San Celebrities Jam

You sort of expect it but you are still surprised at how many famous people stop by San Francisco (if they do not already live here). Since I arrived in mid-August I know of politicians Ralph Nader (see the previous post), Sarah Palin and Arnold Schwarzenegger being in town.

The Governator used to be an actor and there are others of those as well. Indeed, Sean Pean and fellow liberals love to hang out in the city, and in November a new movie about Harvey Milk (see also post from August 29th) will open starring – you guessed it – Sean Penn as Harvey Milk.

But what there is most of in this city the size of Copenhagen is – thankfully – top quality music artists. Since I arrived the has been concerts by Radiohead, Ben Harper, Ziggy Marley, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Sigur Rós and probably others that I have missed. And soon The Killers are playing, too.

Tonight, however, I had the profound pleasure of attending the best jazz concert of my life: Dave Brubeck Quartet in Davies Symphony Hall. See a little of it here:

They were there for the San Francisco Jazz Festival and played for two and a half hours. This is truly amazing with front man Dave Brubeck being 87 and the quartet having an average age of around 70. Besides the Brubeck superhit “Take Five”, the concert had the best piano solo, the best bass solo and the best drum solo of any concert I have attended.

Not the best seats - but the best concert

It was brilliant, just beautiful, I lack adjectives in this language. My father should have been here, he would have loved it. Also, the music was extremely diverse and entertaining. And even though old Brubeck had to use sax player Bobby Militello as a cane when he left the stage (as you can see in the video above), he was a real showman, throwing anectodes about life on the road and playing in the mud every now and then.

The hall

Jazz – you gotta love jazz!

Looking forward to my next celebrity meeting…

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