(reverent orchestral music) - I'm Starla Sampaco in the Crosscut KCTS 9 newsroom.

Seattle's jazz scene is turning up the volume as clubs reopen.

With live performance and improvisation integral to the genre, musicians are thrilled to be performing again at local venues like Dimitriou's Jazz Alley, one of the first local music venues to resume in-person concerts after pandemic restrictions were lifted.

The nationally-known Seattle-based jazz ensemble Pearl Django opened a two-night run at Jazz Alley in June and already has at least nine gigs set up for August in addition to some touring in the fall.

The group's violinist and bandleader Michael Gray thinks people are starving for that connection.

Seattle has a deep history as a jazz hub, from the bustling 1930s and '40s club scene on Jackson Street to the early careers of famous musicians like Quincy Jones and Ray Charles in the 1950s.

I'm Starla Sampaco.

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