[JPL] Yoshi's, Part 2

[Michael Edwards]

What about Pearl's?
--- "Dr. Jazz" <drjazz at drjazz.com> wrote:

> For sponsorship info: email jplsponsor at jazzweek.com
> 
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> 
>   Club aims to return San Francisco to jazz glory
> 
> Fri Nov 23, 2007 8:35pm EST
> 
> By Dan Ouellette
> 
> NEW YORK (Billboard) - San Francisco may be one of
> the most vibrant 
> outposts and top markets for jazz, but the city has
> gone without a club 
> that features national jazz acts for more than two
> decades.
> 
> Catching a touring band in a Bay Area club setting
> has long meant going 
> to Oakland in the East Bay. There, Yoshi's had grown
> from a small 
> restaurant into the marquee 330-seat venue in Jack
> London Square 
> featuring jazz's creme de la creme, from Betty
> Carter to Diana Krall and 
> Oscar Peterson to McCoy Tyner.
> 
> On November 28, a top-tier club jazz finally returns
> to San Francisco 
> when Yoshi's opens its second state-of-the-art
> nightspot at the Fillmore 
> Heritage Center in the Fillmore District, as part of
> a massive city 
> redevelopment plan.
> 
> The opening-night lineup at the 417-seat club
> features drummer Roy 
> Haynes' Birds of a Feather Super Band with Nicholas
> Payton, Kenny 
> Garrett, John Patitucci and Dave Kikoski, augmented
> by guest appearances 
> by Gary Burton and Ravi Coltrane. Following will be
> multiday stints by 
> Taj Mahal (November 29-December 2) and Chick Corea's
> Freedom Band 
> (December 4-9).
> 
> Peter Williams, the artistic director of both clubs,
> said that booking 
> the venues offers an opportunity to be creative. "We
> can use the two 
> clubs to show the depth of an artist's music as well
> as give them a 
> chance to relax over the course of two weeks," he
> said.
> 
> For example, after Corea's week in San Francisco, he
> travels across the 
> Bay to perform a week with his Elektric Band
> (December 11-16). Likewise, 
> Charlie Hunter's trio is augmented by the Campbell
> Brothers in San 
> Francisco (December 12-16), and then is joined by
> guests Steven 
> Bernstein and Curtis Fowlkes in Oakland (December
> 18-23).
> 
> FINDING AN AUDIENCE
> 
> But will San Francisco -- which used to be a hotbed
> of jazz club action 
> with major spots like Bop City, Both/And, the
> Blackhawk, the Jazz 
> Workshop, Half Note and Keystone Korner in the '50s
> through the early 
> '80s -- support a 365-night jazz club?
> 
> "I'm hoping that the new Yoshi's will be a positive
> force for the city," 
> said Randall Kline, co-founder/executive director of
> SFJAZZ, which 
> presents the 25-year-old San Francisco Jazz
> Festival. "They're taking on 
> an ambitious project, because running a club these
> days is challenging. 
> I'm hoping the club will help to generate more
> interest in jazz -- 
> priming the pump."
> 
> Todd Barkan, artistic director of Dizzy's Club
> Coca-Cola at New York's 
> Jazz at Lincoln Center, concurred. "High tide floats
> all boats," he 
> said. "When we first opened Dizzy's three years ago,
> clubs in the city 
> were worried, but we're not competing. It's been
> good for everyone."
> 
> Barkan, who said he hopes that Yoshi's will
> jump-start a jazz scene in 
> San Francisco, knows the Bay Area well: He owned and
> operated Keystone 
> Korner in North Beach from 1972 to 1983, then
> returned in 1992 to run 
> Yoshi's in Oakland for a year. Barkan described his
> creative programming 
> there as "making bricks out of straw," and was
> impressed by the funding 
> support for the new Yoshi's.
> 
> Still, he said, San Francisco has become more
> gentrified and less 
> bohemian than in the old jazz days. "It's a brave
> new world for running 
> clubs today," he said. "But given Yoshi's
> commitment, a new day and a 
> new way could well carry its success."
> 
> Reuters/Billboard
> 
> -- 
> Dr. Jazz
> Dr. Jazz Operations
> 24270 Eastwood
> Oak Park, MI  48237
> (248) 542-7888
> http://www.drjazz.com
> SKYPE:  drjazz99
> 
> --
> 
> Jazz Programmers' Mailing List:
> jazzproglist at jazzweek.com
> List information:
>
http://lists.jazzweek.com/mailman/listinfo/jazzproglist
> List archive:
> http://lists.jazzweek.com/pipermail/jazzproglist/
> Sponsorship information: jplsponsor at jazzweek.com
> 


Seek God continually


      ____________________________________________________________________________________
Be a better pen pal. 
Text or chat with friends inside Yahoo! Mail. See how.  http://overview.mail.yahoo.com/