Bay Area Jazz & Blues

Today, Yoshi’s, 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland (510-238-9200), is considered the best jazz club in the country by most of the locals and the traveling musicians who play there. Set like a miniature Hollywood-in-the-Thirties nightclub (tiered, theatrical seating, proscenium stage, excellent lighting), the club over the years has presented artists from Oscar Peterson to Bobby Short, Diana Krall to Charlie Hunter. McCoy Tyner gets two weeks annually. Roy Hargrove, Dave Douglas, Poncho Sanchez, Bobby Hutcherson .... the list is encyclopedic.

Yoshi’s is open every day, with occasional Sunday matinees (kids OK) that feature the same performers as the nighttime stars. The adjoining Japanese restaurant, for which the club was named, is first rate; short orders from the restaurant are available in the club.

In November 2007, Yoshi's opened a second jazz club and restaurant 1 in the heart of San Francisco's Fillmore district (1330 Fillmore) with club seating for 420.

A strong, recent movement to restore the city’s Fillmore jazz district gave birth to the late John Lee Hooker’s 2 Boom Boom Room (Fillmore and Geary; 673-8000), where you can hear all manner of loud, electric blues and, occasionally, good traveling jazz-blues bands. The crowds are predominantly white, young, exuberant, and the headliners come on very late.

3 Rasselas Jazz Club (1534 Fillmore; 346-8696) is a storefront in what used to be the Booker Washington Hotel, where every traveling black band — including Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Cab Calloway — stayed. Ethiopian food, music nightly and open mike on Mondays.

5 Biscuits & Blues (401 Mason St.; 292-2583) is a great room for blues and jazz and feels like a real city joint. It’s smack in the midst of the downtown theater district, near Union Square, elegant shops, but it remains a funky joint. Surprisingly good food, lotsa beer and booze, and top-of-the-line blues.

6 The Saloon (1232 Grant; 989-7666), opened in 1861, remains a classic blues and booze saloon. There were times when the likes of Boz Scaggs, Steve Miller, Janis Joplin and John Cipollena jammed away the night at The Saloon, occasionally joined by the late Chronicle columnist Herb Caen on drums. A small joint, always jammed; a few bar stools and lots of heavy electric blues. Not recommended for the faint of heart.

In an earlier Mission District era, 7 Savanna Jazz Club (2937 Mission St.; 285-3369) was the Voodoo Lounge, with louder, electric blues-rock music. Still rather funky, as a jazz venue it presents local talent with some outstanding vocalists. Dinner, drinks, lively.

8 Elbo Room (647 Valencia; 552-7788), like Bruno’s, has long presented a mixed bag of music — sometimes being the jumping-off spot for big names such as Charlie Hunter and Mingus Amungus. A young, noisy crowd, electric sounds mostly, but good sounds usually, and certainly a way to forget the outside world around you.

9 Shanghai 1930 (133 Steuart St.; 896-5600) has a nice, vintage basement setting with a fine restaurant, bar and music alcove where local jazz favorites play. Pianist Larry Vuckovich used to hold forth here, and many a singer has worked the room.

10 Les Joulins Jazz Bistro (44 Ellis St. at Powell; 397-4436) has become a favored jazz-jam spot for local musicians such as Bishop Norman William, Larry Douglas and Charles Unger. Dinners from 5:30, music starts at 8 p.m. Open late. Close to Union Square, hotels and theaters.

NEXT