The music of Oregon reflects the diverse array of styles present in the music of the United States, from Native American music to the contemporary genres of rock and roll, country, rhythm and blues, jazz, pop, electronic music, and hip hop. However, throughout most of its history, the state has been relatively isolated from the cultural forces shaping American music. Much of modern popular music traces its roots to the emergence in the late 19th century of African American blues and the growth of gospel music in the 1920s. African American musicians borrowed elements of European and Indigenous musics to create new American forms. As Oregon's population was more homogeneous and more white than the United States as a whole, the state did not play a significant role in this history.
Pink Martini is an American band founded in 1994 by pianist Thomas Lauderdale in Portland, Oregon. Group members call it a little orchestra that crosses several styles, such as classical, latin, traditional pop, and jazz. The co-lead vocalists of Pink Martini are China Forbes and Storm Large.
Storm Large is an American singer, songwriter, actress and author. She attracted national attention as a contestant on the CBS reality television show Rock Star: Supernova. A resident of Portland, Oregon, Large performs nationally with her own band, and tours internationally with the Portland-based band Pink Martini.
Dante's is a nightclub and live music venue in Portland, Oregon. The venue, located along West Burnside Street and owned by Frank Faillace, hosts a variety of acts ranging from burlesque to rock music.
Lackthereof is the solo project of Danny Seim, a founding member of the Portland, Oregon-based band Menomena.
Laura Anne Gibson is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She currently records for the U.S. independent label Barsuk Records, and the Berlin-based label City Slang. Gibson's most recent album Goners was released October 26, 2018.
Esperanza Emily Spalding is an American bassist, singer, songwriter, and composer. Her accolades include five Grammy Awards, a Boston Music Award, a Soul Train Music Award, and two honorary doctorates: in 2018 from her alma mater Berklee College of Music and in 2022 from CalArts.
Logan Dennis Lynn is an American musician, writer, producer, filmmaker, television personality, mental health advocate, and LGBT activist.
Ash Black Bufflo, sometimes spelled Buffalo, is the professional name of Portland-based music composer and experimental musician Jay Clarke. He composes music for feature-length films, short films, documentaries, and dance and theater projects. He is notable for scoring the music for the documentary Marwencol which won the Jury Prize at the South by Southwest film festival and received positive critical attention. He created soundscapes for theatrical productions such as My Mind Is Like an Open Meadow, which received positive reviews in Willamette Week. He performs and records with numerous Portland-area bands including Dolorean, Holy Sons, Grails, and others. Clarke landed a record deal with Knitting Factory Records, and there are plans to release his debut CD entitled Andasol using the name Ash Black Bufflo in 2011.
Eric John Kaiser is a French Singer Songwriter based in Portland, Oregon. He began recording music professionally in 2005 with his first EP, Paris Acte I, Scène 1. He plays a style of music that has been described as a Parisian Americana with influences from Blues, rock and Folk all wrapped in both English and French lyrics.
The Brothers of the Baladi is a World music band based in Portland, Oregon, USA, that plays both traditional Middle Eastern music, and also combines traditional Middle Eastern and western sounds and instruments for a unique Worldbeat sound. Band leader/percussionist/vocalist Michael Beach provides lyrics in Arabic, Turkish, Persian, French, Spanish, Kurdish, Armenian and English, and the band features many traditional Middle Eastern instruments including oud, saz, mizmar, midjwiz, arghool, doumbek, riq, def, tar, bendir and davul.
Tyler Stenson is a singer/songwriter of folk music from Portland, Oregon. He was born in Lander, Wyoming in 1981 and raised in Oregon. Stenson has been twice-named the "Performing Songwriter of the Year" by the Portland Songwriters Association and "Best Male Artist" at the 2011 Portland Music Awards.
The Clinton Street Theater is a theater located in southeast Portland, Oregon. It is believed to be the second oldest operating movie house in the city and one of the oldest continually operating cinemas in the United States. The theater was designed by Charles A. Duke in 1913, built in 1914, and opened as The Clinton in 1915. It became known as the 26th Avenue Theatre in 1945 and the Encore in 1969, before reverting to a resemblance of its original name in 1976. The Clinton often screens grindhouse, cult and experimental films, and has become known for hosting regular screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Repo! The Genetic Opera. The venue also hosts the annual Filmed by Bike festival, the Faux Film Festival and the Portland Queer Documentary Film Festival.
The Doubleclicks are a nerd-folk musical duo based in Portland, Oregon and Los Angeles, California, consisting of siblings Laser Webber and Aubrey Turner. They first became known for performing nerd-friendly comedy music, including songs about Dungeons & Dragons, dinosaurs, and other geeky themes. While their later songs retain those elements, there has been a stronger focus on feminist and other social issues, and more personal themes.
Mary's Club is the oldest strip club in Portland, Oregon, and among the oldest in the United States. In 1954, Roy Keller bought the business from Mary Duerst Hemming, who owned and operated Mary's as a piano bar beginning in the 1930s. Keller initially hired go-go dancers as entertainment during the piano player's breaks, later hiring them full-time because of their popularity. Topless dancers wearing pasties were introduced in 1955. The club also featured comics, musicians, singers and other acts. All-nude dancing began in 1985, after a judicial ruling against City of Portland ordinances banning it in venues which served alcohol.
45th Parallel is a nonprofit organization and chamber music group based in Portland, Oregon in the United States. Founded in 2009 by artistic director Gregory Ewer, the group produces and presents chamber music concerts featuring Pacific Northwest musicians and occasional guest artists.
Scott Law is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist known for his work with guitar and mandolin. Based in Portland, Oregon, he has been a professional musician since 1992, performing within genres such as rock, blues, bluegrass, and Americana with groups such as The String Cheese Incident. In 1999 Law founded Scott Law Music. After performing with numerous bands, Law released his first solo album as a singer-songwriter, Deliver with the Scott Law Band, in 2005. This was followed by several other albums, including the acoustic album Black Mountain in 2013.
Alan Jones is an American jazz drummer, composer and educator. Born in Longview, Washington, he moved to Portland, Oregon at an early age and took up the drums and guitar as a young child. Jones' first experience in his early career was with Count Dutch, an organist from Amsterdam who hired Jones to work with him as a drummer. His first album was Unsafe which was published in 1998.
The Blue Monk was a bar, music venue, and restaurant in southeast Portland, Oregon, in the United States. Upstairs featured a restaurant with an open kitchen serving mostly Italian cuisine, while downstairs hosted music performances in a variety of genres, but mostly jazz. The business closed in April 2014 after its lease was bought out by an undisclosed party.
Lucia Fasano is an American singer-songwriter, comedian, actress, comic book writer, cartoonist, and writer based in Los Angeles, California. Fasano co-created and co-stars in the web series Catty B's.
