As 2025 comes to an end, we’re digging back into our archives to revisit some of our favorite stories of the year. by Charles Mudede As 2025 comes to an end, we’re digging back into our archives to revisit some of our favorite s tories of the year. See them all here. I have a friend. I will not say his name. But he is to me what Charles Swann was to Marcel, the main character in Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past. My friend, who is a man about town, will often, by text, tell me to meet him somewhere that’s really happening, and count on my appearance, which is almost always a sure thing.  This time around—on the afternoon of July 30—we are to meet at the Long Brothers Fine and Rare Books in Pioneer Square. Why there? Because it’s a part of July’s Jazz Night in Pioneer Square. I’m a bit surprised at the kind of weight he places on this night. It is, after all, jazz—a musical form I love (and even made a movie about), but is hardly, in our day, “all the rage.” My friend is under the impression that, out of all the places to be in Seattle that evening, this is the one. I walk into Long Brothers Fine and Rare Books at around 6 p.m., and it’s mostly empty. The white stools at the bar are free. I take one, order a glass of wine and a pepperoni pizza pie, not because I’m hungry, but I’m peckish. My white wine arrives: It’s respectable. The pizza arrives: It does the job admirably. I wait for my friend, who arrives at around 6:30 p.m., orders a drink, consumes the remainder of the pie, and, between bites, continues to make big claims about Jazz Night in Pioneer Square. It’s organized by the Seattle Jazz Fellowship (SJF), a group of local and established jazz musicians that, until 2023, programmed shows at the Vermillion Gallery and Bar. In 2024, SJF moved to this part of town, and the results have been nothing short of spectacular. ...read more read less