Jazz Underground Celebrates 20 Years of Jazz and Big Band Fun

Started by a group of Franklin High School Jazz Lab alumni, the band will be playing some favorites at their 20th-anniversary concert.

by Jas Keimig

It all started 20 years ago in the basement of Franklin High School.

Several alums from the Franklin High School Jazz Lab got together to practice sheets of music for the high school music department's Big Band Dance fundraiser event for adults. The alums tooted their horns, tickled some ivory, and banged on the drums for a month, rehearsing for the big day. Once the event came and went, a desire to keep the band together and play around town lingered. But, first, they had to address that name.

"Being called the Franklin High School Alumni Jazz Lab was not particularly commercially viable," director Robert Pitzer remembered. "We rehearsed in a basement, we had a brainstorming session, and somebody came up with Jazz Underground. That's how we got named."

Since that morning in January 2004, the Jazz Underground has blossomed from a casual crew into a steadfast group of mostly non-professional musicians performing across the city in venues like The Royal Room, Tula's (R.I.P.), Columbia City Theatre, and more. This Friday, Aug. 16, they will be hosting a show in honor of their 20th year. The lineup has changed a lot over the years and now features members who are not Franklin alums, and Jazz Underground players past and present will be on deck to play some hits and solos for the evening.

So what compelled these adults to form a jazz group under the auspices of their old high school anyway? Well, they all felt drawn to the strength and knowledge of band director Pitzer as well as the school's positioning within the greater jazz community in the city. Franklin always felt plugged in to the goings-on of the Seattle music scene more generally. (Also, it should be noted, celebrity saxophonist Kenny G attended FHS back in the day.)

"There's always been kind of a history [at Franklin]. The program was really well tied into a lot of the kind of jazz scene of the area," reflected Kellen White, Jazz Underground saxophonist. "A lot of us, when we left the school a quarter century ago, continued on and kept playing but also had friends from some of those other programs and other musicians in the area. You start to get this exchange that's happening, this kind of cross-pollination where you're pulling people in."

📸 Featured Image: Jazz Underground at 2023 Folklife. See them perform in person tomorrow, Aug. 16, at Rainier Arts Center. (Photo courtesy of Jazz Underground)