Bellingham’s newest all-ages music venue, The Blue Room, offers regular jazz nights that have become an important resource for budding young jazz musicians.
Along with hosting regional and out-of-town professionals, The Blue Room is making a concerted effort to be a launchpad for young jazz musicians. That effort gained even more momentum since October, when they started a jazz night in partnership with Western Washington University’s jazz department.
“The Blue Room really helped take me from the campus out into town,” said Sam Harris, a senior at WWU and trombonist in Bellingham jazz group The Problem.
He’s performed at The Blue Room more than a dozen times. Harris said The Blue Room founder Martijn Wall is a former music student who “gets it.”
“I think it just helps propel students,” Harris said. “They can call him, they can book with him directly and [learn] what it's like to try and elevate yourself out of the collegiate space in a professional space.”
Wall is an alumnus of WWU’s music program where he studied oboe performance, before dropping out of school in 2020 due to the pandemic. Wall said he found it hard to progress when all his classes went online and saw no point in continuing to pay tuition.
“It was pretty devastating,” Wall said. “I was looking to graduate with a lot of prospects. But it just didn't happen because of COVID.”
From music student to venue co-owner
Wall, now 24, worked odd jobs through the pandemic. In 2021, he linked up with another music student from WWU, Ben Hodson, to start their production company Hodwall Productions. The two quickly started producing pop-up live music events of all styles at various venues around Bellingham.
In late 2021, Wall and Hodson looked into hosting an event on the top floor of 202 E. Holly Street. A grand, big-windowed space in downtown Bellingham, the space is notorious for a string of glitzy, though ultimately unsuccessful, nightclubs. As they worked with the owner, they learned he was looking for a new tenant.
“So, there was an opportunity to operate this place,” Wall said. “We believed that...having our driving factors trying to be inclusivity, accessibility, variety, all of that could really turn this place into something more Bellingham and more for the community.”
“The Blue Room really helped take me from the campus out into town."Sam Harris, trombonist and WWU senior
Ultimately, Wall, Hodson and yet another WWU music student, Nick Hastings, made the “insane decision” to lease the space in January 2022. The Blue Room has hosted music and comedy nearly every night since, and continues to grow their audience.
Wall, a longtime jazz lover, added a Monday night jazz event in early 2023. With sliding scale admission, the weekly event featured different professional jazz groups from the region such as Tenderpile’s Smile Aisle, Mark Hunter Quartet, Bill Anschell and more. Performers at The Blue Room Jazz Nights represent a range of age and experience, from twentysomething up-and-comers to long-established mainstays.
“I thought, there isn't a lot of representation for jazz and Bellingham, especially for all ages, because if you do see it, it's at a 21 plus bar, or maybe a restaurant. So, the idea was, ‘Hey, like, let's really treat it as a listening room and bring jazz in,’” Wall said.
Today, Wall is the only original owner who remains with The Blue Room. He recently brought on a new business partner, Chad Bumford, who has twenty years of restaurant experience. The pair are currently remodeling The Blue Room to offer food. Due to construction, the weekly Monday night jazz event was put on pause in early September.
An off-campus destination for WWU jazz
Though the weekly event is on hiatus, a new partnership with WWU Jazz Studies Director Kevin Woods is gaining momentum.
WWU student ensembles previously performed in a couple one-off shows at the venue, including a 2022 fundraiser for Planned Parenthood that featured the WWU big bands. Inspired by the success of these early events, Woods and Wall created a more regular series of WWU Jazz Nights.
The Blue Room hosted a WWU Jazz Night on the first Monday of October and November. The next WWU Jazz Night will be on Dec. 7.
Unlike the regular jazz nights, these events highlight WWU student groups and sets from a featured artist chosen by Woods.
“We've had nights that have run four and a half hours of just student musicians. They'll have all five combos perform, plus the Latin percussion ensemble or vocal jazz and the big bands,” Harris said, the trombonist and WWU senior. Harris had his senior recital for his music degree at The Blue Room on Dec. 3.
“It's cool because you're at a club, you're not on campus.”
Woods, who joined WWU’s music faculty in 2015, said the experience of playing The Blue Room prepares music students for the realities of being a gigging jazz musician.
“I believe in some of the academic mission, but it's very different when you get out,” Woods said. “Freelancing is really busy. You're taking every gig that comes your way. This gives students that glimpse of what it's going to be like. Some of them really like it and some go, ‘oh my god, I'm way too busy with school to do this,’ and sometimes that's a good wake up call.”
For WWU jazz students who do enjoy gigging, the program’s relationship with The Blue Room is a major perk. Harris credits the venue with generating more interest in jazz music and the WWU jazz program among young locals.
“I'll put it this way. Like if you're in the classical program there, and you're playing horn, and you're interested in jazz, everyone knows that the jazz kids get to go perform at The Blue Room and that's cool. So, it's just a good motivating factor, I'd say,” Harris said, adding that local high schoolers also perform and attend shows at The Blue Room.
In 2024, once construction is complete, Wall hopes to bring back a new and improved weekly jazz night with a professional house band that will perform regularly and choose featured groups to share the bill with. WWU Jazz Nights aren’t going anywhere, either.
“We really like to have that first Monday of the month be our partnership event with Western,” Wall said. “It's part of our mission to be giving professional opportunity to young and aspiring performing artists and musicians.”
To learn more about The Blue Room’s jazz events, visit blueroombham.com.
