A round-up of last week's highlights: BART’s meltdown, SFPD overtime, and a flipped Lamborghini. Plus, the week ahead: SFJazz jam session; a conversation with Rebecca Solnit; and Hunter Pence leading a Guinness Record attempt.

Week in Review: May 5–11

We're doing a new thing, in which we bring you a quick rundown of the previous week's highlights.

BART had a big meltdown, and United Airlines experienced a minor snafu at SFO, not to mention big residual delays from the Newark chaos.

Newly resigned SFPD Chief Bill Scott is bound for LA, and CHP got new camouflage SUVs. Meanwhile, $91 million in overtime pay was approved for the SF police and sheriff’s departments. Here’s a list of retailers where off-duty officers are earning overtime pay.  

Activists won the right to challenge the GEO Group’s for-profit reentry center at the historic Compton’s Cafeteria Riot site, and Cal State students launched a hunger strike, urging the CSU system to divest from defense contractors.

Smart & Final might move to the vacant Safeway spot in the Fillmore, where nearby residents at Thomas Paine Square Apartments are dealing with unsafe living conditions. Hayes Valley and 16th and Mission residents are fed up with the uptick in open-air drug use and vagrancy.

There were two potential homicides this week and a death at Ocean Beach, followed by a couple of emergency rescues. (Keep dogs on leashes. But if they get caught in a riptide, based on headlines over the years, they usually survive while the owner dies.) The 79-year-old Peninsula hiker is still missing.

SF Symphony musicians protested their own show over a wage cut, and 29 SFMOMA employees were laid off. SF is getting a new pro soccer team, and a Bay FC superstar is using her platform to help Zambian youth. (In case you missed it, Notable Humans was moved to Saturday nights.)

23andMe continues to circle the drain — delete that data (if you haven’t already). Frank Somerville got buff, and someone flipped their Lamborghini.

Have a great week, Everybody!

The Week Ahead: May 12–18

Monday:

SFJazz hosts a free monthly Community Jam Session in its Joe Henderson Lab, where Bay Area musicians of all ages and skill levels are welcome to join in and play in an inclusive, multigenerational setting. Led by musical director Celso Alberti, this session will feature a curated Brazilian jazz repertoire performed with Harvey Wainapel, Ricardo Peixoto, and Gary Brown. Monday, May 12, 7 p.m. // SFJAZZ Center, 201 Franklin St // Free, all ages

Tuesday:

The Bordeaux Experience invites wine lovers to explore over 100 bold and vibrant Bordeaux wines, paired with California cuisine. The event includes interactive wine games and hands-on workshops exploring the future of Bordeaux, as well as conversations with innovative winemakers reshaping the region with sustainable practices. Tuesday, May 13, 6–9 p.m. // Terra Gallery, 511 Harrison St // $40, 21+

Thursday:

Join acclaimed authors Rebecca Solnit and Lauren Markham for a conversation about Solnit’s new essay collection, No Straight Road Takes You There. Exploring themes of climate change, feminism, democracy, and hope, the book encourages readers to embrace unpredictability, slowness, and imperfection when seeking to make our mark on the world. Thursday, May 15, 6 p.m. // Mechanics' Institute, 57 Post St // $10

Saturday:

Join Giants legend Hunter Pence as San Francisco attempts to break the Guinness World Record for most cocktails shaken simultaneously, aiming to top 1,710. The event includes live music from Neon Velvet, a sunset DJ, signature drinks, and local food trucks. Tickets include entry, one cocktail, and a commemorative shaker. Saturday, May 17, 2–8 p.m. // Gold Bar Whiskey Distillery Tasting Room, Avenue of the Palms, Treasure Island // $10, 21+

Sunday:

May’s Daytime Realness party celebrates “Gay to Breakers,” with host Carnita & Stanley Frank and special guest Mary Vice. Dance to beats from DJs Carrie On Disco and Five, and enjoy live drag and dance performances by Sir Joq, Shiksa, Muñeca, and Bionka Simone. Sunday, May 18, 2–8 p.m. // El Rio, 3158 Mission St // $15, 21+

Image via Gold Bar Distillery

This year marks a double-anniversary: the 40th of the San Francisco Jazz Festival and this week’s 10th anniversary of the SFJAZZ Center, and the stars will be out including Laurie Anderson, Bill Frisell, and Marcus Shelby.

Unless you’ve been both living in San Francisco and listening to jazz since 1983 (which I personally have not), you may not have known that the SF Jazz Festival was originally called “Jazz in the City.” That highly 1980s name gave way to a more modernized style when it properly became the San Francisco Jazz Festival in 1995, and blew up in 1996 when attracting its biggest acts to date — John Lee Hooker, Diana Krall, and Sonny Rollins. And ten years ago this month, it grew from a three-week festival to the year-round facility known as the SFJAZZ Center at 201 Franklin Street (at Linden Street).

And as the Bay Area News Group points out, SFJAZZ is celebrating the anniversaries of both the festival’s 1983 founding, and the center’s 2013 founding. Though on a bittersweet note, the festival and the center’s founder Randall Kline will be stepping down at the end of this year’s season.

The anniversary parties get underway this weekend, with Thursday night’s Tribute to McCoy Tyner (pianist for the John Coltrane Quartet). On Friday, Stanley Clarke plays a tribute to Chick Corea, though the 7 p.m. show is sold out, and only 9:30 p.m. tickets remain. Both Saturday and Sunday nights have blockbuster Resident Director Reunion shows, with Saturday night featuring Laurie Anderson, Bill Frisell, and Marcus Shelby, and Sunday night featuring Shelby, plus Mary Stallings and Chris Potter, all in celebration of the respective 10th and 40th anniversaries.

“What’s nice about it is the round numbers part,” Kline tells the Bay Area News Group. “It’s amazing how much has happened. I rarely have time to reflect on things so this is particularly sweet. There’s a lot of emotion thinking about this little baby that’s grown up to be, well, maybe not an adult yet, but certainly a strapping adolescent.”

Technically, the anniversary party starts tonight (Monday) with the weekly SFJam Session. And while the big parties are this weekend, the rest of this month at the SFJAZZ Center also boasts Jason Moran and Meshell Ndegeocello (Friday, January 20) and the Jason Marsalis Vibes Quartet (January 26-29).

You can see the full schedule at SFJAZZ.org

Related: SFJAZZ Honoring Joni Mitchell Tonight, Puts Up This Message On Franklin Street [SFist]

Image: SFJAZZ via Facebook

COVID-19 has prompted artists to get creative about conducting live performances; drag queens and DJs, for example, now muse the masses from Twitch and Zoom channels. SFJazz’s latest virtual concert series, Fridays at Five, is another product of this novel line of thinking.

Walking past the SFJazz Center — which is usually packed with people tighter than tuna in a 2 oz tin can, visible through the concert hall’s expansive first-floor windows — is quite strange these days. The foot traffic that normally surrounds the building is all but gone, replaced with an ironic soundlessness. And trash, heaps of it.... including abandoned face masks.

But in lieu queueing daddy-os and hepcats, America’s "first free-standing building built for jazz performance and education” recently started bringing shows into homes with a new weekly line up of pre-filmed concerts to help put a pep in peoples’ steps amid these socially distant days.

Streamed via the center’s website, Fridays at Five features previously recorded one-hour performances from acts like Snarky Puppy and Monsieur Periné. (Each broadcast also includes past performances conducted at the Robert N. Miner Auditorium.)

As the name suggests, the concerts begin at 5 p.m. on Fridays and last up to around 6 p.m.; digital attendees are required to sign in no later than 4:50 p.m. by logging into their respective accounts and joining the stream.

Below is the current calendar of streamed performances secured till the end of May, per SFJazz:

• April 24: Zakir Hussain, Dave Holland, & Chris Potter
• May 1: Snarky Puppy
• May 8: Joe Lovano, Trio Fascination w/ Bill Frisell & Tyshawn Sorey, Trio Tapestry w/ Marilyn, Crispell & Carmen Castaldi
• May 15: Monsieur Periné
• May 22: Wayne Shorter Celebration w/ Kamasi Washington, Terrace Martin, Danilo Pérez, John Patitucci and Brian Blade
• May 29: Chucho Valdés & Irakere 45

Access to the series is $5 for a one-month digital membership, though current members can enjoy Fridays at Five for free. According to Riff Magazine, funds gathered through the streamed series have already topped $15,000 thanks to some 5,000 paying members. And if you’re particularly smitten by any single set, or simply want to help sustain Fridays at Five, a virtual “tip jar” exists to collect your financial munificence.

Pour yourself a generous glass of wine, dim the Alexa-connected smart lights, and make sure you did, indeed, unmute your computer’s audio after that last Zoom meeting.  We could all use a melodious, early evening bout of self-care these days.

After all: “the music will outlive the virus.”

For more information about Fridays at Five and how you can become a member, visit sfjazz.org/WATCH.

Related: This Is Giving Me Life Today: Drag Queens and Musical Theater Artists Performing From Their Living Rooms

ACT Offers Video Streams Of Two Productions; Berkeley Rep to Follow

Image: Andre Hayward, Dave Douglas, Joe Lovano, Miguel Zenón playing at the SFJazz Center circa 2007, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Sunday’s solo performance is sold out, but Laurie Anderson’s Thursday, Friday, and Saturday collaborations have seats available if you act fast.

We’ve had experimental composer Laurie Anderson pop into our fair city before, but never with the variety of notable guests and wildly unconventional concepts as with her latest SFJAZZ artistic director residency that begins tomorrow and runs through Sunday. Each show is totally nuts and different! KPIX explains that Ms. Anderson will be in town all weekend, and the multimedia performance art legend behind the eight-minute, surprise early-80s hit “O Superman” will expand her onstage repertoire with Ming dynasty texts, cello jazz, and more at SFJAZZ’s Miner Auditorium.

Anderson’s Saturday night collaboration with Mike Patton is described as “Almost Sold Out” on the SFJAZZ website, so fans of the Faith No More and Mr. Bungle frontman will want to snap up those tickets quickly. Per that site, the pair will be performing a set of Ming dynasty texts “Jixiao Xinshu — the famous military manual written in the 16th century by Ming dynasty general and Chinese national hero Qi Jiguang,” set to music. Anderson will be on keyboards and violin, with Patton on the vocals, and presumably there will crazy shit happening in the background.

Thursday and Friday’s shows will both incorporate rock and jazz cellist Rubin Kodheli. Thursday’s jazz strings trio performance adds wildly accomplished studio bassist Christian McBride to the mix (that one’s also “Almost Sold Out”), Saturday is a duet with Anderson and Kodheli playing “what Anderson calls their combined ‘hyper-instrument’ — part acoustic, part electronic. Sunday night’s solo show is sold out.

Sidenote: SFJAZZ has quite the weekend next weekend too, with two shows with the great Mavis Staples. Staples, 80, was a 2016 Kennedy Center honoree.

SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director Laurie Anderson series, Thurs. Jan 23 - Sun. Jan. 26, 7:30 p.m., Miner Auditorium, 201 Franklin Street, (415) 788-7353  

Related: Best Places To Hear Jazz In The Bay Area [SFist]

Image: SFJazz.org

Clear your schedule this evening (and if you can for the entirety of the San Francisco Jazz Festival, though that might be overdoing it) because you are now going to a jazz block party. Okay? Okay.

Sorry, don't mean to be bossy, but this sounds like fun, and reportedly last year's inaugural jazz block party was great. The festivities are at Proxy, the Hayes Valley parking lot turned (turnt?) events space, and they are free to all from 5 to 10 p.m. Performing are the brazen Mission Brass Band and the gypsy rockers of Beso Negro.

You might consider bringing your wallet: Hoodline highlights that Del Popolo's pizza truck and more food options will be on site, and that neighboring spots Biergarten and Fig and Thistle will be donating their proceeds from the evening to the ongoing outdoor movie nights at Proxy.

The 34th annual San Francisco Jazz Festival runs from today through the 19th and features performances at Davies Symphony Hall and at the SFJAZZ center. Acts from near (the California Honeydrops, Zoë Keating) and farther (Roy Ayers. Roy fucking Ayers) will be in town, so this is your heads up.

Proxy, 432 Octavia Boulevard, 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

While Van Morrison, age 70, is already on the books to play at Davies Symphony Hall on October 17th, SFJAZZ has announced it will be offering a more intimate experience with the "Belfast Cowboy" on October 18th and 19th, at 7:30 p.m. in the 700-person Miner auditorium.

Tickets to the evenings' shows are available to SFJAZZ members on May 27th and everyone else on June 3rd. The price is steep for an act they're billing as a "living legend": $250 for all GA tickets.

While accepting knighthood recently from the Prince of Wales, Morrison reportedly said. "Playing a small club — that’s really what I do... The bigger places you have to do for financial survival reasons, let me put it that way, but the bigger places enable me to play small clubs occasionally.” This might be an example of that in action, you know, if you don't think about the price.

Morrison knows his way around San Francisco and the Bay Area. He moved to Marin County in the early '70s, recording much of the 1972 album St. Dominic’s Preview at Wally Heider Studios and Pacific High Studios in the city proper. Maybe he'll treat audiences to a bit of that album's title track, a reference to the church of the same name at Bush and Steiner. Or perhaps he could go play a few songs there for free?

Related: The 20 Best Songs About Places In San Francisco

Though the great Joni Mitchell remains too infirm to attend the SFJAZZ Gala that's being held in her honor tonight, the event is nevertheless moving forward and will feature tribute performances of her music by special guests Kris Kristofferson, Joe Jackson, Patti Austin, Laurie Antonioli, and others. The organization decided to honor Mitchell with a lifetime achievement award this year, and she was planning to attend the event before she fell ill in her L.A. home and was hospitalized on March 31. The circumstances surrounding her health have remained undisclosed, and she's remained in the hospital ever since, though LAist noted this week that she may be headed home soon.

When the honor was announced in December, according to SFJAZZ, "Joni said she felt honored to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from an organization whose mission it is to present the highest level of musical artistry, and one dedicated to jazz." The 71-year-old Mitchell was never a jazz artist per se, however much of her mid-career music was heavily influenced by jazz, and featured collaborations with jazz artists Charles Mingus, Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter, and pianist Herbie Hancock. The albums Hejira, The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, and Mingus all mark a high point for experimentation in Mitchell's career, and the latter two could arguably be considered jazz albums themselves.

Also in Joni's honor this week, SFJAZZ installed the above message for Joni in the windows of the vacant building across the street from them on Franklin Street.

Tonight's benefit event, for which tickets started at $2,500, had an RSVP deadline of April 30, and will begin at 6 p.m.

Below, some tweets about the rehearsals.

Joni Mitchell's folk, pop, and jazz have made her a music icon, and now she'll be recognized as such in San Francisco as part of a gala on May 8th at SFJAZZ.

"The mission of SFJAZZ is to celebrate the full spectrum of jazz as a living
artform, built on a constantly evolving tradition," writes the organization, who "has also
championed openness and creativity in all forms of music. No artist better
embodies constant evolution than Joni Mitchell."

Per the organization, Mitchell's unique style and collaboration with jazz artists is to be celebrated with a lifetime achievement award. Previous honorees include the likes of Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and Stevie Wonder.

The "lonely painter" who writes songs hails from Canada but is closely associated with the '60s and '70s West Coast scene. Mitchell will be at the event with Wayne Shorter, Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band, SFJAZZ Collective, and others.

Of late, Mitchell has devoted herself to advocacy for Morgellons syndrome, which she believes she suffers from. She recently released a box set called Love Has Many Faces: A Quartet, a Ballet, Waiting to Be Danced.

Here in California, Mitchell might be best known for this track from her album Blue, performed live in a video from London.

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]