Overton Berry, a kindly pianist who lived in Seattle from 1945 until his death in 2020, saw and did it all, from lounge gigs to major jazz festivals, from one-nighters to years-long extended engagements, from taverns to opera houses, from department stores to city parks, and from solo shows to leading trios, quartets, and even bigger ensembles. In the 1950s Berry joined Seattle's segregated "Negro Musicians Union," the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local 493, but after integration came in 1958, he joined the suddenly inclusive AFM Local 76. Berry nurtured scores of local players (including guitarist Larry Coryell and jazz vocalist Diane Schuur) and jammed with plenty of national jazz heavyweights. The pianist did USO tours (including in Vietnam in 1968), was one of the few Seattle musicians who found employment on the fairgrounds in 1962 during the Century 21 World's Fair, held down a fabled gig at the Doubletree Inn in Tukwila from 1969-1974, played Festival '71 (the precursor to Bumbershoot), was spotlighted on numerous TV shows, and cut albums that have become treasures to hip-hop DJs and producers. The father of four, Berry once taught reading to deprived Seattle kids. In 2012, the Northwest piano legend was inducted into the Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame.

Overton Berry, Jr. was born on April 13, 1936, in Houston, Texas. His family moved to Seattle in 1945 where young Overton took classical piano lessons at Cornish and attended Garfield High School. During his Garfield years, he developed a fondness for the smooth jazz piano stylings of George Shearing and the work of pianist Lennie Tristano, and he also joined his first jazz trio, with classmates guitarist John Smith and bassist Bill Lee.

Berry began gigging around Seattle in the mid-1950s and continued to do so until his death in 2020. In the 1960s he backed vocalist Peggy Lee at the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair and also opened a jazz club called the House of Entertainment on Occidental South in the Pioneer Square district. In May 1962 the club relocated to 1213 1st Avenue, where it continued to offer dancing and "hot espresso and cool jazz" nightly. Among the big-time players who dropped in to jam were members of Miles Davis's band, Stan Kenton's Orchestra, Les McCann, and George Shearing's percussion player, Armando Peraza.

In 1968 he and Chuck Metcalf (bass) and Bill Kotick (drums) formed the Overton Berry Trio, and they were hired to tour military bases around the area (including Fort Lewis and Fort Lawton), performing in a USO show. Then, matched with singer Gene Stridel, their manager booked them on a bigger tour -- through South Vietnam.

War-zone tour completed, the trio returned home safely, and then a new opportunity arose, via an audition for the house-band gig at a new Doubletree Inn hotel/restaurant/lounge at the Southcenter shopping center in Tukwila. Within weeks the place was a roaring success, and by August, Berry had inaugurated his special Jazz Showcase Sundays, in which various luminaries of Seattle's old jazz scene including Joe Brazil, Jabo Ward, Fred Radke and Floyd Standifer would appear over the following months and years.

In the 1980s, Berry took to gigging a lot in Japan. By the 1990s he was in Hong Kong, and in 2000, in Thailand. In more recent times, the pianist performed concerts at Seattle's prestigious Seattle Town Hall and around the Puget Sound area. Overton Berry, who was inducted into the Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame in April 2012, died on October 19, 2020. His son Sean told The Seattle Times that his father had suffered from heart disease for several years and died peacefully at home. He was 84. He left a legacy that seems to be firmly established among both longtime fans and a whole new generation of music lovers.

[This bio includes excerpts from historylink.org]

Here is a link to Overton Berry playing a Beatle’s tune:

"HEY JUDE"