Jam Session (1958)

Alright, alright. I know. I have been really lazy as of late with this and it does seem that all I have been doing is just re-directing people to other cool sites. Fair enough. But how can you complain when there are things like this out there:



Seriously. This really blows my mind and is EXACTLY why I love the 'net. Yes folks that is THE legendary Black Hawk night club in San Francisco in 1958. And, yes, that is THE Dave Brubeck Quartet featuring Paul Desmond and Joe Morello. And, yes, that is THE Mort Sahl cracking wise. Well, it turns out this is from a 1958 television pilot program. If picked up the show would have traveled around the country spotlighting different clubs and combos. If only, right? According to the comments it was produced by Jay Ward. Wait. Jay Ward? As in 'Rocky & Bullwinkle'? What kind of crazy world is that?

Brubeck is still around (catch him while you can). So is Sahl (I saw him last year at the Monterey Jazz Festival). But the Black Hawk is nothing but a concrete lot surrounded by a chain link fence - one of San Francisco's poorer monuments to it's modern jazz history. I even liked the 222 Club on Hyde if only because it was in the space adjacent to the old club and has some tenuous spiritual connection. But sadly, that is gone too. So as my man Horace used to say way back in the Latin Day...Dig It Diem!