Jack McDuff

April is Jazz Appreciation Month, the perfect time to explore the surprising connections jazz legends like John Coltrane and Ray Brown have to the Pacific Northwest.

Saxophonists Lou Donaldson and organist Jack McDuff, both born in 1926, championed memorable melodies and grooves rooted in the blues, and eventually became part of the fabric of a hip hop.

Jack McDuff's career spanned the hard bop and R&B of the late 1950s through the soul jazz of the 1980s. He experimented with funk, fusion and more avant-garde styles. A recently unearthed recording of his 1982 performances in Seattle has been restored and released on Soul Bank Music. Here's how it happened.