By Murray Schneider, Glen Park News
With the Dave Parker Quartet taking a well-earned set break Friday night at Bird and Beckett, Jimmy Ryan stepped onto the stage and pitched a cultural event that will bring two San Francisco neighborhoods together for a night of music and film.
On May 19th, Jimmy, who has been a fixture at Bird and Beckett for a decade performing his patented jazz drum riffs on the second Friday of each month, will take his Balboa Be Bob Band to the Balboa Theater for an evening of jazz that will segue to a viewing of the film “Jazz on a Summer’s Day.”
Standing before an audience of 35 Bird and Beckett jazz aficionados, Jimmy spoke to the cultural connectivity between the two neighborhoods.
“This is an opportunity to bring together two indigenous art forms, jazz and film,” he said.
Jimmy’s band, which includes his son, Joel, will perform at 7 p.m., with the classic 1959 documentary that features giants of the jazz world such as Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, George Shearing, Gerry Mulligan, and Dinah Washington following immediately afterward. The Newport Jazz Festival documentary, depicting the festival from day to night and from jazz to gospel, intercuts shots of jazz greats with the scenic Newport Harbor.
“Bird and Beckett is proud,” said bookstore owner Eric Whittington, “to lend its star drummer’s gospel to another neighborhood.”
Always generous, Whittington is supporting this inter-district event by offering gift certificates to Bird and Beckett, as well as “paying the band” out of pocket.
For tickets and information:
Jimmy Ryan (415) 307-3051 or bbopjazz@yahoo.com
Balboa Theatre (415) 221-8184 or www.balboamovies.com 3630 Balboa Street (at 38th Avenue).