In Seattle’s Chinatown-International District, nestled between Kobe Terrace Park and Hing Hay Park, sits one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods—the Japantown-Nihonmachi District.
Starting in July, a jazz series offering free admission began at the historic Panama Hotel in the heart of the district. Every fourth Sunday through December, “Jazz Sundays at the Panama Hotel,” presented in partnership with the Seattle-Kobe Sister City Association (SKSCA) and 4Culture, will showcase local women jazz vocalists inside this significant Japantown space.
Established in the 1890s, Nihonmachi was formed by Seattle’s first Japanese immigrants. By the early 20th century, the neighborhood was the vibrant center of Japanese American life in Seattle. During World War II, the internment of Japanese Americans forever changed the neighborhood. The relocation of thousands of people of Japanese ancestry living in King County to “war relocation camps” led to a widespread loss of Japanese-owned property and businesses.
The Panama Hotel is one of a few Nihonmachi institutions that survived the war and remains today. Built in 1910, the hotel housed single Japanese men who immigrated to America seeking work. During the war, community members stowed belongings in the hotel’s basement for safekeeping as they were sent to internment camps. To this day, many of those items are still viewable through the glass floor of the hotel, which is now a National Historic Landmark.
The jazz series takes place in the hotel’s intimate coffee and tea house on the first floor. The cafe is decorated with colorful Japanese dolls and historic photographs, and is patrolled by Miu Miu, the hotel’s resident cat.
“It's very similar to the clubs in Japan,” said Leah Natale, an SKSCA board member who helped organize the series. “So, it just seemed like a natural, nice environment.”
Highlighting the unforgettable
Curiously, the Panama Hotel was not an active jazz venue in the middle of the 20th century, when nearby S. Jackson Street boasted its legendary jazz scene that nurtured artists like Quincy Jones and Ray Charles. However, the hotel’s intimate teahouse and coffee shop, established in 2001, has hosted a handful of jazz performances over the last few decades. In 2014, local musician Steve Griggs created “Panama Hotel Jazz,” a poignant project that combined music with the history and impact of Japanese incarceration in 1942.
The latest jazz series aims to support the future of Japantown and of local music amidst ongoing pandemic recovery and rising costs. Christa Thomas is a Japantown business owner and community organizer who is the acting liaison between The Panama Hotel and SKSCA for the series. She said the key to revitalizing both is creating unique, enriching experiences that keep people coming back for more.
“In all of my businesses, it's not about transactions. You know, transactions really aren't going to move us. It's relationships that are going to move us,” Thomas said. “If you feel good in a space and you had a great time, you're going to return."
Thomas pointed to the success of this year’s two Jazz Night in Pioneer Square events as an example. During those neighborhood jazz festivals, enthusiastic, young jazz audiences spilled into the street outside many of the venues.
“Those last two events have been super fun. And you can see that it's just growing more and more,” she said.
A cooperative effort
Thomas, who assists with many Chinatown-International District events and runs her own festival in Japantown, also highlighted the importance of networking in executing memorable, neighborhood-activating events.
“It’s just me kind of continually outreaching to find partners, because we really only have five storefronts in the neighborhood and three or four restaurants that are continually activating,” Thomas said.
That’s how this new series got off the ground. Earlier this year, Thomas was organizing her third Sakura Matsuri, a neighborhood festival celebrating the springtime arrival of the cherry blossoms at Kobe Terrace Park, when she realized that the festival fell during Jazz Appreciation Month. Noting the opportunity, Thomas decided to book some live jazz at the Panama Hotel for the festival.
As she searched for musicians that would be a good fit, she learned about SKSCA’s Seattle Jazz Vocal Queen Audition, an annual contest and jazz exchange program put on by the nonprofit. As part of the audition, local jazz singers compete for a chance to visit and perform in Kobe, Japan, Seattle’s sister city since 1957.
The Japan connection prompted Thomas to reach out to SKSCA about a future partnership, and her timing was perfect. SKSCA had just been awarded an ample grant from 4Culture and they were looking for ways to use some of it to support local jazz musicians and venues. Quickly, they conceived of the idea for a free jazz series presenting past winners of the Jazz Vocalist Audition at this iconic Japantown community hub.
Music with meaning
With the grant money from 4Culture, SKSCA can pay musicians well and present this series without having to charge admission. Natale, who is also a professional jazz singer, notes this arrangement is helpful for welcoming new jazz audiences, invigorating the local jazz community, and keeping local musicians employed.
When asked about why low or no-cost admission is important, Natale said cost is always a barrier getting audiences to come out to a show. With the grant money, they remove that barrier while still ensuring musicians are getting paid.
The first show in this series, which featured vocalist Jacqueline Tabor, suggests that these organizers are on to something. The show was well-attended and more diverse than expected.
“It was such a great mix of young and old and different cultures. That was such a great surprise,” Natale said.
If the series continues to pick up steam, Natale hopes SKSCA can do more series like these in different parts of town, both to expand audience access and employ local musicians more widely and regularly. Likewise, she’d love to keep this partnership with The Panama Hotel and historic Nihonmachi going, in hopes it can deepen the connection between the sister cities.
“If this continues, maybe [we can] bring more Japanese artists over and we can have a small venue for them to perform...We would love it if it's more than just once a year,” she said.
Thomas, the local business owner and organizer, is also enthusiastic about the potential “Jazz Sundays at the Panama Hotel” has to expose more people to the culture and history in Japantown-Nihonmachi.
“Because of this interest in these things that we've been doing, it's starting to move people around the neighborhood and discover places that they haven't,” Thomas said.
The next show in the series is August 24. It features local vocalist Gail Pettis, who won the Jazz Vocal Audition in 2006. Free tickets can be reserved in advance on the nonprofit’s Eventbrite. The full list of series performances can be found on SKSCA’s Instagram.
