The Hot Club of Spokane

our first real residency: A year round festival

In 2017, we noticed a fantastic show at The Bartlett - Jenny Anne Mannan's stellar series, “Northwest of Nashville”. Naturally, we thought there's another town that starts with “N” that's dear to us, so we had a quick chat with Jenny, and “Northwest of New Orleans” was born as a companion/spin-off show. We played every month at the Bartlett for two years until, sadly, it closed.

The Bartlett years were magical for us, in part because of the steady audience of very supportive swing and trad jazz fans that emerged, and in part because for the first time since Think Swing, we were bringing some out of town guest artists to perform with us again. At the Bartlett, we featured loads of local bands and guests like Johnny J and the Flat Foot Floogies, Max Daniels, The Riders of the Rockin B, the David Larsen Group, Imagine Jazz, Scot Wilburn and the Shutup and Playboys, and others, as well as out of town acts including Casey MacGill, Matt Munisteri, Dayan Kai, and of course, Washboard Chaz from New Orleans.

It was during this residency that the notion of nonprofit organization started to bounce around in our minds. How could we keep this scene going? Could a nonprofit framework help us grow?