Jackie Washington—also known later as Jack Landrón—was one of the quiet anchors of Boston’s early-1960s folk revival. Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Roxbury, Washington came of age musically in Cambridge coffeehouses and clubs at a moment when Boston folk was less a scene than a shared civic language. Performing regularly at Club 47 and other key rooms, he became known not for spectacle but for presence: a singer, storyteller, and interpreter of traditional material who carried history into the room with him.

Washington’s importance lies not in celebrity but in transmission. His arrangements of traditional songs—most famously “Nottamun Town”—moved through the folk ecosystem and outward into the broader American songbook, shaping how those songs were heard, adapted, and repurposed. He recorded several albums for Vanguard Records in the 1960s, including Jackie Washington at Club 47, documents that capture not just performances but the atmosphere of a living, conversational folk culture where songs, politics, and humor braided together nightly.

Beyond the stage, Washington was deeply engaged with the moral currents of his time, participating in Civil Rights work and Freedom Summer efforts in the South. That lived commitment—music as action rather than ornament—followed him as he later shifted toward acting and storytelling under the name Jack Landrón. His career stands as a reminder that musical history is not only made by stars, but by carriers of tradition—artists who keep the past audible, human, and present.