Doors: 2:00pm Show: 3:00pm          Tickets: $20 advance, $25 doors

Advance tickets can only be purchased online-we do not sell advance tickets at the venue. Refunds are not available within 48 hours of the event. Tickets do not guarantee seating during shows at the Royal Room. 

 Seating is first come, first served. Please arrive early to guarantee a seat!

The Royal Room is All Ages until 10pm. 

Ray Skjelbred is a celebrated jazz pianist recognized for his contributions to traditional jazz. His music blends elements of Chicago jazz, New Orleans influences, early swing, and blues. He has worked with prominent musicians and has been an accompanist for legendary blues singers like Victoria Spivey and Barbara Dane

Ray studied  with the Seattle trad pianist Johnny Wittwer while attending the University of Washington. He  co-founded Great Excelsior, one of Seattle’s first classic jazz bands. Over the years, he has hung out with Earl Hines, Milt Hinton, Joe Sullivan, and Jess Stacy, to name just a few of his well-known friend

“Actually I’m just a neighborhood kid growing up in Chicago and growing older in Seattle, all at the same time! I have generally thought of myself as an English teacher first, then pianist and poet. My life has had the human influence of family, farmers, cowboys, baseball players, actors, writers and musicians, but perhaps I feel most affected  by rivers, forests and mountains.

“I listen to red-winged blackbirds, wooden bats hitting baseballs, wind moving through poplar trees and dog yawns. Also music—-Norwegian Hardanger fiddle music, Tibetan horns, Charles Ives, old cowboys and jazz. I always lean toward sounds that reassure me of the truth and beauty of the world we inhabit.

“I love music that shows passion, daring and surprise. For me, the pianists I admire who most represent these ideas and to whom I listen most often are Earl Hines, Jess Stacy, Joe Sullivan, Mary Lou Williams, Art Hodes, Thelonious Monk, Zinky Cohn, George Zack, Cassino Simpson, Horace Henderson, Frank Melrose, Jimmy Yancey, Big Maceo, Bill Evans, Burt Bales, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Paul Lingle, Alex Hill, Sir Charles Thompson and Eddie Whitley.”

Ray Skjelbred – piano
Matt Weiner – string bass
Jacob Zimmerman – alto sax and clarinet