Bay Area librarian Mychal Threets to host ‘Reading Rainbow;’ lost jazz treasures; creative mutual aid; painted cars; bling from “bips;” ghosts in the city; tarantulas at Mt. Diablo; films on the bay; hidden views; and Jins and DSW open at Stonestown Mall.

Cinema on the bay

The Roxie Theater is teaming up with Red and White Fleet this month to host a unique sailing movie theater — a hybrid-electric vessel turned open-air cinema with the San Francisco skyline as its backdrop.

Cocktails, snacks, and complimentary popcorn keep the decks lively while films flicker across multiple screens. This year’s lineup spans cult favorites like Top Gun, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and Carpenter’s The Fog. Screenings run Friday nights through October on the bay. — The Whimsy Soul, Red and White Fleet

Unexpected view

Amidst nearly 360-degree views atop Broadway and Taylor in San Francisco, sits the most unique view of the Golden Gate Bridge in town, which is easy to miss. While standing near the northern crosswalk of the intersection, facing north toward Alcatraz, if you take a look at the apartment building on your right, there’s a set of mirrored windows that perfectly frame the iconic bridge.

When SFist was taking photos at the intersection (see Saturday Links), we nearly missed the hidden gem. We circled the area snapping photos for several minutes when we noticed the large windows at eye level and observed how annoying it must be to live right there where bystanders can look in — hence, the mirrored windows. Intentional design choice or not, the result was pretty spectacular. — SFist

Shadows in the city

Local paranormal investigator Ying Liu leads guests through San Francisco’s streets and architectural sites, weaving ghost stories into the city’s nightly pulse. In Chinatown’s Grand Star, her crew claims they saw a crying woman in the bathroom mirror and a floating figure sliding past empty seats.

At the Warfield, a thermal camera caught what looked like a human face etched in cold. Even a narrow alley by the Transamerica Pyramid carries its own restless presence. Tours available through Haunted Bay. — KRON4

Red earth wanderers

As the days shorten and Halloween creeps closer, Mount Diablo’s trails become overrun with male tarantulas who emerge from their burrows in search of mates this time of year.

The females wait quietly underground, some of them decades old. Just a short 2.5-mile loop from Mitchell Canyon Visitor Center brings the possibility of finding some fuzzy, eight-legged creatures, if you dare. — Bay Area Hikers, Weekend Sherpa

Art and cruisers

Rose B. Simpson’s LEXICON at the de Young pairs two art cars, Maria and Bosque, with monumental clay figures, blending ancestral Tewa techniques with contemporary flair. The cars’ painted surfaces echo pottery designs, while the towering sculptures are rough-textured, adorned with beads, branches, and symbolic markings.

Together, they create a dialogue of craft, lineage, and imagination, a space where metal, clay, and color converge. The exhibition moves between tradition and invention, embodying stories that span generations. — Alta

Echoes in a suitcase

At SCRAP, the Bayview arts and crafts reuse center founded by Ruth Asawa, a small suitcase turned up among the usual donations — inside, hundreds of photos, magazines, and autographs tracing the vanished history of the Fillmore’s “Harlem of the West.” The collection once belonged to Warren “Duke” Bynum, a doorman and jazz lover whose circle spanned icons like Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton.

Volunteers traced the suitcase’s path through time, linking it to Bynum’s widow, Jimmye, and to neighbors and students still carrying the Fillmore’s creative spirit. Now, those images and memories are being revived in writing workshops at the Dr. George W. Davis Senior Center, where community elders are turning rediscovered history into living story. — Mission Local

Blight to Gem

In Oakland, designer Sydney Jones transforms shattered car windows into wearable art. Her line, Bips, turns the aftermath of break-ins — those glittering piles of broken glass along the curb — into tiny gems.

Through her Odd Commodity Shop, Jones also upcycles bottles and lab glass into candles and vases, merging sustainability with urban storytelling. She sells her creations at local markets and online, offering beauty from what the city leaves behind. — The Oaklandside

West side buzz

Stonestown Galleria continues to fill up — with very few vacancies remaining, as DSW and Tokyo-based Jins Eyewear opened their doors Friday. H&M will be added to the mix at the end of November. In addition to strong anchor stores like Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Target, and Sports Basement, the mall offers a variety of food and boutique options, as well as activity-based destinations to attract young patrons, including Regal Cinema, Activate gaming facility, and Round1 Bowling & Arcade.

SFist paid a lunchtime visit this week and found the shops to be quite bustling. When we heard that Tokyo-based Jins had returned after closing its Union Square location in 2022, we headed on over to obtain our third pair of Jins glasses, which are very stylish and were ready in 30 minutes. (Nose pads are a must for our miniscule nose bridge, we’ve learned.)

We will definitely be back to the mall soon to hit up DSW and try out some Japanese cheesecake from Uncle Tetsu. — SFGate

Mystery line, giving hands

At a pop-up table in Golden Gate Park, a wheel of chance and a tin of jelly beans double as an invitation to care. Creative Mutual Aid, founded by artists Sara Rubenstein and Joe Mitchell, turns everyday encounters into small acts of support — a watercolor for a stranger, a bar of soap for comfort, a few test strips to keep someone safe.

The group’s hotline, dialed through the number “MYSTERY,” connects callers to volunteers ready to fulfill requests both whimsical and vital. At the pop-up, they trade stories, trinkets, and small essentials across picnic blankets — the kind of spontaneous exchange that keeps San Francisco feeling alive. — KQED

Rainbows online

Reading Rainbow is back, this time on YouTube, with Mychal Threets at the helm. The former Fairfield librarian, who went viral on TikTok for his playful, heartfelt book videos, brings a fresh energy to the beloved series.

The reboot promises storytelling, celebrity guests, and the same push to make reading irresistible for kids, and adults alike. — KTVU

Top image: Rose B. Simpson (Santa Clara Pueblo), Maria, 2014. Photograph by Kate Russell. Image courtesy of the artist

The “guerrilla jazz” van known as the Bay Area Jazz Mobile is popping up in parks and parking lots, and giving paid gigs to local jazz musicians.

If you happened to be buying your weed at the BASA Collective dispensary at Divisadero and Grove Streets on Sunday afternoon, you would have seen a highly unconventional street performance happening in the parking lot. A standup bass, two conga drums, and the Amelie Anna Quintet were going at it outdoors, in an entirely planned and scheduled concert the likes of which are happening across the city, thanks to a self-described “a mobile / traveling jazz venue” known as the Bay Area Jazz Mobile.

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“It’s an extraordinary concept and very timely,” vocalist David de la Torre told the Chronicle, who described him as “picking up supplies at BASA.” He added that “Live music is something that people are longing for after the pandemic we’ve been through. I salute what they are doing because musicians are always working on a shoestring.”

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These aren’t just any impromptu outdoor concerts, the Bay Area Jazz Mobile pays what the Chronicle describes as “a guaranteed $195 for bandleaders and $150 for accompanying players.” The Jazz Mobile also supplies the amplifiers, drum kit, keyboard, and microphones, all kept in the Mercedes Sprinter van belonging to the Jazz Mobile’s founder, promoter, and driver Omar Aran.

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The Bay Area Jazz Mobile is a full fledged 501(c)(3) nonprofit with an annual budget of $80,000. This is a pandemic-era project, but in a little over a year of existence has put on more than 160 outdoor concerts across the Bay Area. “It’s guerrilla jazz,” Aran told the Chronicle. “So far this year, we’ve provided work for 250 jazz musicians, all local.”

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If you’re in town for Thanksgiving weekend, the Bay Area Jazz Mobile has two outdoor shows Saturday. Both are at North Beach’s Washington Square Park, where the jazz mobile will bust out the Edgardo Cambon Quartet (11 a.m.-1 p.m.), and the trumpet stylings of Steffen Kuehn (1:30-3:30 p.m.) Saturday’s weather forecast says it will be 66 degrees and sunny.

Related: SF Nabs $2.5 Million For Outdoor Concert Series, To Be Curated By Clubs Like Bottom of the Hill [SFist]

Image: BayAreaJazzMobile.org

The Tenderloin, already purring with swanky bar and restaurant openings, will receive another place to carouse this summer in Black Cat, a restaurant and lounge with a touch of jazz.

The bill at the Black Cat is already promising: Ryan Cantwell of Zuni Cafe and Chez Panisse is handling food, Gabriel Lowe of Locanda and Beretta is on top of drinks, and Jardiere's Eugenio Jardim has a 90-bottle wine list in store. Designing the two-story space at Eddy and Leavenworth is Craige Walters, who did Blackbird and Hecho.

The lounge will feature a stage, where cabaret performances will be booked by Emma Henley, a burlesque and variety show impresario. Jazz is to be selected by Theo Croker, a local trumpeter and composer. When that's empty, an art-house video installation by Sarah Feeley, whose work includes Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, will keep patrons entertained.

"Some of the greatest restaurant venues in the city emerged from its dark and forbidden corners," founding partner Fritz Quattlebaum says (some will hiss at that), invoking "Stars. Zuni. Mecca. Foreign Cinema. These iconic places materialized from parts of the city that were out of favor, had been forgotten, or avoided. They brought light to these desolate corridors, and people from every neighborhood flocked to them."

Coincidentally, the Black Cat Bar, a North Beach gay and bohemian haunt of yesteryear, was recently recreated for the filming of a new historical series When We Rise. We've reached out to the team to find out whether the homage was intentional, and will update you when we hear back. Update: The team says they are "taking the name to pay homage to the original Black Cat."

Black Cat - 400 Eddy Street at Leavenworth Street, opening sometime this summer with nightly hours until 1 a.m.

“Any special offerings today?” Archbishop Franzo King asked his congregation when passing the collection basket at Sunday’s service. “Did somebody come and bring $10,000?” The Archbishop’s congregation is that of the St. John Coltrane Church, a San Francisco institution that has held a jazz-based religious mass using the music of John Coltrane for the last 45 years. The church has been delivered an eviction notice at its Fillmore and Eddy Street location, and SFist was on hand Sunday to get pictures and video of what well may have been the church’s last service in the Fillmore District.

While the eviction seems likely, the church continues to fight it. “We may be here next Sunday,” Archbishop King told SFist hopefully. But if yesterday was the church’s final service, the video below shows the concluding number “Psalm 23 - Acknowledgement” from Coltrane’s album “A Love Supreme” that ended Sunday’s mass with a lengthy jam featuring two saxophones, a baritone sax, drums, bongos, keyboard, a trumpet, harmonica, a tap dancer and a couple of toddlers on the tambourine.

“When we started this church, I couldn’t play dead on the saxophone,” the archbishop-saxophonist quipped before the service.

Image: Joe Kukura

The looming eviction does not mean the end of the Coltrane Church. But it may end the church’s presence in the Fillmore’s “Jazz Preservation District” after their previous tenures on Divisadero Street and Gough Street locations. “Ain’t no doubt about we’ve been struggling with the rent,” Archbishop King told the congregation. “I don’t know anyone in this city who’s not struggling with their rent.”

Technically, the very last song performed at Sunday’s service would have been the solo, a capella vocal homage seen below.

But the church continues to hold out hope that they can remain at Fillmore and Eddy, and is pursuing several different avenues to remain at their current location. At Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, Supervisor Eric Mar will introduce a resolution honoring the Coltrane Church for Black History Month and supporters are encouraged to attend a 2 p.m. rally beforehand on the steps of City Hall. A change.org petition protesting the eviction currently has more than 2,500 signatures. A March 20 demonstration supporting the church is also in the works, so check the Church of St. John Coltrane Facebook page and Twitter feed or listen to their show on KPOO Tuesdays 12 p.m. - 4 p.m. for more information.

Previously: Famed Saint John Coltrane Church Fights To Stay Put In The Fillmore

SF County Jail No. 2 Pod E serves as the music venue for a new live album by jazz and soul artist Naima Shalhoub, and it's titled Live in San Francisco County Jail. Recorded for Mother’s Day in front of 50 incarcerated women locked up at County, Live in San Francisco County Jail is a compelling and heart-wrenching live album, and quite beautifully engineered considering it was recorded in jail — a jail where 85 percent of the incarcerated have not even been convicted of a crime, according to the public defender's recent figures.

The obvious comparison here is to Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, but this album is nothing like the Johnny Cash album. Naima Shalhoub’s songs are not jailhouse anthems about shooting that warden or shooting that woman down. These are melodic, uplifting soul tunes that you would take your mom to hear on Mother’s Day, peppered with jazz-backed poetry written and read by incarcerated women plus the improvisational stylings of Rhodessa Jones from the Medea Project (who’s featured in a free lecture tonight at Glide, if incarcerated women’s issues are your thing).

Live in San Francisco County Jail is previewed in the 12-minute video below, which I dare you to watch without getting completely choked up.

SFist spoke with Naima Shalhoub, whose music classes with women incarcerated at SF County served as the basis for this album. “A lot of the [songs], I had been singing with the women every week,” Ms. Shalhoub told us. “A lot of them were constantly on request from the different women in the class. ‘God Bless the Child’ I sang a ton. ‘Todo Cambia’, the song by Mercedes Sosa, I sang frequently.”

“The songs ended up choosing themselves,” she said.

The songs chose themselves during a year’s worth of weekly sessions where Ms. Shalhoub would shlep her ukulele down to SF County B Pod every Friday from Noon to 1 p.m. to play cover songs and originals. The locked-up ladies’ requests ironically skewed towards freedom songs and liberation songs. “To sing those type of songs in a jail or a prison, where it’s the exact opposite, it’s all about isolation and confinement, that experience was extremely powerful and visceral,” she told us.

The result is a jailhouse record whose songs don’t really feel like prison songs, they’re mostly uplifting and inspirational numbers. “I could go in and talk about doomsday all I want, but I get to go home to my comfortable apartment. So I had to really shift my lens of what freedom means in this context for these women,” Ms. Shalhoub said. “Yes, it was important to have the freedom to talk about the system and racism and sexism and classism and all these things, but what I found the women appreciated most was to feel uplifted.”

A plan was eventually hatched to record one of her sessions as a Mother’s Day concert, complete with a four-piece jazz band. “I wanted the women in my classes to want this,” she told us. “It’s a vulnerable situation to come in with cameras and recording equipment when you don’t necessarily have a choice. We made it be a choice.”

“We were approved to have an open mic and have their voices recorded in the room,” she said. “So it’s an honor to get other people’s voices out there that don’t have the privilege to be out there themselves.”

One of the open mic, spoken word jailhouse poets featured on the record is Tameika “Chocolate Chip” Smith, reading poetry she wrote right there in the joint. “It’s a bittersweet thing because I knew that any woman that was going to be a part of it, they were also doing time,” Ms. Shalhoub admitted. “Tameika in the past had mentioned that one of her dreams was to meet the president and to share her poetry with as many people as possible. So I’m hoping with this project that her voice gets out there.”

“There is so much talent behind bars, it’s maddening,” she said. “I just continue to meet so many talented women behind bars.”

Half of the profits from Live in San Francisco County Jail will go toward supporting incarcerated women through social and reentry programs, so it’s a noteworthy album for an outstanding cause. “Mass incarceration is an epidemic,” Naima Shalhoub said. “There are serious racial and gender and classist mediations of who is in in prison. One woman told me, ‘I want people to know that I’m smart. I want people to know that I have dreams. I want people to know that I miss my kids, I want people to know that I miss the sunrise’.”

Live in San Francisco County Jail is available on Bandcamp for $10 as a digital download or $15 for a physical CD with a 6-page digipak with photos, with half of the profits going towards support programs for incarcerated women.

If this can be said of anyone, Jeff Goldblum's voice is jazz. His impromptu cadences, his vocal dynamics: They're unexpected delights no written interview — apologies! — could do justice.

Fortunately, Goldblum hopes to do real musical justice to actual jazz next weekend with his Mildred Snitzer Orchestra in San Francisco. For those who didn't know, yes, Jeff plays keys, and just as theatrically as you'd expect.

With his orchestra, so named for a friend of the Goldblums in their native Pittsburgh, the multi-talented 62-year-old performs weekly in Los Angeles. SFist spoke to Goldblum on the occasion of his performances at Feinstein's at the Nikko: Two sold-out shows next Friday and Saturday, the 28th and 29th. Due to popular demand, there's now a third Saturday late show with tickets available.

SFist: Jeff Goldblum. We're excited to have you in town! Have you played the Bay Area before?

Goldblum: I've never played music up [in the Bay Area] and this will be a total first and a thrill for me. I love it up there and had a couple of big memorable life events up there — what did I do? Invasion of the Body Snatchers? And we filmed the pilot episode of Tenspeed and Brown Shoe up there in 1980.

SFist: Cool! Do you have any pals in San Francisco or in the area? I was wondering, for example, if you were friends with Carl Lumbly, who's onstage a lot here — I ask because of the Buckaroo Bonzai connection.

Goldblum: Oh does he? I haven't seen Carl, actually, but I'd love to, I remember him very fondly. We had a great time on [Buckaroo Bonzai] and that's one of the connected dots that led me back here to perform! Because — Peter Weller, did I meet him on that? I think I did! He's a horn player, and he was into this 'playing together' stuff. He would come over to my house, and we liked each other and we would play together, and his friend came over — a guitarist, a wonderful musician with whom he was studying — and we experimented together.

[Weller] went to do this Woody Allen movie and he got to talking with Woody Allen, and [Allen] said, well, 'you should do and get yourself out play a gig, you get better that way.'

Peter said 'I know a guy who has a restaurant' and we started out with [a performance] at a brunch. We got guys to play with us, and that's been changing and evolving, and Peter has been out and about and not playing with my group — I haven't run into him recently. But I've maintained this thing, performing, more and more regularly, including between my jobs.

SFist: Speaking of Woody Allen, another fine jazz musician who just played in San Francisco, there's a line I wanted to ask about from Annie Hall. On the phone you say 'I've lost my mantra' or 'I forgot my mantra'. Well, I wanted to ask, have you remembered it? Have you found it?

Goldblum: 'I forgot my mantra!' Full circle, when last we played — and the only time we played — at the Carlyle Hotel, Woody Allen was playing there. The night before we started our stretch — I'd seen him once before, and really hadn't run into him since I did that line in 1975-ish — and so I thought, well I'd like to see the room, to see him again, and me and my bass player got pals-y with the very friendly band leader that he's got and the banjo player. We started to talk before Woody came in, and I said oh my gosh, maybe I'll sit in! Half way through, Woody said look who's here, and so we sat in on a couple of songs. It was delicious.

You know, I'm still appetized for life itself in many ways and I find acting not to be pretentious, and music, and I'm married now and I just had a baby six weeks ago. And I've been working on this movie, this Independence Day 2. I play a character, David Levenson, and there's some nice stuff to do in it: The whole thing was chock full of interesting and delightful people in the cast. And even the subject matter, being visited by aliens! Well, you know Neil deGrasse Tyson? Last night I sat down and watched Cosmos, and I'm totally into it, I think it's very enlightening!

I keep doing what I kind of imagine is my lot in life, which is learning.

SFist: Ah, okay, so If you could learn from, on the jazz front, some jazz greats, who would those be?

Goldblum: Well you know, I'm still kind of filling in my education — I didn't go to college to study jazz — but what I gather they do in these courses I'm still filling in through my listening education.

I'm listening to Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum, Erroll Garner — from Pittsburgh, where I'm from, because my parents back in the '60s would bring back his records. On my phone these days I'm listening to Bill Evans, Theolonious Monk... just catching up with all of them.

Oh, and Tony Bennett! Do you like Amy Winehouse?

SFist: Duh.

Goldblum: Well, when she was around she struck me terrifically, and seeing this documentary, Amy, which I was very eager to see, really struck me, especially Tony Bennett. That scene, which feels very voyeuristic, this scene of her in her very sad stages of breakdown and difficulty, where she's almost walking out, and saying 'I can't do this', and Tony Bennett is so thoughtful. I've adored him for so long, and in fact met him once. He says to her, 'You're gonna be fine, just do what I do, and keep trying to make it better.' And he's so sweet, and they come up with this lovely recording, and I found the most touching part of the documentary to be when Tony Bennett says, 'Life, if you stay around long enough, teaches you how to live it.' I just thought that was boiled down, rich broth.

SFist: Speaking of Tony Bennett, it just occurred to me, have you thought about doing 'I Left My Heart In San Francisco?' when you're here?

SFist: I might do anything! What I usually like to do, believe it or not, is I leave it up to John Mastro, who has been this band manager, and he's a musician... we've sort of cooked up this approach whereby what he does is sort of make this a surprise event for me. It's what I seem to have an appetite for! I have a bunch of songs I play every day that we might get to, and I bring my book, but he doesn't tell me what we're going to play.

I like to improvise, I like to do cold readings. But, I'm nothing if not conscientious: I practice, and when I'm on set, which I've been doing in Albuquerque for Independence Day... I'm a big proponent of preparation, coming up with an interesting way to play something whether its musically or theatrically.

So, Tony Bennett. Maybe we'll play it, but I want to be surprised.

SFist: Could you talk about the group you'll be playing with a bit?

Goldblum: The local bass player that we've never played with but who comes highly recommended is Dan Feiszli, and of course Lincoln Adler, who will sit in as our saxophonist, and Annie Ellicott, who has sung with us here and whistled sophisticated jazz, in my humble opinion, she'll be with us for a couple songs. And our regular members Kenny Elliott on drums, James King, who's one of the stars of Fitz and the Tantrums, and on guitar John Storie.

They're the meat and the brisket and the potatoes, I'm the I don't know what, I'm the horseradish.

SFist: Hey, I figured I'd ask if you'd seen the new Jurassic Park reboot?

Goldblum: I haven't seen it, but congratulations to them! Because, you see, I've been in Albuquerque shooting, which overlapped with their premiere and this run of the movie. Did you like it?

SFist: Hmm. Well, let me ask you something else, and this is totally random, but I was pointed to a production of the most wonderful tale — The Legend of Sleepy Hollow — which you did a long time ago, playing Ichabod Crane.

Goldblum: Yes, Sun Classics, we filmed in Utah at a ski resort in the middle of winter and I remember it was a modest production compared to, say, the Tim Burton version. But I recall being very moved, when we were outside in the snow. I was actually recalling this on set in Albuquerque. I was saying to myself, on this path, because it reminded me of Robert Frost, "The woods are lovely dark and deep / But I have promises to Keep / and miles to go before I sleep."

I remember thinking about it then and kind of weeping... It's a struggle. [The narrator] gets caught up in the spookiness and the bigness of nature. I've read analysis, and I think it's not a bad thing, it's not death, maybe that's part of that guy's dilemma. But maybe instead of death, the woods and all that is something so profoundly mysteriously good and cosmic and unnamable. It's very actable: I can see myself, or somebody else acting that moment.

If you were unaware of this fact, your life is about to improve upon learning it: Jeff Goldblum is in a jazz band (he's the pianist).

The noted actor from such films as Jurassic Park (I realize there are others) frequently performs with The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra at venues like Los Feliz's Rockwell Table and Stage.

"These days and for many years, I just hardly spend a day where I don't pass a piano in my place and just play for as long as I can," Goldblum said to NPR, who note that he performs as a musician as often as weekly.

"I'm from Pittsburgh, and I played piano when I was a kid," Goldblum has said. "I got the idea to play out and about in cocktail lounges when I was, like, 15, and got a job or two."

As you can see in the clip below, Goldblum does a bit more than just tickle the ivory. "I consider myself a social lubricant as much as a musician really," he says.

That's all preamble to saying that the multitalented performer will be here to, er, lubricate us with his SF premier. Cabaret-style shows are now slotted for Feinstein's at the Nikko on Friday, August 28 (at 8 p.m.) and Saturday, August 29 (at 7 p.m.).

The evenings will feature Goldblum on piano, John Storie on guitar, James King on tenor saxophone, and Kenny Elliot on drums.

Tickets for Jeff Goldblum and The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra range in price from $60 to $75 and are available online.

An added bonus: Goldbum is even known to play the theme song to Jurassic Park (now you see why I mentioned that one) with the addition of his own unofficial lyrics. For the record, those are:

In Jurassic Park
Scary in the dark
I'm so scared that I'll be eaten.

When is the last time you classed it up, even the tiniest smidge ... lost the post-work sweatpants, took a shower, maybe went to a museum or read a book? Yeah, neither have we. Perhaps we're projecting just a teensy bit, but San Francisco, it's time to pull yourself together. And if you're looking for an alternative to your typical Monday night takeout and Netflix routine, look no further than tonight's free jazz showcase at the new SFJAZZ Center.

The culmination of a community band workshop series led by Bay Area musician, composer and bandleader Adam Theis, tonight's performance brings together intermediate to advanced musicians from diverse backgrounds: high school jazz enthusiasts to retired musicians to everyone in between (by audition only). As you can see from the program's teaser video, these aren't your average open-mic level performers: they've got some serious musical chops. And if you've never visited the city's newest temple to jazz, there's really no better excuse than a free night of cozy jazz tracks to liven up your week.

Monday Night Band
Monday, December 9th, 7:30PM
Miner Auditorium, SFJAZZ Center
201 Franklin Street, San Francisco

Though often viewed as a dead form of music, jazz had a breath of fresh life pumped into it when the wildly anticipated SFJAZZ Center opened on Wednesday in Hayes Valley. The $64 million facility is billed as the first stand-alone building designed for jazz in the U.S. Last night's concert brought out all kinds of luminaries and music aficionados. The concert, broadcast on radio and online, represented the idea that the new space is meant for all jazz fans, not just a select few. Take from that what you will.

Among the top-drawer attendees at Wednesday night's gala were Bill Cosby (who should have reenacted the staircase lip-synchscene from The Cosby Show), Robert Mailer Anderson, Esperanza Spalding, Joshua Redman and Joe Lovano, pianists McCoy Tyner and Chick Corea, as well as each of this season's five "resident artistic directors" — Bill Frisell, Jason Moran, Regina Carter, John Santos, and Miguel Zenó. Other less noteworthy celebrities (if you will) in attendance were former mayor Willie Brown, Wilkes Bashford, noted theft victim Nancy Pelosi, and a smattering of the city's antiquated society freaks. (Scenes from the night's festivities were expertly captured by Catherine Bigelow.)

Last night's choice opening concert was captured by NPR Music (who gave the new center rave reviews, of course), which you can listen to right here. Highly recommended, folks. Enjoy.

[NYT]

MUSIC I: SF Jazz presents Rupa & the April Fishes, who will perform their "intoxicating blend of music that echoes with influences of French chanson, Argentinean tango, Gypsy swing, American folk, Latin cumbias, and even Indian ragas" in the open air of Union Square. (6 p.m., Union Square, Geary and Powell)

FILM: SFMOMA concludes its Opera on Film series with The Who's Tommy, which was the first official "rock opera," although "cantata" is reportedly a more accurate description. (7 p.m., The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 151 Third Street)

MUSIC II: Internationally-acclaimed klezmer and classical clarinetist David Krakauer will take the stage for an intimate performance and conversation about his path to becoming a professional musician in two genres, as part of Salon97′s Meet the Artist Series. (7 to 9:30 p.m., Z Space at Theater Artaud, 450 Florida Street)

by Taryn Harrington

About halfway through her act, with hands performing gymnastics in the air, Emily Greene admits to loving coffee houses and the time she ran around naked as a teenager and kissed her friend, “no we didn’t make out, but she was cute.” Her innocent chatter is a part of the indie jazz pianist's charm. She wants you to understand she is sweet, quirky and ready to divulge secrets to anyone who will listen. It’s genuine and translates to beautiful songwriting the second she sits at a piano.

Greene's raspy, soulful voice coupled with a jazzy, piano-rock ensemble is intimate yet fun. This is smart, indie music that doesn’t adhere to a hip crowd model. It’s a confident sound that makes her more relatable than Norah Jones and fresher than your typical coffee house lounge singer. Greene came out with a new CD, Is This What You Had In Mind, in June and is currently on her West Coast tour.

See her at Hotel Utah (500 Fourth Street) on Sunday and bring a date; she’s sure to yank your heartstrings.

After Yoshi's SF received two bailouts (a $1.5 million emergency loan from taxpayers, which came after $1.3 million loan care of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency), the jazz club/restaurant, according to East Bay Express, is finally making money. Due to "recent management restructuring and programming changes," Yoshi's SF finally made a profit in the first quarter of 2010. "“It is very, very challenging but I think it’s turning around finally with the economy coming back,” said Kajimura," beamed co-owner Kaz Kajimura.

MUSIC I: Fulfill your dream of embodying your favorite punk legends live and onstage at American Idle: Live Band Karaoke. The event's house band, the HeeBeeGeeBees, will also perform, along with some surprise guests from SF's music scene.

5 to 10 p.m. // Milk Bar (1840 Haight St) // $5

MUSIC II: Saxophonist Cyril Guiraud will sax it up at Cafe Royale's weekly Sunday jazz night.

7 p.m. // Cafe Royale (800 Post St) // free

THEATRE: In Stale Magnolias, presented by Foul Play, you will meet the ladies of Texas’ Last Chance Salon, inspired by the kind of women found in such ’80s films as Steel Magnolias, Crimes Of The Heart, and Come Back To The Five And Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. "High hopes, dashed dreams, betrayal, murder and... male-pattern balding."

8 p.m. // Glama-Rama Hair Salon (417 South Van Ness) // $15-20

MUSIC: SFJazz presents High School All-Stars with Eric Harland, who represent the highest caliber of young jazz musicians from the Bay Area. The All-Stars will perform in small group and 19-piece big band formats, highlighting the music of piano legend McCoy Tyner, as well as original compositions. Pro-level drummer Eric Harland of the SFJazz Collective will be the band’s special guest.

8 p.m. // Herbst Theatre (401 Van Ness Ave) // $5-15