Jahnvi Madan: Reimagining Seattle Jazz for a New Generation

Jahnvi Madan is a Seattle-based Indian American clarinetist, improviser, composer, and educator. She has performed at Earshot Jazz Festival as their youngest commissioned composer where she was awarded the title of Emerging Artist of the Year. In Spring 2025, she was named the Artist-in-Residence at Town Hall Seattle.

Since graduating from New England Conservatory in 2024, Jahnvi has dedicated her time to rediscovering her connection to Seattle jazz history. Having grown up in the Seattle area, she felt that she didn’t know what that meant to be a jazz musician from the area, which has a long and rich history.

"There's actually such a rich world of Seattle jazz that's been around since it first came through King Street Station and I think every moment of that has helped me realize how much I fit into a broader landscape."Jahnvi met with Ode between rehearsals for her June 17th performance to discuss the depth of her residency project, her artistic process, and her unique approach to composition. She shared insights from her exploration of archival recordings, reflected on ways to create more welcoming spaces for younger audiences and artists, and envisioned how Seattle might thrive as a vibrant music city in the future.

Q: You were steered towards playing other instruments like the saxophone for college programs. What about the clarinet kept drawing you back, and how do you think that cross-training helped you develop your composing skills?

A: The lowest note on the clarinet is the lowest note I can sing, so it feels like an extension of my voice. I was pushed by programs towards the saxophone and I was often told I had natural talent for it, but I wasn't given that same encouragement with the clarinet. Now, I know I chose to pursue clarinet out of my own feelings and not from anything else.

I do think cross-training helped me when I started composing because it exposed me to a lot of types of music that I wasn't otherwise exposed to, like playing in big bands. It pushed me to develop a different kind of ear and ability to improvise that really transferred onto what I was doing on the clarinet.

Q: You've spent months exploring Seattle's jazz history through archived recordings during your Town Hall Residency. What has been the most surprising or impactful story you've uncovered? Can you talk about your method in reimagining pieces from decades past in the present?

A: I left Seattle for four years to attend the New England Conservatory in Boston. While I was there, I realized how little I knew about how this music related to the city I was from. It struck me that wherever I go the rest of my life, I'll always be a jazz musician from Seattle. Having immigrant parents, I'm always reflecting on ideas of home and what it means to be from a place and how that place impacts us. When considering the focus for the Town Hall residency, it felt like the perfect opportunity to uncover what could be here.

A big problem in the jazz field is there's a huge lack of representation of women. It's been like that since the beginning, but it's really inexcusable in the modern day. When I went into it, I was thinking that I would only uncover stories of men because I know women weren't afforded the opportunities of pursuing this. However, I discovered that the first jazz concert that ever happened in Seattle was a woman named Lillian Smith. Little shocks like that kept happening throughout the discovery process. I realized there's always been women doing this. Yes, they weren't reported on that much but that doesn't mean that they weren't there.

I had a conversation early on with a mentor who told me to prepare myself to not find the thing I'm looking for, but I feel like I did find what I'm looking for. I discovered there's a whole archive of jazz recordings at the University of Washington library, which are accessible to the public, and I was able to listen to people like Cecil Young and Ernestine Anderson. The opportunity to spend time with these figures, to hear their music, and to read about what it meant for them to be doing it at that time and place was really wonderful. There's such a rich world of Seattle jazz that's been around since it first came through King Street Station and I think every moment of that has helped me realize how much I fit into a broader landscape.



Q: Can you talk about your method on how you've been taking pieces that you've discovered in the archives from the past decades and reimagining them into the present?

A: It's been an organic process. When I approach composition, I try to spend time sitting with the pieces and looking into them rather than pre-planning it. It's been really interesting to see them forming even in this week before the Town Hall performance. I was trying to find recordings made in Seattle. I know that when I perform, every space I perform in creates a different result so I’ve been trying to get to the most Seattle moments I could find. I’ve been trying to discover recordings that are less accessible and bring those to life.

It’s been harder to find Seattle-based artists from farther back as certain records are no longer in print or were never digitized. The performance is going to be a mix of playing acoustically with a jazz quartet in a more traditional format, and then in an electronic set. I've been working with this great producer and guitarist, Jai Lasker, to take some of the archival recordings and reinterpret them.

I wanted to approach it in this dual-pronged way of playing these pieces as they were written, but also as people would play them today. The acoustics set allows us to give them new life on the stage. I’m not trying to historically activate them, but keep the context of who I am and allow it to merge into the present without radically changing the original song. The electronic set is an opportunity to rethink the songs using sounds that wouldn't have been made back then. I'm also going to place them alongside a few pieces of my own. I’m curious to see what it will feel like to hear the music that's happening now alongside pieces that have been sitting on a record unplayed for many decades.

Q: You've been vocal about wanting to beat the Seattle Freeze and create jazz spaces that are more welcoming to a younger generation specifically with the Live Jazz Series at King Street Station you hosted this Spring. What have you learned throughout this year about what it actually takes to build that kind of community and get new audiences in the door?

A: One of the best things about making this series was I received the affirmation that young people want this. It took place at the art galleries near the Office of Arts and Culture in Pioneer Square. The people working told me that having jazz in the space was the most requested thing from community members. Over the three months I hosted performances, and I saw more and more people coming that were complete strangers. This left me with a feeling that I do have an understanding of what people my age are looking for and when I shared about the events online I felt really encouraged to continue.

On the other hand, it's really difficult to do everything by myself. I have more empathy for venues in terms of targeting a younger audience because it's not so straightforward. I'm still figuring out the best way to reach the right people. I know now that they want to be reached, but how do I reach them? I get a lot of my information through social media which inspired me to start the Seattle Jazz Sunday series when I did my first Town Hall event in May.

Q: How do you see a future for making a name for Seattle as a “music city” that appeals to both younger artists and a younger generation of music goers?

A: I feel like there is a revival happening in Seattle right now with jazz. There was a Jazz Night in Pioneer Square in February and thousands of people attended. Spaces like Seattle Jazz Fellowship and The Royal Room have consistently programmed music and are seeing a rise in audience numbers.

There is a lot of magic here, but it feels hard to find when you’re not in the know. I realized from talking to musicians I know that there's something special about Seattle being a smaller city because everything feels possible to achieve here. Seattle is already this vibrant hub. I think a combination of activating youth focused spaces and leaning into what’s already here can help people connect the dots to find what they’re looking for.

Q: What is your biggest hope for the Seattle jazz scene and what role do you see yourself and your generation of artists playing in shaping its future?

A: My first hope is that I would love for the scene to continue to become more inclusive. There's opposing ideas about what excellence is and some places value how fast you play or how much you sound like someone, but this can feel exclusionary for musicians. Some spaces feel more inclusive, but don't have that same institutional support or reach. I wish to see these things come together and be more harmonious with a broader shared understanding of what excellence is.

I want to play with musicians who approach excellence in terms of how much time they spend thinking about what they’re trying to convey. What are we trying to accomplish together with our individual strengths? How can we bring that out in each other and tell a story or express something?

My second hope is that I would love for Seattle to become a place where musicians can feel really confident in knowing their music can reach new audiences and be discovered by critics and journalists.

Q: In one of your recent “Seattle Jazz Sundays” you mentioned that one artist, Cecil Young, had a song called Race Horse, which was his quartet’s theme song. Is that something you plan on doing for your band? What energy do you hope for that theme song to embody?

A: My debut single, Burst, could become my band’s theme song. At every show I've played it at, I’ve had people approach me about it. It does capture what I think a good theme song has, which is a sense of energy and joy. Burst is the most energetic song I've written and seems to resonate with kids, adults, and other musicians. But I still need to think about that if I'm going to make it an official theme song.

A Living Archive at Findings Night

Arriving at Town Hall Seattle for “Findings Night,” the atmosphere was already steeped in history. A listening station played digitized records from Seattle jazz icons like Ernestine Anderson, the Cecil Young Quartet, and Jasis, offering a glimpse into the sounds that inspired the evening’s performance.



The stage was split in two: an acoustic side featuring the familiar staples of jazz – a piano, upright bass, drum kit, and clarinet – and an electric side, home to an AKAI MPC sampler and an electric guitar. Although the pieces were originally conceived as independent sets, the musicians found themselves inspired during soundcheck and ultimately chose to weave them together into one seamless performance. The result was electric. Samples pulled live from old records – complete with skips, static, and crowd noise. These evocative sound bites were looped to create a dynamic canvas. The clarinet’s soulful voice met the thrum of the bass and the shimmer of guitar, past and present in conversation. It was a reminder that jazz thrives on moments like this: improvising within limits, turning structure into freedom.

Jahnvi Madan isn't just a musician and educator; she's a force in the jazz scene. As a first-generation Indian American, she’s talked about feeling invisible growing up and not seeing women of color represented in jazz. Now, through her performances, her voice, and even her clothing, she brings her full self to the stage. She’s helping uncover Seattle’s hidden jazz stories while becoming the kind of representation she once searched for. Anyone who’s seen her perform or had a chance to have a conversation with her walks away feeling more connected to the music and the history behind it.

***

• Follow Jahnvi on Instagram.
• Catch Jahnvi and her band perform at Seattle Jazz Fellowship on June 27th.
• Discover Jazz in Seattle.
• Explore Town Hall on Ode.