Saturday Sojourn

On Saturday afternoon, I stumbled across a political protest, an ecstatic dance party, and a cosmic jazz concert within one hour in three outdoor San Francisco locations, a reminder of why this city is still loveable despite its many faults.

Local advocates for gun control arrived in Civic Center Plaza at noon as part of a national March for Our Lives movement.

The recent Uvalde, Texas massacre at the Robb Elementary School made two things crystal clear: easy access to guns for anyone who wants one is insane public policy, and the police are neither good at protecting people nor really interested in doing so.

At the Trinity Place mega-apartment complex at 8th and Market a block away, there was Electronic Dance Music booming through Piazza Angelo, named after the recently deceased, infamous real estate developer Angelo Sangiacomo whose 1970s rent increases in his buildings were so rapacious that rent control in San Francisco was instituted in response.

The EDM dance party was in the middle of the Plaza surrounding the tallest sculpture in San Francisco, Lawrence Argent's 92-foot, swirling metallic take on Venus.

The event turned out to be a Clean & Sober EDM party put on by Daybreaker, a national organization that hosts drug-free, daytime dance parties (click here).

Further down Market Street, the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival was presenting a free Tribute to Alice Coltrane (1937-2007), widow of the legendary John Coltrane, and a brilliant performer/composer in her own right.

The players were a mixture of members from the East Indian musical organization, Brooklyn Massive Raga, and local Bay Area jazz musicians.

The music was gentle, meditative, absorbing, and absolutely beautiful. Guiding much of the melodic lines was tenor saxophonist Richard Howell...

...who was accompanied by jazz harpist and vocalist Destiny Muhammad.

Anchoring the ensemble was the 84-year-old bassist Reggie Workman who performed with both John and Alice Coltrane. Though I know little about jazz, it was obvious we were in the presence of legends.