My two cents: Spokane musicians join tribute to jazz pianist Arnie Carruthers

“How many of you have played with Arnie Carruthers?”

In the new Spokane Falls Community College music auditorium hands shot up for a few seconds with the house lights down.

Many musicians in Spokane and the Northwest played with Arnie Carruthers, and since he began playing in clubs and restaurants around Spokane in the late 1950s, thousands of people listened to him play jazz piano.

Carruthers, who was stricken by bladder cancer, died March 7 at the age of 81. The March 19 concert at SFCC had been announced back in February with the hope he could attend.

The Carruthers tribute concert was the...