Seattle Jazz Hero
A warm and engaging singer and songwriter with an MBA in marketing and affinity for community service, Eugenie Jones founded the nonprofit Music for a Cause in 2018. She’s described it “as the intersection between advancing the legacy of Seattle’s African-American Jazz community and aiding nonprofit organizations who work to meet community needs.” Towards those ends, Jones has worked to gather support around various live music projects, producing events that entertain, preserve history, educate youth, and employ local artists while providing financial benefit to the nonprofits with which she collaborates.
For the past several years, Jones has been executive producer of the Jackson Street Jazz Walk, which celebrates the rich African-American musical history of Seattle’s Central District, where Ernestine Anderson, Ray Charles and Quincy Jones got their starts. In 2021, commissioned by Crusaders drummer Stix Hooper, Eugenie created the first multi-day, multi-venue Celebrating Ernestine Anderson series, in the name of the Texas-born singer who made Seattle her true home. Both annual events are multi-faceted, curated educational experiences and great jazz shows, and have raised funds for the Rotary Boys & Girls Clubs, the Central Area Senior Center and the Northwest Harvest Foodbank, among other entities.
Jones is also the president of the board of directors for Kitsap County’s Music Discovery Center, a volunteer-run music education, performance and development faciity based in Bremerton, a short ferry boat ride from downtown Seattle. COVID-19 derailed the implementation of the MDC, but recently the organization collected, repaired and distributed 100 musical instruments to local children and schools.
Jazz Hero Eugenie Jones believes in connection and acts on that belief, using her musical, marketing and organizational talents to create joy, offer opportunities and strengthen our communities overall. It’s what drives her. The entire Puget Sound region has benefitted from her tireless work.
By Robin Lloyd
