The murals at Jimbo’s
IT’S NOT EVERY DAY that a photo from the neighborhood is published in The New York Times. But today is that day. Alongside a review of Cosmic Scholar, a new biography of anthropologist/artist/filmmaker/mystic/music collector Harry Smith, is a photograph of Smith before one of the murals in the legendary Fillmore jazz club Jimbo’s Bop City.
Wikipedia confirmed: “The painter and filmmaker Harry Everett Smith painted the walls with abstract motifs and created a light show that ran to the music of Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk.” The entry added: “Admission was only $1, and musicians came in for free, but Jimbo Edwards always chose who he let in and who he did not: “We don’t allow no squares in Bop City. If you don’t understand what we doin’, then leave and don’t come back.”
Readers Respond
- Margaret H.December 28, 1969
Wonderful piece. I remember when the jazz clubs on Fillmore stayed open past two — this brought it all back. Thank you for keeping the memory of the neighborhood alive.
- David K.December 23, 1969
We've lived on Pine near Steiner for thirty-one years and it still surprises us how much this paper notices. Please keep going.
- Yuki T.December 15, 1969
A small correction — the mochi shop on Post opened in 1982, not 1985. My grandfather was there for the ribbon cutting. Love the coverage otherwise.
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