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Last year my trio played a gig at the local HSBC bank here in New York, and the event was a huge success. The sound in the bank was fantastic, and the customers totally dug the music. We wanted to make it a regular thing, of course, but the branch manager didn't bite.

Now we have the Umpqua bank in Portland, Oregon, taking this idea one step further:

Ours is the age of lifestyle. From clothes to coffee to cookware, every product or service seems to represent not just function but a statement about who we are and how we live. So the fact that Umpqua Bank, a chain based Portland, Ore., recently announced that it had "released its first album" makes a certain kind of sense. Umpqua isn't just a financial institution, of course. It's a lifestyle.

Check it out:

Originally, Umpqua simply planned to offer free music CD's to people who opened new accounts; it was part of an effort to woo younger customers. The bank worked with a Portland music marketing firm called Rumblefish, which put together what has become a 214-song library of tracks by local, relatively undiscovered talent in the markets where Umpqua operates. A test run in a few markets found that the new customers who wanted a free CD of promising local artists included not just young people but, basically, everybody. The program was rolled out across the entire chain, and Umpqua even sent Rye Hollow, a Portland band, on a five-city tour; it performed at several banks, as well as at a brew pub in Chico, Calif. Earlier this year, the bank started a Web site where anybody, customer or not, can listen to clips, put together a CD and buy it. (The bank splits the proceeds with the artists.) And in July, it began selling its own curated 12-track collection, "Discover Local Music: Vol. 1, Sacramento to Seattle," at all Umpqua locations.

Now, if we could get other banks to follow suit, we might actually bring some great music to the people!

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