![]() With his friend and fellow jazz lover Michael MacKay, he founded JazzSLC with the mission of bringing the world’s best jazz musicians to the Beehive State. While there were some venues for live jazz music in Utah, by the 1990s Hanks noticed that performances were dwindling. Throughout college and his career as the owner of Holladay Pharmacy, Hanks remained a dedicated fan of jazz music-he sold CDs at the pharmacy and was a regular listener of Wes Bowen’s nightly KUER show All That Jazz. “That single recording changed my life,” he says. He still remembers the album that hooked him-Ahmad Jamal’s At the Pershing: But Not for Me. When a music appreciation teacher at the now-closed Granite High School in South Salt Lake introduced his class to the genre, Hanks was immediately captivated. Hanks’ love for jazz started in public school, of all places. ![]() “Our only true art form is jazz.” Hanks has spread his love for America’s music and welcomed dozens of world-class musicians to perform in Utah. As the co-founder and producer of JazzSLC, he has spent more than 27 years as a passionate evangelist and leader for jazz music in Utah. Decades later, though, Hanks is undoubtedly an influential figure in the Utah music community-despite the fact that he still hasn’t picked up an instrument. Raised by a single mother and grandmother, there wasn’t enough money for Hanks to purchase an instrument or take private lessons, and he doesn’t recall listening to music much as a child. Gordon Hanks didn’t grow up in a musical family.
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