Overview:

Thanks to help from the city and Lane County Farmers Market, the Jazz Station is able to reprise its downtown outdoor concert series after not producing shows last summer.

The Jazz Station’s free outdoor concerts in downtown Eugene will return this summer, after finding a workaround with the city to avert a steep insurance bill and keep the music playing.

The concerts will be outdoors at the Farmers Market Pavilion and Plaza beginning July 17, and continuing on the third Thursday of each month, during the Thursday Night Markets, through October.

Attendees will be able to purchase produce while taking in performances from jazz musicians and ensembles in a wide range of stylings, including standard jazz, salsa and big band music.

The concerts are the product of married couple Steve Owen and Eve McClure, who run the Jazz Station. Owen, who retired from leading the University of Oregon’s Jazz Studies program, runs the club’s artistic side. McClure is the Jazz Station’s executive director and treasurer. 

They first organized outdoor free concerts at the pavilion in 2023. Owen said the shows are intended to have a more relaxed vibe than going to a venue.

“The idea was to have something that anybody in the community could drop in on, and there wouldn’t be a cost, but the music could be really good,” he said.

But that came with a hefty price tag for insurance — more than the community-run nonprofit jazz club could afford — and so there were no outdoor concerts in 2024. 

That’s when the city of Eugene and Lane County Farmers Market stepped in. Eric Brown, the downtown manager for the city’s Community Development Division, said it was a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

Brown got to know McClure both by working with her as a downtown business and by frequenting the Jazz Station as a customer. He also sits on the board of the Lane County Farmers Market.

After hearing about the insurance problem, he suggested McClure connect with Lane County Farmers Market manager Alexis Molinari to find a solution. The concerts are now returning under the insurance policy of the Lane County Farmers Market.

“It just seemed like a natural fit that Lane County Farmers Market would have the insurance to be able to cover the event, and the Jazz Station has the musicians,” Brown said. 

Close to $5,000 in grant funding from the Lane County Cultural Coalition will pay for the concerts. (Both the Jazz Station and the Lane County Farmers Market had previously applied for grants and didn’t get them in the prior year, but were successful on a joint application.)

The majority of that money will go directly to the musicians, Owen said. 

Though jazzy in nature, much of the music goes beyond standards and ventures into related genres like salsa and big band to appeal to listeners outside of hepcats.

“We were like, ‘OK. Who’s going to bring it?’” McClure said of programming artists for the series. “How can we reach the broadest sector of the community?”

All performances are 5-8 p.m., taking place during the Lane County Farmers Market’s Thursday Night Markets:

  • July 17: Corona & Glausi Quintet, a quintet led by saxophonists Jonathan Corona and Will Glausi, playing jazz standards and original music.
  • Aug. 21: Salsa Pacifica, a nine-piece salsa band, drawing from Cuban, Puerto Rican, Colombian and New York-style Latin jazz.
  • Sept.18: BendreTheGiant, a neo-soul power pop group with a full horn section.
  • Oct. 16: The Fat Dandelions, a swing band, playing upbeat jazz standards, folk and pop.

Annie Aguiar is the Arts and Culture Correspondent. She has reported arts news and features for national and local newsrooms, including at the Seattle Times, the Washington Post and most recently as a reporting fellow for the New York Times’ Culture desk covering arts and entertainment.