San Francisco Jazz

Description

San Francisco is probably best known for its hills, ubiquitous fog, dungeness crab and the Golden Gate Bridge. But jazz music s threads are similarly woven into the fabric of the city and its environs. Whether performed in renowned clubs like So Different, Jimbo's Bop City, Black Hawk, and the Jazz Workshop or in halls like the Primalon Ballroom and Great American Music Hall, jazz has infused the city from the Barbary Coast to the Fillmore, thrilling audiences for over a century. San Franciscans have grooved to and incubated scores of jazz acts, hot and cool, raucous and contemplative. That tradition continues today.Bay Area writer and jazz aficionado Medea Isphording Bern has uncovered stories and images that begin to unveil the multifaceted history of the San Francisco jazz scene. Through interviews with the individual performers, club owners, and photographers who created and chronicled this history and from sources such as the Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound and the San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation, she presents a captivating glimpse of this slice of San Francisco’s past and present. The images that accompany the text permit the reader to feel the music, to meet the visionaries, and to appreciate the talent of the many people who contributed to this part of San Francisco’s quilt.