A new blog post from the Tacoma Public Library is pulling decades of South Sound jazz history into the spotlight, naming musicians who played alongside Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman while holding day jobs in Tacoma.

Heather Lowcock, project archivist for the library's News Tribune Collection, published the piece Saturday, Aug. 1, as part of her "13 Ways of Looking at the Northwest" series.

The post draws on newly digitized photographs and documents funded by a National Historic Publications and Records Commission grant from the National Archives.

The centerpiece is Red Kelly, the upright bassist who toured with Stan Kenton and Woody Herman before opening his own Tacoma club, Kelly's, in 1986. For 17 years the venue drew national acts including Tony Bennett and Diane Schuur. Kelly closed it in 2003, a year before his death.

"I'd be in New York and meet somebody, a musician: 'You're from Tacoma? How close are you to Red Kelly?'" saxophonist Bill Ramsay recalled in Randy Smith's 2022 book "Talking Jazz," a passage Lowcock highlights in the post.

Ramsay, born in Centralia, played tenor sax in Kelly's quintet while working at Nalley's in Tacoma. He went on to tour with Benny Goodman and the Count Basie Orchestra, work with Duke Ellington and Billy Eckstine, and become a founding member of the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra. Jazz pianist Barney McClure, another Kelly's regular, called Ramsay "a genius."

The club's reputation stretched far. But the blog post also surfaces a lesser-known story closer to home.

Meltarrus "Mel" Washington was a central figure in the integration of Army bands at Fort Lewis in 1948. Washington played tenor sax at Hilltop's Esquire Club and Marlene's Galaxy in Puyallup. His photograph collection is now held in the library's Northwest Room.

Before Kelly's, there was the Tumwater Conservatory. Kelly and his wife Donna opened it in 1974, hosting Northwest jazz singer Ernestine Anderson and saxophonist Chuck Stentz among the regulars.

That club closed in 1978, and Kelly spent the next eight years playing local gigs and touring with Jimmy Dorsey's "ghost band" before settling into the Tacoma venue that would carry his name.

Lowcock's blog post on South Sound jazz is publicly accessible, and the digitized News Tribune archives are available through the Tacoma Public Library's online catalog.

The "13 Ways" series also covers immigration, disability, and rock 'n' roll history. The Northwest Room holds the Red Kelly papers and the Randy Smith papers, including audio interviews with Northwest jazz musicians.