In 1979, prominent Los Angeles jazz flutist and saxophonist Bud Shank moved to Port Townsend, a quiet, artsy town on Washington state's Olympic peninsula. Soon after, Shank started an immersive week-long jazz workshop at Centrum, a nonprofit arts organization based at nearby Fort Warden State Park.
The premise was simple: For one week in the summer, give jazz enthusiasts young and old front-row seats to performances from some of the best jazz musicians on the planet, and afford them hands-on opportunities to work with these heavyweights in small ensembles and masterclasses.
Shank, who was a member of influential quartet the L.A. Four, aimed to create an antidote to what he saw as an over-academicization of jazz. Instead of emphasizing classroom learning, his workshop would bring students right into the center of the magic.
For the last 46 years, this approach has been a winning recipe for Jazz Port Townsend, which is still going strong and now entering a new phase. This year’s workshop and festival will be the first under new Artistic Director Dawn Clement, a pianist and educator who has been a part of the Jazz Port Townsend fold since she first attended as a high school sophomore in 1994.
As the workshop offers this immersive jazz experience to students, there will also be ample opportunities for the public to catch top-notch performances from July 21-27.
A jazz family
In 2004, Shank was removed from his post as artistic director of Jazz Port Townsend during a philosophy change at Centrum, and bassist John Clayton was hired.
Over the last 20 years, Clayton honored the workshop’s roots, and then some. He recruited professional jazz musicians of the highest quality to work with students of all ages; diversified the faculty to represent both legends of the form and up-and-comers; and worked to foster a warm, welcoming culture.

“John Clayton instilled a strong sense of ‘family’ in the workshop, eliminating any concept of competitiveness. Some camps have, as example, a battle of the bands, or a competition to rank ensembles. Centrum eschews that philosophy,” Robert Birman, executive director of Centrum, said in an email to KNKX.
Clayton also maintained the workshop’s tradition of hiring some local faculty, and provided students from the area’s award-winning high school jazz programs somewhere to hone their skills over the summer. This has played a key role in making Seattle the incubator for young jazz talent that it is today. Quite a few musicians who attended Jazz Port Townsend as teens have risen to prominence in the artform, like award-winning pianist-composer Chris McCarthy.
“ Someone like Chris, just coming to Centrum a couple times and carrying on…it's just so special,” Clement said.
In 2024, after Clayton announced his retirement, Clement — a Cornish College of the Arts graduate who spent nearly two decades teaching and performing widely in Seattle — put her hat in the ring for the artistic director job and was selected last summer.
Clement has recorded six albums as a leader and currently serves as associate professor of the Jazz and American Improvised Music department at Metropolitan State University of Denver. But, when she first showed up to Jazz Port Townsend, she’d only just begun playing jazz piano in the Fort Vancouver High School Jazz Band.

During that week, she played in a small ensemble led by the jazz trumpeter Bobby Shew, watched trumpeter and composer Roy Hargrove perform so close-up she could touch him, and deepened friendships with other young jazz musicians in the region that she still keeps today.
“There were some mind-blowing, life-changing moments that week,” she said, adding that Jazz Port Townsend contributed significantly to her decision to go into jazz professionally.
Clement has been a regular face at the workshop ever since. In 2002, shortly after graduating from Cornish, Clement was hired to work as a vocal accompanist at the workshop. In 2014, she was elevated to one of the piano faculty positions.
“That place has my heart. Are you kidding? It feels like the birthplace and evolution of the stuff that's informed my playing and my teaching,” Clement said.
A ‘fine balance’
In her new role, which primarily involves curating the workshop faculty and performances, Clement is committed to the “fine balance” of honoring long-standing Jazz Port Townsend traditions and making some enhancements from her fresh point of view.
Faculty and performances this year will reflect the tradition of highlighting the diverse array of jazz musicians and styles that Clayton championed. Students will have the opportunity to work with Buster Williams, a bass legend who’s played with Count Basie, Sonny Rollins, and Herbie Hancock; up-and-comers like vocalist and Roosevelt High School graduate Sara Gazarek, who recently won a Grammy with her group säje; and pillars of the regional jazz community, like pianist-composer-educator Randy Halberstadt, Port Townsend-based guitarist Chuck Easton, and Seattle-based trumpeter and saxophonist Jay Thomas.
Additionally, the various musical performances throughout the week—both around Fort Warden and inside McCurdy Pavilion—will include a healthy mix of classic bebop and big band jazz, as well as more modern, contemporary sounds.

Clement is also looking for opportunities to subtly expand the workshop’s offerings.
For the first time ever, Clement added a jazz organ player to the faculty, Pat Bianchi, allowing students to come study jazz organ at the workshop this year. Likewise, in the next few years, she also hopes to bring back the workshop track for jazz educators that existed pre-pandemic and allowed school band directors to discuss pedagogy and sit in on workshops.
Notably, she’s also passionate about highlighting more women instrumentalists on faculty, and as players and bandleaders throughout the week.
During her tenure, Clement is striving to hire at least one woman on faculty for every instrument, a feat she almost achieved for 2025. She is also committed to having a woman direct the Centrum All-Star Big Band, which performs annually during one of the mainstage concerts, every year she is artistic director. This year, Canadian saxophonist Christine Jensen will lead the big band, and that Mainstage performance will also include women instrumentalists like saxophonist Anisha Rush and trombonist Audrey Stangland.
The latter shift may quiet some vocal critics of the workshop. In 2023, Jazz Port Townsend was called out on social media by several members of the local jazz community after no women were hired to play in the Centrum All-Star Big Band.
“You want quality. You don't want to compromise quality for tokenism...but that was a mess up and people make mistakes,” Clement said, adding that she is interested in representing as many beautiful musicians “of all ages and genders and races” as she can.
Maiden voyage
Come July 21, the last year of hard work will culminate when nearly 200 jazz students from the across the country arrive at Fort Warden for the 46th annual Jazz Port Townsend.
While these students audition months in advance to attend the camp as participants, there are a variety of public-facing performances, both free and ticketed, that the community can take part in throughout the week of the workshop.

Bass legend Buster Williams, Canadian trumpet phenom Ingrid Jensen, and Grammy-winning vocal group säje, among others, will perform during three mainstage concerts at McCurdy Pavilion on Friday and Saturday, and additional artists perform during several free performances at Fort Warden mid-week.
Clement will be playing a few of those performances, including one club performance on Thursday night to promote her latest record, Delight. Otherwise, she’ll be enjoying the fruits of her labor, the music, and a vibrant community that has inspired generations of jazz artists.
“Getting to hear the faculty play each night and then getting to jam,” Clement said. “It's like an infusion into your blood.”