Did you know that the world’s greatest living jazz singer lives right here in Portland and her name is Nancy King?
For real.

Don’t take my word for it. Ask some of her biggest fans like Diana Krall, Deborah Harry, Elvis Costello, Kurt Elling or Karrin Allyson—they’ll tell you that no one consistently breaks your heart, swings like mad and reaffirms one’s belief in the sublime like the 67-year-old jazz-master Nancy King.

Nominated for two Grammy Awards this last year, (including one for the devastatingly good Live at Jazz Standard with Fred Hersch—who’ll she’ll appear with in February for the Portland Jazz Festival), King is a true Portland treasure. Without a hint of pretense, her delivery and emotional gravity is every bit as resplendent as the best of Sarah Vaughan or Betty Carter. King re-ignites the flickering candlelight of the American Popular Songbook like nobody’s business—and with players like Steve Christofferson and Glen Moore displays an unparalleled mastery of lyrical form and rhythmic elegance. Seattle Times critic Paul de Barros recently commented to me, “If there’s a hipper bebop singer than Nancy King, I’d like to know where she lives. King puts listeners under a spell they never quite forget.” That’s for real too.

Join us on First Thursday, December 6 from 5:30-7 pm–after work or before Christmas Carol–for an intimate (no cover!) early evening with Ms. King and equally legendary bassist Glen Moore (cofounder of the band Oregon and collaborator with Bill Evans, Paul Bley and many others)—and discover the joy that our own King brings to Krall et al.

Also on view on the Gallery and Studio levels, a spectacular array of visual art from Butters Gallery:Paintings on aluminum panels by Margaret Evangeline (New York), sculpture by Ming Fay (New York), paintings by Dorothy Goode (Portland) and mixed-media collage by Kirsten Stolle (San Francisco)

First Thursdays at the Armory are revving up with surprises and all manner of of auditory and visual splendor.

Coming up in January: Portland Cello Project, art from Blackfish Gallery and Pulliam Deffenbaugh