On Monday, April 20, 2026 at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley, the Seattle jazz community tips its hat to 2014 JJA
Jazz Hero Jim Wilke. A co-presentation with radio station KNKX, the Jim Wilke Great Big Birthday Party showcases two bands, one led by Origin Records founder and drummer John Bishop, the other by veteran Seattle guitarist and drummer Milo Peterson. Speakers from all corners of Seattle’s robust jazz scene will toast and roast Wilke and his illustrious, six-decade career.
It’s difficult to think of anyone who has contributed more to Seattle jazz than Wilke, who turns 89 on April 26. A local broadcaster since 1961, Wilke aired and recorded hundreds of artists from Seattle’s storied nightclub the Penthouse. CDs and LPs from that era, by Horace Silver, Wes Montgomery, Clifford Jordan, Ernestine Anderson and others, have become treasured retrievals. Wilke’s radio shows, “Jazz After Hours” and “Jazz Northwest,” made him a household name in jazz circles around the globe. Honored by the JJA as a Jazz Hero and also with the Willis Conover/Marian McPartland Award for Broadcasting (2013), Wilke was voted top jazz radio producer seven times by JazzTimes readers and inducted into the Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame in 1992.
Broadcasting is only part of his story. In 1966, Wilke co-founded the Seattle Jazz Society, which also launched the Jazz Gallery, a showcase for local players. He booked jazz in the parks for Seattle in the 1960s and ‘70s and from 1978-1993 a jazz festival in Bellevue, across Lake Washington, featuring all Northwest musicians. In the early years of Centrum’s Jazz Port Townsend, Wilke also hired the local acts for the nightclub shows and in his “spare time” taught jazz history at Cornish College of the Arts and radio broadcasting at Bellevue College.
“I can only imagine the number of humans who have been exposed to his passion and love of jazz,” said Carol Handley, KNKX director of programming, who studied broadcasting with Wilke at Bellevue College. “I am forever grateful to Jim and his inspiring life’s work.”
Born and raised Iowa, Wilke attended the University of Iowa, where he broadcast classical music and jazz from the school’s first-class studio. “A lot of my inspiration came from a guy outside New Orleans named Dick Martin, who did a late night radio show, ‘Moonglow with Martin,’” recalled Wilke. “He sounded like a guy sitting next to you, telling you about the music that you’re about to hear.”
After graduating, Wilke moved to Seattle to pursue a broadcasting career. Jobs were scarce, so he spent two years spinning classical discs at a small station in Sacramento, Calif. In 1961, Seattle’s classical music station KING-FM made him an offer to co-direct the station.
At KING, he and Dan Shannon embarked on a “Lively Arts” format that allowed Wilke to introduce “Jazz Till Midnight,” which, when it extended past twelve o’clock, became the first incarnation of “Jazz After Hours.” In 1984, American Public Radio picked up the show, which at its zenith aired on more than 80 stations, featuring not just the best modern jazz, but club listings around the country.
“It was such a fine feeling to be flipping through the FM dial, trying to stay awake while driving some bleak stretch of American highway at midnight, and come across the familiar and assuring voice of Jim Wilke on ‘Jazz After Hours!’” said John Gilbreath, recently retired director of Earshot Jazz, Seattle’s non-profit organization. “He always knew the music, who was playing it, and where.” Wilke’s run with “Jazz After Hours” ended 2014, but the show continues on PRX, hosted by former Seattle jazz DJ Jeff Hanley.
“Jazz After Hours” made Wilke famous, but for Seattle musicians, more important was “Jazz Northwest.” Launched in 1988, the program aired recordings of regional musicians. Over the years, the image of Wilke sitting at a desk with headphones at Jazz Port Townsend, the Earshot Jazz Festival or the Seattle
Art Museum’s “Art of Jazz” was so familiar that fans may well have thought a jazz concert could not proceed without him.
“Wherever jazz was performed in the Northwest, Jim was there,” said Seattle multi-instrumentalist Jay Thomas. “Jim would play local jazz on his program when regular daytime almost never did.”
Wilke broadcast his last edition of “Jazz Northwest” on August 27, 2023. Like “Jazz After Hours,” it also lives on, hosted on KNKX by saxophonist Kareem Kandi.
Wilke retired when he left “Jazz Northwest,” though he still shows up from time to time at jazz events. While he has been duly honored over the years, a group of Seattle jazz lovers recently came up with the idea to celebrate his long and illustrious career. When it turned out Jazz Alley had an opening near his 89th birthday, and Dimitriou promised to bake a cake, the die was cast.
“I’ve been really fortunate to be mentored by people who knew about jazz, and Jim was one of them,” said Jazz Alley owner John Dimitriou (also a JJA Jazz Hero). “I am proud to call him a friend.”
FACT BOX (should you want to attend): The Jim Wilke Great Big Birthday Party. John Bishop, drums; Thomas Marriott (trumpet), Marc Seales (piano), and Jeff Johnson (bass). Also Milo Petersen (drums) and the Jazz Disciples: Petersen (guitar), Jay Thomas (saxophone and trumpet), Steve Griggs (saxophone), Phil Sparks (bass) and John Hansen (piano). Monday, 7 p.m. April 20, at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley, 2033 Sixth Ave., Seattle; $25; 206-441-9729 or jazzalley.com.
