Wednesday, May 30, 2007

A day of music in "Harlem of the West"

I decided to mark my last complete day in San Francisco (for this particular trip) by combining two things I adore -- jazz and the City.
Thanks to the miracle of iPods, here is the soundtrack to a great day:
IKE QUEBEC -- I listened to Ike Quebec's album "Heavy Soul" while walking the Coastal Trail in the Land's End area. It is the part of San Francisco where the land gives way to the seemingly endless waters of the Pacific. I also beat my fist on the U.S.S. San Francisco Memorial. That was my way of thanking the sailors who participated in 1942's naval battle of Guadalcanal.
DAVE BRUBECK -- How appropriate: I listened to one Bay Area legend -- Dave Brubeck's "Time Out" album -- while walking around another -- the ruined Sutro Baths and the Cliff House. The view of Ocean Beach after rounding Point Lobos is spectacular.
CHARLIE PARKER -- I listened to Charlie Parker while riding the No. 38 Geary Bus from the Ocean Beach Safeway to Fillmore Street.
San Francisco's Fillmore District was known as "Harlem of the West" in the 1940s and 50s, when the integrated neighborhood boasted more than two dozen active nightclubs and music joints in a one-square-mile area. "Urban renewal" in the 1960s decimated this historic area. Today I learned that a bank located across Post Street from the Japan Center now stands at the site of Jimbo's Bop City (pictured). Bop City holds a towering place in jazz annals. It was once San Francisco's premier jazz nightspot and is reportedly the only place where a visiting Louis Armstrong listened to a performing Charlie "Bird" Parker. Now, there doesn't seem to be any sign or plaque or anything to mark the location of Bop City on Post between Laguna and Buchanan. It's lost. Gone.
MILES DAVIS -- I listened to "Walkin'" by the Miles Davis All Stars as I rode the No. 2 Clement (my FAVORITE bus route!) back to my sister's neighborhood. It made me smile, much as this entire trip has made me smile. I have been reminded of my roots, about the part of the world that helped make me what I am, and that is surely reason enough to smile.