Customer Reviews

Harlem of the West - The San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era

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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.

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

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.

This is a book of historic photographs from a bygone era in the history of Jazz. It documents jazz musicians and their fans in the Filmore District, San Francisco's "Harlem of the West" during a period of time when African Americans represented a strong demographic in the city by the Bay. The Filmore was subsequently destroyed to make way for 'urban planning'.