On December 5, 2019, local historian and pianist (and our founding editor!) Kim Davenport presented multimedia journey through Tacoma's musical history. The video of the event is now available, for anyone not able to attend in person - enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4kAzGqPdr0&
-- by Kim Davenport Theodore Barks was just 5 years old when he arrived in Tacoma in 1888 with his parents and older brother Edward. On the long journey by train from Marysville, Kansas, where Theodore was born, the family would have passed through the Northern Pacific tunnel that had just been cut through the... Continue Reading →
-- by Hannah Currie Nettie Asberry was a shining public figure and musician in Tacoma history. She paved the way for many people of color and was never afraid to speak her mind. Her social activism permeated all facets of her life, including her music. This article addresses her life, her affects on her community... Continue Reading →
-- by Kim Davenport Beginning in the 1930s with Hollywood films like Waikiki Wedding and Her Jungle Love, and only growing with the success of South Pacific and the return of soldiers from World War II, a fascination with all things Hawaiian was in full swing throughout the United States by the late 1940s. The... Continue Reading →
-- by Kim Davenport With thanks again to the Northwest Room librarians at Tacoma Public Library, I'm pleased to share audio of music by Joe Jordan from two 45-rpm albums that have been sitting in the library's basement archives since the 1960s. As I've previously shared here and here, Joe Jordan, a musician out of the... Continue Reading →
-- by Kim Davenport This is not as much as story about music as it is a story about Tacoma, community, and baseball. But before we get into all that, take a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_5Y9Qrn71s In my previous research into Joe Jordan (1882-1971), I'd seen reference to several songs he wrote for his chosen hometown of... Continue Reading →
-- by Kim Davenport The image above is the 1915 passport photo of Joseph Zachariah Taylor "Joe" Jordan, who was born in 1882 in Cinncinnati, Ohio, and enjoyed the last few decades of his life in Tacoma, where he passed away in 1971. Joe Jordan was a composer, arranger and pianist who made substantial contributions... Continue Reading →
-- by Kim Davenport Many of the stories we've shared here are about homegrown Tacoma musicians. Occasionally, though, we stumble on an interesting coincidence of history, a moment in time when Tacoma played a significant role in the career of a musician from elsewhere. Such is the tale of how an appearance on Tacoma television... Continue Reading →
-- by Kim Davenport A few years back, I spent a good portion of my free time researching 'booster songs' about Tacoma, in preparation for a talk I gave in August of 2017. In the early decades of the 20th century, booster songs were published in cities around America as musical representations of civic pride.... Continue Reading →
-- by Kim Davenport For her final paper in my Musical History of Tacoma class at UW Tacoma, student Kaisa Cannon decided to explore her father's favorite band, Nirvana, and determine whether the band typically associated with Seattle had any roots in Tacoma. Even a casual devotee of the grunge group would likely guess the answer... Continue Reading →
