Saxophonist Tracy Knoop has educated and influenced a generation of Pacific Northwest jazz musicians. Knoop is the jazz orchestra director at the University of Puget Sound, and performs with his quartet around the region.
A graduate of the Berklee School of Music in Boston, Knoop toured for a decade with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. He's performed with household names like Ray Charles, Natalie Cole and the Temptations.
KNKX Music Director Carol Handley spoke with Knoop about opportunities for young players, returning to his hometown as a professional musician, and why Tacoma doesn't have a dedicated jazz club right now.
Answers have been edited for length and clarity.
How do you differentiate the Tacoma jazz scene from the region, or do you?
I wouldn't too much, because I think they're all very interconnected. In other words, I mean, I play up in Seattle about as much as I play in Tacoma.
I would differentiate it in this way: that there's not as much going on for younger musicians, under age musicians that can't get into clubs and play. In Seattle, they've got jazz night school, they've got way more opportunities for younger people to play, then, then here in Tacoma. Although people try here in Tacoma, it just never seems to last long enough.
And there's plenty of interest. I teach 80 private students a week and they're always in 'Hey, where can I go play? Where can I go play?' Well, Seattle? Or if you wait until you turn 21.
As far as quality musicians, I think is very similar. I just think there's not as much opportunity for younger musicians.
How does the environment of the Pacific Northwest, play into your compositions?
Listen, it's very easy to play the blues when it's raining and gray, 40 hours a day now, isn't it? It's not too hard!
Music, jazz music, it's just an expression of who you are and how you feel at the time. And so certainly, the beauty of the Pacific Northwest has to have some impact. I don't know if I could pinpoint exactly what it is. I do know that on those rainy gloomy days, it's more conducive to practicing than on a beautiful sunshiny day, when this is the most special place to live in the country.
I was away from here for a long time. I grew up here, but I never thought I'd move back. So I went everywhere else in the country, many times, and decided, 'you know, the Pacific Northwest is not such a bad spot, after all.'
Would you consider yourself only a jazz musician? Or do you play with other South Sound people and in other bands or even other genres of music?
I do play other genres of music. I would consider myself a musician first, whose focus primarily is in jazz, but many times I'm just a gun for hire. If I can play it, I'll go play it. I mean, that's the business if you've got make a living musically, and that's all I've ever done my whole life.
Even if I could just play jazz, I don't think I would just play jazz. I mean, I enjoy playing classical music. Pop music, cover band stuff, that's not my forte. I've done it. There's people that are better at it than I am. But I would consider myself a musician first, again, whose focus is mostly jazz.
Who from the Tacoma area has been a mentor, or inspiration to you as a player or as a person?
When I first moved back here, Bill Ramsay sort of took me under his wing, and got me my first gig here. I'd been traveling with Tommy Dorsey Band out on the road. So I didn't really know how to go out and write a contract for your own gig or promote yourself. But "Ram” (Bill Ramsay) and Jay Thomas, I would say they've been a mentor and an inspiration to me.
What venues past or present are ones that you think our listeners should know about because of their contribution to Tacoma’s culture or current support of jazz?
Certainly Red Kelly's was a staple for years in downtown Tacoma. I think it's a law building or maybe it's a restaurant now, actually. Red was a local cat and ran a club in Olympia first, and then the club, restaurant moved here to Tacoma.
All the famous cats knew Red, all the road cats anyways, you know, the older cats. On any given night, you could go in there and might just be Red playing on his bass with a little local group, or you could go into you might see Conte Candoli in there. I was lucky enough to get to know Red and Donna, his wife who ran the club, and they would allow me to come in and play and bring my group in.
There was another place called the New York Supper Club. When I grew up, it was on, I think, Sixth Avenue. And a name probably many people don't remember, but he was a guy I took a few lessons with when I was really young. His name was Mel Washington, he was a saxophonist. And they had really, really hip music in there, too. I would get my my suit on when I was 16 and sneak in underage. And the old cats would say 'you stay up here by me.' And boy, they let me play and it was great.
As far as venues now, is there a jazz venue in Tacoma? There's places that try to have jazz a little bit, and music. I wouldn't say there really is a jazz venue that specializes in just that music, that I know of.
It's two sided, jazz musicians, some of them want to just show up and they expect, just because they're there that people should show up. And they don't want to go out to promote it and push it and get on the phone.
Part of it is that if [other musicians] charge less, they’re able to come in and undercut you, just so they can get the gig. Of course, the club owner is a businessman, right? Unless they're a lover of music, which there have been some but it's been a long time in Tacoma since I've seen one. Then as the club owner, if I fill up the club, and they say they don't make money, that's not my fault.
It's very complicated, but there should be an easy answer to have a couple places in Tacoma, because certainly there's enough musicians. Having to build an audience is really on the part of both sides, and I think that's one of the reasons we don't have that really going on very strong right now.
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