News from the Heart & Soul of San Francisco
By Mark J. Mitchell You may have read recently that New York author Pete Hamill’s new book is going straight to digital format, skipping print altogether. But the Fillmore’s own Arthur Bloomfield has beaten him to it. Bloomfield latest book, “More Than the Notes,” made its debut online a few weeks ago and is available…
Q & A | ARTHUR BLOOMFIELD What motivated you to write “More Than the Notes,” your new e-book on legendary conductors of the 19th century? When I was 11, my mother started taking me downtown once a month to the White House department store. It was where Banana Republic is now. Up on the fourth…
FIRST PERSON | DAVE SCOTT My dad had all these books on the shelves in the basement. They were these grand philosophy books from his seminary days with fantastic titles like “The Politics of God,” “Man, Myth, Meaning” and “Truth and Ethics.” He became a psychologist. He was good at mediating, and bringing people together,…
By Kim Nalley When I started playing at the Alta Plaza in 1995, I had no idea what an event Tuesday nights would become. I had played at the same location at Fillmore and Clay two years earlier on Sundays. Back then it was called the Fillmore Grill. Later I stopped in to visit the…
The Fillmore New York will soon be a thing of the past. The New York Times reports today that the club renamed the Fillmore in 2007 will once again be known as the Irving Plaza, its original name. No tears were shed. “Changing the name of Irving Plaza to the Fillmore is as silly as…
April is jazz appreciation month and there’s something special to appreciate at the Fillmore Heritage Center at 1330 Fillmore. “Jazz Giants: the Photography of Herman Leonard” is a collection of some of the finest jazz photographs ever taken by one of America’s greatest living photographers. UPDATE: Herman Leonard dies at 87
SF Weekly reviews local rapper DaVinci’s debut album: The song “What You Finna Do?,” released earlier this month by Fillmore District rapper DaVinci, opens with a vocal sample from the 2001 PBS documentary The Fillmore. It condenses the gentrification process the area underwent from the 1960s into one slogan, lamenting, “Basically, after the urban renewal,…
By James DeKoven Without hestitation, the Rev. Wanika King-Stephens can name her favorite John Coltrane song: “What’s New?” Then, true to form for any music obsessive, she provides additional knowledge: The song was originally on the album Ballads, released by the Impulse! label. Jazz records and churches are not usually an easy fit. But this…
By Anthony Torres Esperanza means hope in Spanish. After seeing bassist, vocalist and composer Esperanza Spalding — who comes to Yoshi’s this month on October 14 and 15 — one cannot help but be hopeful for the future of women in jazz. Spalding is blessed with the ability to fuse instrumental licks and a multilingual…
FILLMORE HAS ALWAYS had a claim on guitarist Carlos Santana, and not only because of his many appearances at the Fillmore Auditorium. For a number of years his studio was on Fillmore Street next door to the Clay Theater. Now he’s back as part of the first special exhibition at the Fillmore Heritage Center. “A…