Jim Knapp Orchestra
Happy Reunion 2

Doors: 6:30pm

Advance tickets can only be purchased online-we do not sell advance tickets at the venue. Refunds are not available within 48 hours of the event. Tickets do not guarantee seating during shows at the Royal Room. 

We are now accepting reservations for diners! After purchasing tickets, please visit the Reservations page to book a table. Table reservations require advance tickets, and are only for guests who plan to dine at the Royal Room.  We do not take reservations over the phone.

Seating for non-diners is first come, first served. Please arrive early to guarantee a seat!

The Royal Room is All Ages until 10pm.

Dylan Hayes and Jay Thomas will be leading the legendary Jim Knapp Orchestra on March 26th at The Royal Room. 

Jim Knapp was an iconic Seattle composer, arranger, bandleader, jazz theorist, and teacher to countless musicians in Seattle. In 1971, he started one of the first college jazz programs at Cornish College of the Arts. In 1995, he founded the Jim Knapp Orchestra, which won the Earshot "Best Acoustic Jazz Group" award the same year. Their CD Things For Now earned the Earshot "Jazz Record Of The Year" award in 1999.

The Jim Knapp Orchestra has collaborated with notable musicians such as Lee Konitz, Jay Clayton, Jay Thomas, Jon Wikan, and Ingrid Jensen, to name just a few.

Big band composer Maria Schneider captured Jim Knapp's significance by stating, "Knapp's music is among the best of orchestral jazz being written these days." Jim McNeely, a fellow big band composer, said that Jim Knapp "was writing some gorgeous music for big band," both original compositions and arrangements of standards, and admitted that he "was so intimidated by Knapp that he didn't write a single note until Knapp graduated and left for Seattle."

Due to serious medical issues in his later years, Jim Knapp passed the baton to Dylan Hayes and Jay Thomas to carry on the legacy of the Jim Knapp Orchestra.

Jay Thomas, a native of Seattle, is a versatile multi-instrumentalist (trumpet, flugelhorn, alto, tenor, soprano and flutes). His music could be described as earthy and lyrical with the blues and swing always in evidence. Jay grew up in the fertile atmosphere of Seattle's 60's jazz scene sometimes subbing for Quincy Jones alumnus Floyd Standifer while still in high school. Clubs such as the " H.O.E." otherwise known as the House of Entertainment and the Black and Tan and the Llahngaelhyn figured prominently  in Jay's early years of trial and error music making. The end of 1968 saw Jay move to New York where he worked and studied for several years. Highlights include gigging for a summer with Machito's Latin band, recording for James Moody on the Perception label, and taking private lessons with Carmine Caruso. Three years later Jay added flute and tenor to his repertoire. Through the mid-seventies while living in the S.F.Bay Area Jay met Jessica Williams and went on to record on three of her CD's.

Jay moved back to Seattle in 1978 and became a frequent member of the house band at Parnell's Jazz Club working engagements with jazz artists George Cables, Charles McPherson, Bill Mays, Ralph Penland, Harold Land, and Slim Gaillard. At Parnell's, Jay became friends with jazz masters  Zoot Sims and Sal Nistico, among others.  Jay's first two CDs, Easy Does It on Discovery Records and Blues for McVouty on Stash Records featured Cedar Walton and Billy Higgins. 360 Degrees on Hep Records and Rapture on Jazz Focus continued to establish Jay's reputation.  Jay's previous CDs from McVouty Records titled Live at Tula's, Volume 1 and Volume 2 and 12th and Jackson Blues were live performances and have the feel of the  clubs  where Jay was first baptized into the world of jazz.  Jay recorded with Herb Ellis on Roll Call and with Bud Shank on On the Trail. This was the last recording by Conte Condoli and Jay is playing tenor and soprano sax in a sextet setting with Bill Mays on piano, Joe LaBarbara on drums, Bob Magnuson on bass, and of course Bud on alto.

Two recordings have Jay teamed up with jazz greats Ray Brown (Blues for Dexter, Wolfetones Records) and Elvin Jones (Jones for Elvin, Hip City Records). Jay has appeared in concert with the bands of Maria Schneider, Bill Holman, and Frank Wess. He has played festivals at Wolf Trap with Red Rodney and Ira Sullivan, the Aspen Jazz Festival with Herb Ellis, Jake Hanna and Mel Ryne (recorded with them on Roll Call), the du Maurier Jazz Festival with Chuck Israels Trio and with the Jay Thomas Quartet. Jay toured Great Britain with jazz legend Slim Gaillard recording there with Slim, Jay McShann and Buddy Tate. In the summer of 2002, Jay again traveled to Europe, this time with the Bud Shank Sextet featuring Plas Johnson. Today Jay is a member of one of Japan's leading big bands, CUG (Continued in the Underground Jazz Orchestra), and co-leads a sextet with Kohama Yasuhiro and Atsushi Ikeda. Jay tours in Japan, recording and performing, several times a year. Jay is also a member of SRJO (Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra) and also has a Neo- Boogaloo Hard Bop band called "The Cantaloupes". 

Jay is also involved with passing the music on to future generations. He is an adjunct professor at Cornish College of the Arts, and works at the renowned Garfield High School, tutoring kids in improvisation. Jay often does clinics and workshops at universities in the US and Japan and is an instructor in several prominent jazz camps each summer.

Jay has a sound characterized by warmth, lyricism and rhythmic drive....and he's funky! Hear him when you can, you won't be disappointed.

Early accolades include being named "Jazz Artist Deserving Wider Recognition" in Downbeat, receiving a one-year scholarship to Berklee School of Music, and winning Earshot Musician of the Year in '96 and '98. Jay was also named Earshot Jazz Festival's "Artist in Residence" for 2019 and was one of 20 U.S. musicians awarded the Jazz Journalists Association's "2020 Jazz Heroes" Award.

Dylan Hayes is a top called jazz pianist, composer and arranger originally from San Francisco and currently resides in Seattle, WA. He is 27 years old and began playing piano at age 7. After attending Marin School of the Arts for high school, he continued his studies at Cornish College of the Arts, from which he graduated from in 2019, and was able to study piano with Dawn Clement and Jovino Santos Neto as well as arranging with Jim Knapp. While attending Cornish, Jim Knapp handed over the Jim Knapp Orchestra book to Dylan Hayes and local legend Jay Thomas.

Dylan's piano playing has brought him to share the stage with top tier musicians such as Benny Bennack III, Barry Stephenson, Jay Thomas, Johnaye Kendrick, Thomas Marrtiott, Christopher Brown and Chris Amberger. Dylan's debut record "Songs For Rooms And People" was released on Blujazz Productions in March, 2020. His debut record is one of the top ten jazz albums of 2020 in The Seattle Times. A New York / Seattle based band that Dylan leads called "Meridian Odyssey" released a record titled "Second Wave" under Origin Records and was listed as one of the top fifteen best albums of 2021 in The Seattle Times. Meridian Odyssey's sophomore release "Earthshine" received the Northwest Recording of The Year award in Earshot Jazz's 2022 Golden Ear Awards. In 2023, Dylan received a commission to arrange one of Thomas Marriott's compositions for The Carolina Philharmonic. The conductor was floored to hear an applause after the string soli that Dylan arranged, and said that he'd never seen an audience clap mid-way through a piece of arranged music in a classical setting before. Dylan was commissioned to arrange Julian Priester's compositions for the Fellowship 'Ceptet, which premiered at Dimitriou's Jazz Alley in 2023. He has also been commissioned to arrange for the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra and the Portland Composers Jazz Ensemble. 

In 2024, Dylan toured and recorded a record in Europe, played in New York City, toured the West Coast and recorded four records of all original music; trio record, octet record, neo-soul / pop record with Vela The Band, and Meridian Odyssey's third album. In 2025, Dylan played at the 2025 Havana International Jazz Festival with his band Vela The Band.