News from the Heart & Soul of San Francisco
JUST AFTER MIDDAY an email message went out: Alden Gilchrist, the widely beloved music director who served Fillmore’s Calvary Presbyterian Church for more than 60 years, had died the night before, on September 1, Labor Day, at age 83. A few hours later, as dark descended, several dozen of Gilchrist’s friends and admirers instinctively gathered at…
By Chris Barnett AFTER A DIZZYING seven year roller-coaster ride — from its opening as the hot new jazz club on the West Coast to a plunge into bankruptcy — Yoshi’s on Fillmore was taken over by new owners July 1 and is tuning up for its next gig. Yoshi’s San Francisco, launched at the…
By Chris Barnett YOSHI’S ON FILLMORE is already booked this summer with acts lined up before the ownership changed on July 1. But it almost went dark. Just a few weeks ago, the mood at Yoshi’s was deathly. Backstage, insiders could practically hear a New Orleans funeral band playing Just a Closer Walk With Thee,…
By JASON OLAINE Artistic Director, Fillmore Jazz Festival While 1992 might have been tagged the “Year of the Woman” in politics, this year’s Fillmore Jazz Festival might well be dubbed the same, as we raise our flags up and down the street to salute talented “Women in Jazz and Beyond.” Here in the Bay Area…
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR | JASON OLAINE When artistic director Jason Olaine began planning this year’s lineup for the Fillmore Jazz Festival, he found himself booking so many women performers he had a theme. “There are so many great women jazz artists in the Bay Area,” he says, “and not just vocalists.” Olaine’s day job as director…
By Judy Goddess MANY AGREE THAT choir music can be a joyful noise. And choir members often find singing fulfilling and fun. But a new study recently launched locally aims to uncover whether singing in a choir can actually help older adults have longer and healthier lives. As part of the study, the 15-member Community…
FLASHBACK | HONEY GREEN It was October 1966, just a few days before my birthday. Bill Graham had booked an amazing show. Headlining was the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, with Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield, Mark Naftalin, Elvin Bishop and a host of many others. The second band was the Jefferson Airplane — Marty, Jorma, Jack,…
BOOKS | BARBARA KATE REPA The versatile and iconic singer Linda Ronstadt has mostly kept a low profile since moving back to San Francisco from her native Arizona about eight years ago. But all that changed recently with a huge media blitz touting her new book, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir. Her appearances these days…
Q & A | JASON OLAINE Last year you left Yoshi’s on Fillmore to join Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York. How’s the new gig going? The job is great — challenging and rewarding. Maybe that’s why it’s great. We just wrapped our 25th anniversary season and it was a home run, so there is some…
IT’S THAT TIME of year again — Fourth of July weekend — and the Fillmore Jazz Festival is back and will take over the street for the 29th year in a row. With more than 100,000 people expected for the two-day street party, the Fillmore Jazz Festival means different things to different people. For artists,…