Harlem of the West - The San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era [Paperback]

Elizabeth Pepin (Author), Lewis Watts (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 2005

Billie Holiday singing at the New Orleans Swing Club. Dexter Gordon hanging out at Bop City. Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane all swinging through town for gigs. Sound like a nostalgic snapshot from the New York jazz scene, or perhaps New Orleans? Nope. This particular sentimental journey describes San Francisco's Fillmore District in its heyday. The Fillmore in the 1940s and 1950s was an eclectic, integrated, and hopping neighborhood dotted with restaurants, pool halls, theaters, and shopsmany minority-ownedand boasting two dozen active nightclubs and music joints within its one square mile. Although it has been commemorated in songs, poems, and in Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, few people today know of the rich history of the Fillmore and its musical legacy because it vanished abruptly and so thoroughly due to redevelopment in the 1960s. Through dozens of archival photographs and oral accounts from the neighborhood residents and musicians who experienced it at its height, Harlem of the West celebrates this unique and rediscovered chapter in jazz history and the African-American experience on the West Coast.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Mellow memories emerge in this consummate, tightly edited look back at an exuberant way of life in San Francisco's Fillmore District during the 1940s and '50s, when dozens of blues, R&B and jazz joints flourished amid businesses run by African-Americans, Japanese-Americans and Filipino-Americans. "The entire neighborhood was a giant multicultural party throbbing with excitement and music," remembers former Fillmore Auditorium manager Pepin. Art professor Watts and TV producer Pepin faced a difficult task when they set out to document the Fillmore's musical heyday. Few photos were known, and 1960s redevelopment left vacant lots. During a 15-year period, they explored city files and tracked former residents, and the resulting oral accounts by musicians and clubgoers make these pages an evocative echo of the past. Interviews led to photographic treasure troves, and although some pictures had "aged badly," Watts repaired damaged images with digital restorations. Researching newspapers, books and magazines, the authors stockpiled a mountain of memorabilia—including a map of neighborhood landmarks, 200 b&w archival photographs, ads, clippings, handbills and posters—presented here in a 9 1/4 x 7 3/4" format. The enthusiasm of the era bubbles forth, and fold-out endpapers of long-ago logos and signs provide a nostalgic closing coda. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Elizabeth Pepin is a photographer, public television producer, and former manager at the historic Fillmore Auditorium. She lives in San Francisco.

Lewis Watts is a photographer and professor of art at the University of California, Santa Cruz, with a long-standing interest in African-American history in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (December 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811845486
• ISBN-13: 978-0811845489
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 9.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #385,534 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thanks for this wonderful book, February 8, 2006

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SEPhoto "eyeworks" (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Harlem of the West - The San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era (Paperback)

I was getting my car worked on, and took a long stroll from Geary and Masonic all the way to Booksmith on Haight St. I stumbled on this book and was absolutely floored by the amazing photographs, the detailed interviews, and the comprehensive history of the long-lost Fillmore District in full flush. My mother worked in two of the clubs back in the 1940's: the California Theatre Club, which was run by family members, and the New Orleans Swing Room. My mother is 87 now and her eyesight is failing, so I had to read much of the book to her. She remembers all of it. People she went to high school, old friends and workmates. She saw Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, Earl Grant, many of the greats before they got their big breaks. My father's submarine came in from the Pacific here, and he immediately started picking out names and faces. It was like old home week for them. The well-known and unknown musicians that made the Fillmore what it was. The book covers how much of this history was literally snatched from the dumpster, so intent were the city fathers on destroying this neighborhood. I remember the Fillmore from about 1968, before the now infamous "Redevelopment" made the Fillmore look like Dresden, gutting a vibrant yet neglected multiracial community. Period photographs fill the book, and contemporary interviews with those who were there flesh out the images - it seems that no one was left out. This is one of the best books I've ever seen about San Francisco, particularly the long neglected history of African-American San Francisco and a city that is, as we speak, vanishing and being replaced with a facade of what people think San Francisco should be like.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A keepsake for any who favor stories of the City's history and evolution, June 23, 2006

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Harlem of the West - The San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era (Paperback)

Fans of jazz music and the San Francisco music scene in particularly can't be without HARLEM OF THE WEST: THE SAN FRANCISCO FILLMORE JAZZ ERA: it charts the growth and evolution of the Fillmore District in its musical heyday in the 1940s and 50s, when it was known for its theatres, pool halls, and active night clubs packed within its one square mile grid. It's curious to note that nearly no details on this era or the Fillmore's musical heritage existed until this book's appearance - despite its commemoration in songs and poems. Archival photos and oral accounts from neighborhood residents and musician experience provide a blend of jazz and San Francisco history flavored with Afro-American cultural insights, making HARLEM OF THE WEST: THE SAN FRANCISCO FILLMORE JAZZ ERA a keepsake for any who favor stories of the City's history and evolution. Very highly recommended as a top pick.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars great photos, intriguing history, January 7, 2008

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Suzette L. Davidson "mod_mogirl" (CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Harlem of the West - The San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era (Paperback)

This book is tops. Like wow, daddy-o. Really great candid photos of a lot of places that don't exist, now - and some that do. Some great interviews with folks who were there. I really like seeing how the clubs were not only places to gather for entertainment, but to hold parties and served the performers and the audience. It was a real community. There was a piece on NPR about this book that I missed and I'm glad a friend told me about it. Reminds me of the same energy that the documentary "A Great Day in Harlem" has - the stories behind the music, the social life and network of communities that come together to support live music and art.