Just a few years after World War II and the Japanese internment, traveling jazz bands would congregate after hours at several Fillmore hot spots, including the Havana Club, Elsie’s Breakfast Club and Jimbo’s Bop City.

When national jazz legends such as Dizzy Gillespie, Bill Holliday, Count Basie were in town, many of San Francisco’s own jazz legends performed alongside the greats, bringing an unprecedented sense of life, sounds and vibrancy to the streets of the Fillmore District.

To recapture the energy of that time, the Jazz Heritage Center will produce concerts featuring the Fillmore’s own jazz legends, including F. Allen Smith, Frank Jackson, John Handy , Eddie Duran, and Al Obidinski among many others. The program also honored these local Jazz pioneers awards for their contributions to the history of Jazz in the Fillmore.

Read about the JHC’s first Living Legends concert in February 2008 HERE.