70 years ago, just north of Portland, Vanport was destroyed by a flood—leaving its roughly 20,000 inhabitants, many of whom were Black, without homes in a state openly hostile to them. The Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble examines this ugly period in Oregon’s ugly history with From Maxville to Vanport, a “multi-media concert of songs and video” that digs into the histories of Vanport and Maxville, a similarly segregated and multicultural town in Eastern Oregon. With music by Ezra Weiss and text by S. Renee Mitchell, Maxville to Vanport aims to “shed more light on parts of Oregon’s history that deserve wider recognition”—an excellent goal if there ever was one. by Erik Henriksen