Seattle jazz icon Gary Hammon's story featured in new documentary

Gary Hammon was a teenager making $27 a week at a butcher shop when he decided he needed a saxophone. He saved every dollar, and when he finally held the polished brass horn, he felt the indescribable joy of a child discovering their passion for the first time.

From growing up in Seattle's historic Central District to becoming a 2025 Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame inductee, that first saxophone was the catalyst that launched Hammon's storied career—a story now coming to the big screen.

On Saturday, May 2, as part of the Seattle Black Film Festival (SBFF), a documentary highlighting Hammon's life and musical career, Pass the Baton: The Gary Hammon Story, will be screened at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute.

The film, directed by Joshua Nucci and Georgio Brown, traces Hammon's journey from Garfield High School in Seattle to the New England Conservatory, where he was part of the inaugural cohort of Black students admitted in 1969. It also follows his time performing in New York's jazz clubs alongside giants like Kenny Dorham, Mary Lou Williams, Carmen McRae and Sonny Rollins.

With a quick 30-minute runtime, Pass the Baton, promises a thorough profile of Hammon's life and career, but Hammon makes it clear that the film is just another chapter in a story he's still writing.

"You've heard that term — at the end of the rainbow you'll find your pot of gold? Well, Guess what? I am still determined to find that pot of gold," said Hammon, in the trailer of the upcoming documentary.

The Seattle Black Film Festival runs April 30 through May 3. This year’s festival theme us “The Sound of Us.”

In its 23rd year, SBFF chose this theme to showcase the ongoing legacy of Black music and soundscapes, highlight the “Black revolutionary sound,” and return to ancestral modes of resilience. SBFF program manager Taylor Freeman says they were also considering the current political landscape.

“[I was] thinking about the current administration, the pressure points that [have] hit community, and reflecting on the fact that, no matter what…the Black community has been resilient when we're together [moving] through those pressurized moments through sound and music and dance," she said.

From there, this theme emerged organically from this year’s pool of film submissions, which features drumming, blues, jazz, and hip-hop as forms of personal and cultural expression. It also serves the organization's mission to keep Black storytellers in Seattle.

"We don't want them to feel like they have to go to New York, L.A. Atlanta to tell their story when they've got their people here," said Freeman.

Along those lines, the selection of the Pass the Baton for the festival was an easy call.

"Gary is such a huge legend in our community," Freeman said. "If there's an opportunity for us to platform it [we will]—so folks who may not know Gary are getting to experience that, and...the folks who have been impacted by Gary can have a moment to honor his work."

Now, back in Seattle’s Central District—the place where it all began and where he still plays, still teaches and cares for his aging parents—Hammon’s work has been focused on passing the baton to the next generation of musicians through outreach and education.

In collaboration with the Central District's artist collective and gallery Arte Noir, Hammon heads up the Jazz Harmony Project, a Seattle-based program, dedicated to music education, artist empowerment, and advocacy. They're all about ensuring the next generation of Seattle musicians can find their own sound and write their own story.

Before the film screening on May 2, Jazmyn Scott, Executive Director of Arte Noir and a longtime friend of Hammon’s, will sit down with him for a free public conversation.

The discussion and screening of Pass the Baton: The Gary Hammon Story begins at 7:30 p.m.