Jonathan Cohen's photos with the keyword: jazz

30 feet below Greenwich Village

Bill Weber’s public and private murals are scattered throughout Northern California. However, the Jazz Mural at 606 Broadway Street in San Francisco is his largest at three stories high and more than 100 feet long. The location marks the point where Chinatown, North Beach, and the old Barbary Coast sections of the City come together. Elements in the mural depict the history of the three areas – showing, for example, a Chinese dragon and a scene of the Barbary Coast from the 1930’s. The mural features Benny Goodman playing on his clarinet, and Teddy Wilson playing his piano. One of Benny Goodman’s daughters wrote powerfully about Weber’s picture of her father: "I’m always stunned at the likeness Bill created. Without question it is one of the best portraits done, an uncanny resemblance. … I always lookup from my steering wheel and say a quick hello to my Daddy when I pass by." The mural also depicts San Francisco figures from the past and present including legends like columnist Herb Caen, Emperor Norton, and a line-up of the city’s former mayors stretching back to Joseph Alioto who was mayor in the 1960’s. Bill first painted the Jazz mural in 1987. Two decades of fog, pollution, and sunshine marred the work and faded the colors so in 2007 he began a restoration project that is nearing completion. He incorporated some updates in the mural, adding Willy Brown, Gene Kruppa, and Gavin Newsom, for example. Also the painting now includes a yellow, 2-seat, 1935 Mercedes Convertible with the license plate bearing the number "110."

Open since 1943, Grossman’s bills itself as "Toronto’s Home of the Blues" and is famous for its live music 7 days a week. A down and dirty bar of the old style, it has atmosphere in spades! The building that houses Grossman’s Tavern on Spadina is an architectural gem. Behind the rather plain addition erected across the front of the premises, is an 1880s Second Empire house with a mansard roof that at one time contained the home and office of a medical doctor. It is one of only three houses that remain from the days when Spadina was a residential street, many of the homes along the wide avenue belonging to the elite of the city.

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