Susan Westby on vocals with Patrick Carr, Shawn Wang, Jeff Donavan

In 1983, the jazz drummer and bandleader Ron Steen defined his entire career in one sentence:

“The only goal I have,” he said, “is to play some honest, true music.”

That may be the crowning accolade for a drummer who received a “Portland Jazz Master” award from PDX Jazz in 2021, is a member of the Oregon Music Hall of Fame and the Jazz Society of Oregon Hall of Fame, and was named the 2020 Portland Jazz Hero by the Jazz Journalists Association.