S.F. bids farewell to last all-jazz club

SAN FRANCISCO -- The last club to preserve the North Beach neighborhood's tradition of straight-up jazz late into the night jammed a last time.

Jazz at Pearl's, which offered homegrown jazz seven days a week, closed its doors -- but not before one last 12-hour session on the storied stretch of the Bohemian district it shared with strip joints, palm readers and Beat-generation landmarks such as City Lights bookstore.

"Jazz at Pearl's is about the music, and the people who come to hear the music," said jazz guitarist Bruce Forman, who played in the house band for 10 years. "It's committed to jazz, not dinner or whatever else happens in other clubs."

Even on its last night, the club's founder, 72-year-old Pearl Wong, had a firm handle on the 110-seat room. She swung easily around tables in the hot, crowded room while taking orders, greeting customers and chatting up the regulars she knows from a lifetime in the business.

"It was always hard, financially," said Wong. "I learned to do everything. Cook's out, I'm cooking. The cocktail waitress is out, I do that, and bartending, bookkeeping, whatever it takes."

The club lost its lease after 13 years and a heated back-and- forth with the landlord.

"Eventually I just threw up my hands," said Sonny Buxton, who has relied on his 50 years of West Coast jazz experience to book the club's acts. "There comes a time when you just have to let it go. I didn't expect to have tears flow, but they did."

Local musicians, jazz aficionados and big-name acts mingled for the final jam session Sunday night and Monday morning.

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