The Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra opened its 25th anniversary season with concerts in Seattle's Benaroya Hall and the Kirkland Performance Center last weekend. The program in both locations featured music from a 1961 album that brought the Count Basie Orchestra and the Duke Ellington Orchestra together in a recording studio for the first and only time. They shared repertoire and soloists from both bands and many selections recorded that day were performed in these concerts by the SRJO.   

(An essay from Sound Effect host Gabriel Spitzer)

He looked wildly out of context. This was a place of ice and tundra, of weathered brown skin and tan Carhartts. But this guy showed up in neon-colored rain gear with hippie jewelry and zero explanation of why he was there. 

And he couldn’t really tell us — he only spoke Japanese. 

KNKX weather expert Cliff Mass says it’s going to get a bit warmer over the weekend and he’s confident that “real rain” won’t set in until Tuesday evening.

But it’s harder to answer the question many people in Washington are wondering about right now: with record early snowfall in our passes and the unseasonably cold start to fall, should we expect a cold, snowy winter too?

Peter Daniel is a busy guy. He's the leader of the 45th St Brass, plays with the New Orleans-influenced funk group Super Krewe, appears on recent records from Lucky Brown & the SGs and Marina & the Dreamboats, and has toured with electro duo Odesza and alt-popper Father John Misty. "When you say it like that, it sounds like a problem," Daniel says.

One of the places in our region where different languages and cultures mix is SeaTac. Not the airport, the town. The census shows more than 70 languages are spoken there, by immigrants from Somalia, Ethiopia and Mexico — all over. 

And yet the local city council is still dominated by white men and women. A new slate of city council candidates says the city’s leadership needs to reflect that diversity.

The first half of the college football season didn't exactly go as planned for University of Washington and Washington State fans. KNKX sports commentator Art Thiel talked with Morning Edition host Kirsten Kendrick about some setbacks for both teams.

A new report shows that a high percentage of foster children in Washington live with providers who are not paid by the state, and that can place a burden on those families.

Washington has released tsunami safety maps for Port Townsend, Ilwaco, Long Beach, Seaview and Westport. The maps indicate how much time you have to get to safety before a tsunami hits following a magnitude 9 earthquake along the Cascadia subduction zone. Some of the maps indicate there is almost no chance of reaching safety in the necessary time.