By ROBERT HAM



As recently as October, the managers at Jimmy Mak's, Portland's only venue devoted entirely to jazz music, were excitedly posting pictures on Facebook about the future. With the owners of their current address on Northwest 10th Avenue deciding to sell the space for redevelopment, owner Jim Makarounis already had found a new home nearby and was preparing to move the business in early 2017.



But all of that changed in November when Makarounis received news that the laryngeal cancer he was diagnosed with four years ago had returned. Needing to reserve all of his energy and funds to fight the disease again, he halted the relocation and announced he would close Jimmy Mak's permanently on Dec. 31.



"The fact that my health is at stake makes it an easier decision," Makarounis said recently, via email, "but it's still extremely difficult. We struggled with it because of the impact that closing the club would have on our employees and musicians. We tried to find another solution, but in the end, we just had to make the decision to close."



The news sent shockwaves through the local jazz scene. PDX Jazz Festival organizers scrambled to relocate the eight shows they had booked at Jimmy Mak's for next year's event. And the local musicians who have been mainstays there, such as 72-year-old drummer Mel Brown and his son Christopher who both play at the club weekly, now have to find new regular gigs.



"Jimmy Mak's gave my band an opportunity to develop itself," Christopher Brown said. "The reason why anyone very great is very great is because they had the chance to play consistently. Having a regular thing is a laboratory that allows you to experiment because you know if you fall on your face, you'll be back next week. It's not one strike and you're out."



The long-term effects of the club's closure on the local jazz scene could be substantial. While several venues such as Solae's Lounge and Wilf's Restaurant provide stages for local jazz combos, Jimmy Mak's was the spot that "put Portland on the map nationally," according to Don Lucoff, PDX Jazz's executive artistic director.



"PDX Jazz, [jazz radio station] KMHD, and Jimmy Mak's were the three-legged stool, the most important entities to expose people to great music," Lucoff said. "Before them, we were a flyover market between San Francisco and Seattle. With Jimmy's, you had the chance to hear that internationally known artist in an intimate setting. For that to continue to happen without Jimmy Mak's is not optimal."



The weight of this news feels a little heavier simply because Jimmy Mak's has endured as long as it has.



Opened in 1996 by Makarounis, his wife, and his parents, the club originally held court on the corner of Northwest 10th Avenue and Everett Street in the Pearl District. At the time, Makarounis was working for a software company, but he loved jazz and always "in the back of my mind wanted to open up my own club," he says. The stars aligned when his employer was acquired by Symantec and he received a buyout at the same time the original location for Jimmy Mak's became available.



The club stayed in its original location for a decade, building a national reputation and a regular local audience along the way before Makarounis caught wind that the owners of the building were considering redeveloping the space. Again, luck was on his side and he found a new location on Northwest 10th Street a literal stone's throw from Jimmy Mak's original home, in a space that once housed an auto body shop and an art gallery.



Since 2006, the stature of the club has only grown. Makarounis and longtime booker J.D. Stubenberg began partnering with PDX Jazz to host festival shows and one-off gigs that ranged from legends like saxophonist Benny Golson, to modern bop geniuses Joshua Redman and Ravi Coltrane, and even a sparsely attended but still intense performance by free-jazz pianist Matthew Shipp. The jazz scene at large took notice, with Down Beat Magazine naming Jimmy Mak's as one of the best places in the world to hear jazz.



Jimmy Mak's survived while many other jazz-centric spaces came and went. Jazz De Opus and Brasserie Montmartre, both of which were already going strong when Jimmy Mak's opened, shuttered their operations in 2003 and 2015, respectively. Venues like Ivories and the Blue Monk attempted to replicate in small ways what Makarounis and company had created, but neither lasted.



"The difference is, Jimmy's was the only one to do shows by national artists," Lucoff said of Jimmy Mak's staying power. "The hybrid approach of very smart, strategic bookings with local and national bands is the only way to go."



Those involved with Jimmy Mak's maintain a glimmer of hope that the club will get an 11th-hour reprieve. Stubenberg told Oregon Music News that, with the build out for the new space on Everett Street already started, all they would need is "a potential investor to take over the operation."



"We've received at least 15-20 inquiries from various parties wanting to move forward," said Makarounis, "some more serious than others. We are evaluating these offers and I'm hopeful that we can find something that will work."



At the time of this writing, however, no potential savior for Jimmy Mak's had stepped forward, and it's looking more and more likely that the sold-out New Year's Eve performances by funk/R&B group Soul Vaccination will be the club's last.



For Makarounis, that thought is a bittersweet one. He's trying to focus instead on "healing and trying to beat this disease once and for all," and making sure he gives himself time to "just enjoy and soak in these final days, and not getting overwhelmed by the tasks that need to get done."



"I can't let those get in the way of enjoying this experience," Makarounis said.



***

Playing soon at Jimmy Mak's



Mike Phillip's Christmas Jam, 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 23, $25-$30

Dan Balmer Trio, 8 p.m. Monday, Dec. 26, free

AJAM @ Jimmy Mak's, 6:30-7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 27, $6

Mel Brown Septet, 8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 27, $6

Mel Brown Quartet, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 28, $5

Christopher Brown Quartet, 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 28, $10

Mel Brown B3 Organ Group, 8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 29, $6

Lisa Mann and Her Really Good Band, 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 30, $12-$15

Soul Vaccination, 7:30 and 10 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 31, $15-$25

Go: 221 N.W. 10th Ave., 503-295-6542, jimmymaks.com

-- Robert Ham