Getting into a groove at the Benson

Fans are taking note of the free jazz nights at the downtown hotel

Ben Jones says jazz is “the biggest creative outlet” because it is the one genre that has gone from blues to bebop. It’s experimental. It’s fusion. It’s smooth and it’s contemporary. (And more.) All photos by Walden Kirsch. Click any photo to enlarge.

Jazz is music that’s soothed many a poor soul. Could it also help save the soul of downtown Portland?

Every Wednesday for the past three months, the Benson Hotel has hosted free jazz nights from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. And if you don’t get there early, it can be hard to find a seat in the storied hotel’s posh chandeliered lounge, where some of the best jazz acts in town are now regularly entertaining fans, old and new. Between the lounge and the balcony, the Benson can seat around 100 people. (Seating is first come, first served.)

Benson Managing Director Ryan Kunzer partnered with music producer J. Peterson of Elevate Unity to create the series. J.P., as he’s called, runs the nonprofit to help support local musicians and to bring people together through music. Unity through music is J.P.’s response to the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent protests over racial injustice. He is a man with a merciful mission.

Listening to the Jazz Revival at the Benson Hotel on Wednesday night.

For the Benson, these weekly concerts are really a jazz revival. Dating back to the 1940s, the swank hotel regularly showcased some of the best jazz acts in the Northwest and around the country.

But there is a very 21^st century post-COVID impetus for the revival. Kunzer is trying to give people a reason to come back downtown.

And while this may just be one small step to revitalizing the Rose City, it does appear to be working. The joint was jumping this past Wednesday night. There were hotel guests like Laura Franco from Atlanta, who had time to kill before catching a late-night plane. She was in the right place. The young woman from the Peach State listens to jazz every morning while she gets ready for work. Her Spotify listening age is 89; Laura is 29.

Nick Rolfe was Aretha Franklin’s keyboardist during her last years. He’s been to compared to Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett.

But the vast majority of the audience — a good 90-95 percent — were locals. Peter and Alisa Stich drove in from Troutdale. Jazz is their jam. In fact, the Stiches told the NW Examiner that, other than the Benson concerts, they don’t come into the city. The free jazz concert also brought in folks from Lake Oswego, Happy Valley and Portland’s neighborhoods north, south, east and west.

In particular, the Stiches came last Wednesday to hear one of their favorite jazz pianists, Nick Rolfe. (Rolfe has played with everyone from Aretha Franklin, to Sting, to Springsteen — and that really just names a few.) Rolfe joined two other stalwarts of Portland jazz: drummer Brian Foxworth and bass guitarist Ben Jones. Both have played around Portland for decades and with just about everyone locally, and internationally too — folks like the Neville Brothers and Anita Baker.

Vocalist Mary Tucker was born and raised in Portland. She excitedly said this was the first time she had ever been to the iconic Benson. If she was nervous when she belted out her first tune, she didn’t show it.

Jazz singer Mary Tucker calls the Benson Hotel “a stalwart” of Portland. Her roots are in gospel, and she also sings R&B.

Well-known local jazz afficionados are also stopping by to watch the live concerts. The man dubbed “the Mayor of Northeast Portland,” Paul Knauls Sr., nodded to the beat when the Chris Brown Trio played a few weeks ago. The nonagenarian businessman, looking dapper in white with his signature captain’s cap, knows a thing or two about jazz. He operated the fabled Cotton Club on North Williams Avenue in the 1960s that hosted artists like Etta James and Big Mama Thornton.

And while servers scurried back and forth with cocktails and charcuterie boards, Kunzer says he is lucky to break even. That’s because it takes a lot of people to staff these concerts, and the Benson is a union shop. Still, sponsors such as the Jack London Revue, the Skanner News, the Dobbes Family Winery and Wildwood Spirits help cover the costs.

Brian Foxworth has been called Portland’s go-to drummer. He’s been playing gigs in Portland since he was 15.

Next Wednesday, Dec. 17, is the last free concert of the year. The Ron Steen trio will play. (Steen also played the Benson in the 1980s.) There is also a ticketed jazz concert at the Benson on New Year’s Eve.

But this won’t be the end of the free live concerts and the Benson Jazz Revival. The hotel and Elevate Unity say jazz will be back at the hotel in late January.

When the Benson and Elevate Unity started the Jazz Revival, it wasn’t clear whether folks would come. But the audience keeps growing, and whether this becomes a moneymaker or not, it’s definitely succeeded in bringing some much-needed joy to an often beleaguered downtown.

A joyful reminder that comebacks can happen, but overnight success, not so much. Sometimes, like jazz, you just need to improvise.