Overton Berry (1936-2020) was a popular Seattle jazz pianist with a long career spanning the late Jackson Street jazz club period in the early 1950s to shortly before his death in 2020. Born in Texas, Berry moved to Seattle with his family in 1945. He studied classical piano as a child and formed his first jazz trio with two of his Garfield High School classmates. Berry began attending late night jam sessions at the “Negro Musicians’ Union” (AFM Local 493) headquarters, learning from local jazz musicians and the occasional touring jazz star dropping by. He began gigging with various ensembles in the mid 1950s and in 1962, with 3 members of his current sextet, opened a jazz club called the House of Entertainment.

Overton Berry’s ensembles maintained a busy gigging schedule throughout the 1960 and 1970s. In addition to regular local and regional shows, they performed USO shows at military bases and toured through South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Berry's ensembles added international gigging to the schedule from the 1980s through the 2000s, performing regularly in Japan, Hong Kong and Thailand. Overton Berry recorded at least five albums and was inducted into the Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame in 2012.

Here, Overton Berry performs at the Swedish Club in Seattle in 2018.

Caption information source: Berry, Overton (1936-2020) by Peter Blecha, HistoryLink.org Essay 10326