Documentary on Golden Age Jazz in Portland (Oregon)

[beep] [music] [music] Another scene was emerging alongside the big bands and ballrooms. Portlanders flocked to the jazz clubs to see the best entertainers in the West. [music] [singing] "You're smiling... when you know you're smiling..." Mary Lockridge, the million dollar grandma, and Larry Adair are two icons from the golden era of jazz in Portland, a time when the neverending sounds of hot music lingered in the streets. "When I was six years old and in vaudeville, You know those days, you had a movie and then there was the newsreel. And then there would be the vaudeville show. And that's where I came." [music] "I've been playing about... Forty-five years I guess. I started when I was 15. I wanted to start a lot sooner, but my folks wouldn't let me. You know, I loved it since I was four or

five." [music] "Jazz has always had a following. Not... as wide a following now, possibly, as in the '30s, ...'40s because, oh, '20s and '30s, it was the popular music. During World War II, we had many shipyards here, the Kaiser shipyards. It was a great influx of people here. They ran 24-hour shifts. And during times of stress, people like to have fun. They need to forget about the stress of war. So often, this opened up many venues for music in general and a lot of jazz. And a shift would get off, say, midnight at the shipyards And they'd have a band waiting in the rec room to play for 'em." Joe Wimmer got his start playing the clarinet at the hot spots and down after World War II. Nineteen-forty-nine. I was 15 and a half. My first

professional job. The popularity of jazz grew from the Kaiser shipyards to a network of clubs lining the streets of downtown Portland and up and down Northeast Williams Avenue. "There really wasn't a Friday-, Saturday-night type thing. I mean, this went on all week long, seven days a week. Downtown Portland was just buzzing with clubs. Up and down Broadway, on Madison.... And there were just clubs everywhere. There was a Portland club. And the Clover Club, which was in the Taylor building." For a taste of the tropics, there was the Bali Hai on Southwest 10th and Stark. It always set just the right mood for Pat O'Neill's quartet to back stars like the Mills Brothers. And see Wilson, Dinah Washington, and Dorothy Min. Performances were sold out every night at Bali Hai.

It was the best stage in town. [music] "Then there was the Cotton Club and there was the Sky Room which was at the top of the new Heathman Hotel. And then there was the Cherokee Club, which was a basement of the old Oregon Hotel, and that's where all the musicians met after work and had jam sessions. And then, of course, there was Sidney's and the Diamond Horseshoe." "The owner of Sidney's with first at Jane's Chicken Coop. We get off gigs, or musicians get off gigs or performances and we come over there and jam." "I worked in the Cotton Club, which was over on the east side. But the original Cotton Club was in the Golden West Hotel. That was there when I was a little kid. And a lot of the big orchestras came in there, and my mother used to let me stay up on Saturday night to listen to them on the

radio. [music] And... bands like Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and Count Basie, they came down there to play. I was working up the street from Della Reese when she came here and I think the cover charge was a dollar or something like that, you know. So it wasn't a big price you had to pay, you know, you came in to enjoy." [music] [singing] Among the big name stars to come to town was Louis Armstrong and the All Stars. Portland was their last stop. In 1954, a world-renowned tour that took them to Russia. "Louis and his All Stars were appearing at the Fairmont on [unintelligble] [unintelligible] now appearing at the Paramount Theatre that evening. I guess Louis and [unintelligible] had tried to arrange that we get together, the Castle Jazz Band and the All Stars." The original Castle Jazz Band came together in Portland in 1943

and entertained us for the next half-century. Leader and banjo player Monte Bellew met Louis Armstrong through their mutual love of jazz and they became lifelong friends. The pair couldn't resist having just one jam session together at the 419 Club before the big gig at the Paramount. [music] "Comes intermission at the 419 Club. Our instruments in hand, we run down the stairway, pop in a cab that Monte had arranged, zip up Broadway, hop out, [unintelligible] side door, come up the lobby, come down the aisle, 'Saints Come Marchin' In,' people just went wild, as you can imagine. The next morning, he left with his band to be the first band, American band, to appear behind the iron curtain, as it was called then. And from that time, he received one of his many nicknames - the ambassador of jazz. [jazz music] Eventually, like the ball rooms, the wheel turned on the jazz clubs and their numbers dwindled from our streets.

One of the things that shut down the music business and many others was the advent of TV. People stayed home. All this, I think, the economics as much as anything contributed to the change. As rock and roll scene came in, and I can tell you exactly when that happened, and I- a different generation. And this generation wanted something different than their parents have had. 419 Club becomes this big building. I miss the Prima Donna too. That was another place and now they've got a National Car Rental lot there. I missed the Jazz Quarry because the Jazz Quarry was a place you went and when you went in there, you knew it was going to be jazz." The popular Jazz Quarry located on Southwest 11th and Jefferson was the last of the great great jumping jazz clubs from the Golden Era to host regional and national stars. It closed its doors in 1987.

"Oh, it was just a wonderful time. I mean, everybody had a good time. There was no violence. You know you could walk the street at two o'clock in the morning and feel safe." [music vocal] Mary Lockridge and Larry Adair's union some 32 years ago sparked an unmatchable duo that can still be heard at Kelly's Olympian downtown. [singing] "So hush little baby don't you..." [singing "don't you cry"] Though many of the clubs themselves have faded into the history of the Rose City, the lifeblood of jazz still floats here.