News from the Heart & Soul of San Francisco
By Pamela Feinsilber IF THE FILLMORE were a university, rather than a school of hard knocks, jazz singer Kim Nalley would long ago have been awarded an honorary doctorate. Though she lives with husband Mike Lewis and their new baby girl Lydia in the saddle between Nob Hill and Russian Hill, looking out on the…
THE LINEUP | Jason Olaine It’s that time of year again, when San Francisco’s swingingest, bluesiest and funkiest street party comes alive. The 2012 Fillmore Jazz Festival is July 7 and 8. This is the 28th year of the festival, which was created in 1984 to celebrate Fillmore’s jazz heritage at a time when much…
By Barbara Kate Repa FOR THE FIRST TIME in its 28-year history, those who wish to drink beer or wine at the Fillmore Jazz Festival this year must buy and consume it within the confines of one of seven “beverage gardens” — designated areas within the festival carpeted in artificial turf and enclosed by white…
POSTER ARTIST | Carly Lane Plaskett She was a high school art teacher in London before moving to San Francisco four years ago to study new media at the Academy of Art. Carly Lane Plaskett flourished in the “digital meets old school design” program. For a class in typography, she was challenged to design her…
JAZZ | Jason Olaine It seems like only yesterday that I came back home to the Bay Area after 10 years in New York to become artistic director of Yoshi’s new jazz club on Fillmore. That was May 2009, and here it is soon to be 2012. Now I find myself about to leave Yoshi’s…
By Jesse Hamlin A sea of sun-drenched people flowed along Fillmore Street on Saturday, partaking of the musical and gustatory pleasures — not to mention the beer, wine and margaritas — served up by San Francisco’s biggest street bash. Blues and barbecued oysters. Fried catfish and Nigerian folk songs. Those were some of the sounds…
RUTH DEWSON, the longtime proprietor of Mrs. Dewson’s Hats and the self-proclaimed Mayor of Fillmore Street, helped start the Fillmore Jazz Festival in 1984. She recalls approaching promoter Terry Pimsleur, who had started the Union Street Festival, about creating a similar street fair on upper Fillmore, where new businesses were opening and trying to improve…
FILLMORE JAZZ FESTIVAL | Saturday, July 3, at 2 p.m. Art Khu was settling into his seat for the flight back from Mexico when he struck up a conversation with the passenger sitting beside him. And between takeoff and touchdown, a star was born. The passenger was Kiva Knight, a cinematographer from the Fillmore, who…
Coming soon to a store window near you: the poster for this year’s jazz festival, created by Michael Schwab, one of the nation’s top graphic artists. New street banners sporting the design will go up before the festival, and posters and T-shirts will be available at the 2010 Fillmore Jazz Festival, which takes place on…
By THOMAS REYNOLDS Sultry, soulful, swinging singer Kim Nalley remembers when she got her first big break in San Francisco. It was the early ’90s, and the manager of Harry’s on Fillmore called to see if she might fill a slot for a band that had cancelled. But Nalley was otherwise engaged. She had a…