Zip Trips Hayes Valley: SF Jazz Center

Symphony Hall, you can come and see a ballet there at the War Memorial and find some place to eat if you're looking for fine arts and jazz in particular, SF Jazz has you covered. The place opened back in 2013, can you believe at that time it was the first standalone structure in the U.S. dedicated exclusively to jazz. We had to send our Ali Rasmus there because Ali, I know you're a lover of the fine arts and it's so interesting. I think people need to realize what a gem we have in this city, in this neighborhood. This is such a unique place and we're going to be talking about that in just a second, but I want to tell you where I am. We're at SF Jazz, this is on the corner of Franklin and Fell and inside the Minor Auditorium is where we are. There's about 700 seats here and I want to have our photographer kind of pan around and give you a view because the way this theater and this auditorium is designed is purposeful. It's meant to foster interaction between the audience members and the people who are performing on stage and this stage has seen hundreds of performances from some talented musicians and jazz greats. I want to bring in Gabrielle Armand, she is the CEO of SF Jazz. So happy to be here this morning. Talk a little bit about why this place is so unique. So thanks for having me and thanks for visiting us. Yeah, SF Jazz is such a unique space. We are standing right now in the Minor Auditorium, which as you said, has about 700 seats. It is unique in that it is a round space where there is not a bad seat in the house, either visually or sonically. And as you said, it promotes an interaction and an intimacy between the musicians who are on the stage and the audience, which is an important part of the jazz listening and performing experience. Yeah, I mean, jazz, you know, jazz is social music. It's not necessarily meant to be music that you sort of sit upright in your hardback chair and you know, you're at a distance from. The musicians really, they vibe and they take their energy and they take their influences, even musically, from what's happening in the audience. There's obviously a lot going on on stage between the performers, but there is also such an element of the audience that factors into the music. So this type of space. It's meant to be interactive, you're saying. Absolutely. For someone who thinks, oh, I don't know that much about jazz music, maybe they haven't been here to SF Jazz, why should they come and check out a show here? Well, first of all, again, as you said, this is a unique space. There are really only two very large organizations in the world that exist and who solely program and promote jazz. One is in New York, one is Jazz at Liggett Center. The other one is SF Jazz that is here in the Bay Area. And this is a space that, again, you can only experience the music in this kind of an intimate setting. We also have, I'm not sure if it's captured in the panning, but we have an immersive video wall that is surrounding us. So we have the ability to also bring in a visual element to the music, which is really, really, really unique. And again, adds to the user experience, it adds to the audience experience when you come to check the music out. It becomes a multi-sensory experience. Absolutely. And as you said, it is music that actually is for everyone because you can see yourself in this music. It's one of the few art forms where you will see multi-generational acts on stage. You will see people who are in their 70s and their 80s, even in their 90s on stage with people who are in their teens and 20s and 30s. You will see all different races, all different types of faces and genders. And so it's unique in that way because it's an interesting conversation that's happening musically between a lot of disparate or distinct groups that you wouldn't normally see coming together musically in this way. Your season starts just a month from now, so this is good timing. If people want to follow up and study up on what kind of acts are coming, what are you most excited for this season? So yeah, our season actually kicks off next week. It starts on Thursday night and we're opening our season with the amazing Christian McBride, who is a bass player and one of the great composers, players, arrangers, and just sort of spokespeople for jazz music. And he is one of many artists that I'm excited for this season. We have an amazing pianist coming from South Africa, Indoduzo Makatini, who's going to be playing in one of our other rooms here, our Joe Henderson Lab, which is a really intimate space, but he will be amazing and people will be thrilled who have not heard him before because he is really a master of the music. And again, we have kind of the full spectrum. We have sort of jazz greats, we have upstarts, we have people you've never heard of, people you know their names, and again, they're all interacting in this same space. We have an amazing harpist, Edmar Castaneda, who is a Colombian-born harp player who makes the harp sound like nothing you've ever heard before. So there's a lot of exciting things. Gabrielle Armand, CEO of SFJAZZ, a lot for people to come check out, something for everyone as you heard. And she also mentioned the intergenerational aspect of jazz music, and that's a big part of what SFJAZZ does as well. They are teaching and inspiring the next generation of jazz musicians. So coming up later in the night, we're going to talk with the head of their educational programs about that mission. Garcia and Andre, we'll send it back to you.