In Memoriam

Joseph Murphy | November 29, 2010

Adieu to Gary Bannister, long time jazz promoter on the Northwest scene, who passed in late October at the age of 61.

Gary was a dedicated jazz lifer and all around Epicurean who knew the secret to a happy life was knowing where the good stuff was whether it be food, wine, cars or jazz and making sure others knew where to find them as well. While I was working in jazz in Portland in the late seventies, touring musicians of the likes of Don Cherry, Henry Threadgill and others would often relate enthusiastic tales of meals enjoyed, vintages quaffed or simple courtesies extended at their Seattle stops that inevitably invoked Gary’s hand.

As a jazz hand, Gary was ubiquitous – promoting at the old Seattle Concert Theatre, running a record company, teaching jazz history and, most prominently, presiding over managerial duties and booking at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley in Seattle for much of the last twenty five years where he brought jazz history from Art Blakey and Benny Carter to Betty Carter and Lester Bowie to Northwest audiences.

But it was in his capacity as co-founder of the Seattle jazz arts organization Earshot Jazz and longtime contributor to its newsletter – and later as co-editor of 5/4 Magazine – that I got to work directly with Gary and appreciate his incisive knowledge of the music and no bullshit attitude toward the machinations of the scene. Like his speech and demeanor, Gary’s jazz writing was incisive, with little cant or words wasted but unsparingly oppositional to what passed for conventional jazz wisdom.

I last saw Gary at the 2006 Obrador Reunion in Olympia doing a few of his favorite things; hanging with jazz folk and dishing out salmon and oysters on the chow line. If there’s a jazz Valhalla on the other side, I’m sure he’s doing it there.