In addition to Jeff Goldblum breezing through town performing with his band, another famed writer/director and musician, Woody Allen, will be making a rare Bay Area appearance with his New Orleans Jazz Band. Allen plays the clarinet, and he talked to the Chronicle about how his first public performance as a musician was at a North Beach jazz club in the late 1960s, Earthquake McGoon’s.

Allen says, "I wouldn’t have played jazz if it wasn’t for San Francisco. It was Turk Murphy’s constant reassurance that I wasn’t as horrible as I thought I was that kept me playing. It was really him that bears the responsibility. I remember we would shoot Take the Money and Run [Allen's second film, from 1969, which was set in SF] until 7 p.m. and then have dinner and then I would get back to the hotel and pull the covers over my head and practice the clarinet so I could play the next night."

He also says that while he may not be the strongest musician, he still loves to perform. "I’m like a bad actor who loves to act. I play with great enthusiasm and love but very little talent."

Allen's New Orleans Jazz Band will play two nights at the Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley on Tuesday and Wednesday, August 4 and 5 ($150 - $300), and then Thursday, August 6 at the Regency Ballroom in SF, where tickets start at $85.