Garfield High School

The Story

This school educated some of the most important figures in 20th-century American music. Jimi Hendrix attended until he dropped out, though he always said he was actually expelled. Before leaving, he played at neighborhood parties and teen dance clubs with classmates. Quincy Jones was the student director of the school's swing band before graduating in 1950, living a block from where the performing arts center named after him, opened in 2008, now stands. On February 13, 1968, eight years after dropping out and a year before Woodstock, Hendrix returned to the school for a brief speech, as the planned concert did not happen. Ben Haggerty, better known as Macklemore, also studied at Garfield before transferring.

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