Seattle jazz assumes the metaphorical and spiritual shape of the city, the land, and the environment. It affects the way people think, feel, live, work, and believe, cycling into a kind of collective consciousness, which is then expressed through the music. So says Jodee Fenton of Seattle Public Library (which is hosting the expansive Rhythm in Colors exhibition), paraphrasing a concept by Industrial Revelation bassist Evan Flory-Barnes. Fenton cites Stranger Genius Award winner Flory-Barnes as one of many attractions of Rhythm in Colors, a study of Seattle jazz, past and present, with an eye to the future. (It runs now through August 13 at the Central Library.)
Rhythm in Colors incorporates the usual Seattle jazz suspects—Ray Charles, who broke out in this town, plus Quincy Jones and Ernestine Anderson, who spent crucial childhoods here—plus a wider cast of older faces, new talent, and a few crucial nonmusical presences. The exhibit gives you photos, but also computer tags to hear live music, plus a telephone number giving access to interview segments from the Seattle Jazz Archive, a work-in-progress collection of in-depth interviews with folks from the Colors exhibit and beyond.