Jumptown–The Golden Years of Portland Jazz, 1942-1957 a Book Review by Martha Gies
eliot news A Publication of Eliot Neighborhood Association volume 15 number 1 winter 2006 Jumptown–The Golden Years of Portland Jazz, 1942-1957 A book review by Martha Gies unique and valuable social from the WWII arrival of thousands history, Jumptown is also of African Americans who came to clearly a labor of pure love. work in the Kaiser shipyards. Louis Armstrong, Cab Cal- Organized around 19 venues, Aloway, Duke Ellington, Art Farmer, Jumptown combines thumbnail bi- Errol Garner, Lionel Hampton, Stan ographies, legends grown up around Kenton, Meade Lux Lewis, Thelonius unforgettable performances, and Monk, Art Tatum, Jack Teagarden, other jazz lore, all told with a fan’s Fats Waller—they were all in Port- contagious ardor. The venues, each land during the 15-year “golden pe- a chapter, are presented chronologi- riod,” that author Bob Dietsche dates cally, to tell the story of how Port- land played and danced after dark. For jazz lovers who live in Eliot, Jumptown: The Golden Dietsche’s book is a double treat, Years of Portland Jazz, Left to Right: Local jazz greats Cleve Williams, James Benton, Marianne Mayfield, 1942-1957 since three of these places were in Mel Brown, around 2000. Robert Dietsche Eliot, and eight more within a couple Oregon State University Press, 2005 blocks of its present borders. of all this music was just south of progress, the clubs came down and $24.95 paper Chapter one is about the Dude Broadway where at the Frat Hall the coliseum and the freeway went Ranch, housed in one of the few (1471 NE Williams Court), for in- up.
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