Photo by Daniel Sheehan / Earshot Jazz

Word has started to move through the Seattle jazz community that Gaye Anderson, owner of the New Orleans Creole Restaurant in Pioneer Square for over two decades, passed away last night.

The New Orleans is one of Seattle’s longest-running jazz clubs and her loss will be felt by the many musicians and jazz fans who frequented the club.

We will post service information when it becomes available.

Check out the July 2011 profile by Earshot Jazz on Anderson and her club.

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Update: The Seattle Times has posted an article:

Musicians mourn owner of Pioneer Square club

by Paul de Barros

A pillar of the Seattle music scene has fallen.

Gaye Anderson, owner and operator for 27 years of the New Orleans Creole Restaurant, in Pioneer Square, died Thursday.

Miss Anderson was 62. She went into a diabetic coma last weekend and was taken to Harborview Hospital, where she died of complications related to lung and heart disease, said her mother, Alice Coleman.

“She had a loving, loving heart; she was just so caring,” said Miss Anderson’s mother.

Apparently Seattle musicians felt the same way. In 2005, Miss Anderson was inducted into the Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame.

“There was no one — I repeat, no one — that was as generous and kind and loving to the musicians than Gaye Anderson,” said Garfield High School Jazz Band director Clarence Acox, who has played drums at the club for 26 years.

Continue reading at The Seattle Times.