Through The Years: SFJAZZ at Davies Symphony Hall

SFJAZZ has a long history presenting some of the world's greatest artists at San Francisco's coveted Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall. As we gear up for the first-ever "SFJAZZ at Davies" Series this Friday through Sunday (8/14-16), featuring back-to-back-to-back performances by Los Van Van, Buddy Guy and Jake Shimabukuro, we also take a look back at many of the memorable performances at Davies throughout SFJAZZ history...

Sonny Rollins

1997 San Francisco Jazz Festival

The Roots

2009 Spring Season

Kurt Elling with The Count Basie Orchestra

Spring Season 2010

Rosemary Clooney w/ Paula West

2001 San Francisco Jazz Festival

A Night In Treme

Spring Season 2011

Dave Brubeck Quartet & Gerry Mulligan Quartet

1994 San Francisco Jazz Festival

Ravi Shankar & Anoushka Shankar

2009 San Francisco Jazz Festival

Tony Bennett

2011 Spring Season

"We Love Joe" Festival

Joe Henderson & John Scofield

1993 San Francisco Jazz Festival

Buddy Guy

2011 Spring Season

Ornette Coleman Trio

2002 San Francisco Jazz Festival

Legends of Havana Piano

Ruben Gonzales & Band, Ibrahim Ferrer, Chucho Valdés Quartet

1998 San Francisco Jazz Festival

A Tribute to Ernesto Lecuona

Chucho Valdes, Gonzalo Rubalcaba & Michel Camilo

2015 San Francisco Jazz Festival

Photo by Bill Evans

"SFJAZZ at Davies" Series runs Friday, 8/14 through Sunday 8/16. Tickets.

PHOTO: Ornette Coleman - Through The Years

Ornette Coleman's world premiere of "Tone Dialing" at Masonic Center (1994)

This Thursday (3/13), SFJAZZ Hotplate honors the wildly innovative saxophonist Ornette Coleman, who turned 84 last Sunday! Bay Area saxophonist Howard Wiley has assembled a killer group, featuring Darrell Green (drums), Devin Hoff (bass), Geechi Taylor (trumpet) and Mitch Buttler (trombone), to recreate Ornette's defining album The Shape of Jazz To Come in Joe Henderson Lab. Although every Hotplate honors a great, this one in particular hits close to home. SFJAZZ has presented Ornette regularly since 1994. So we've dug into the archives and collected shots of Ornette over the past two decades!

2002, Davies Symphony Hall

A man of many instruments...

(Left: 2007, "The Master Maverick" at Masonic Center; Right: 2009, Davies Symphony Hall)

Grab a seat for Hotplate at sfjazz.org. See more photos of artists at SFJAZZ on Flickr. And check out a recent feature, "Sax man Howard Wiley: jazz should be sexy."