coltrane through a serious pair of speakers. A 91-year-old legend in a Pioneer Square basement. Brazilian jazz on a Sunday afternoon.
Pick one.
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