Sylvester's disco-illuminated dreams come true at the Opera House
In addition to our show recs, explore a set of contemporary classical recordings by Lara Downes asking, "What is American music?"
Today we’re grateful to share two very different but equally profound releases.
One is a document of a glorious moment in 1979 spotlighting San Francisco underground disco icon Sylvester, who like so many brilliant creative artists left us too soon (in 1988) due to complications arising from HIV/AIDS.
The other is a set of contemporary classical recordings by pianist Lara Downes (with connections to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music) revisiting and reinterpreting famous and mythological musical pieces about America.
Enjoy.
— White Crate
SYLVESTER IN GLORY
“I have no real projections except I want to play the San Francisco Opera House. I am—and I’m saying this—I am going to play the opera house! It’s going to be a fabulous show with a full orchestra, lots of costumes, lots of lighting and lots of everything. Lots! And whenever you think you have too much, you should put on more, just to be safe.” — Sylvester, in an October 1977 interview with The Advocate.
On the evening of March 11, 1979, Sylvester’s resolution came true. Previously released in edited form as the LP Living Proof on Fantasy Records, the complete two-hour event at San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House can now be enjoyed in its entirety thanks to a new release from Craft Recordings, Live at the Opera House.
It’s a dazzling set, with Sylvester performing many beloved hits—”You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”, “I (Who Have Nothing)”, “Dance (Disco Heat)”—alongside a full band, including Patrick Cowley on synthesizers and the singing duo Two Tons O’ Fun, later known as The Weather Girls. There’s fast and steamy disco, of course, but Sylvester also performs gospel, blues, jazz, and ballads that regularly stretch past the 10-minute mark as he sings, scats, and tells stories.
In addition to the tunes, the release is a document of an SF legend, with the recording capturing the moment when city supervisor and gay rights activist Harry Britt, acting on behalf of then-mayor Dianne Feinstein, joined Sylvester onstage to officially declare March 11th as Sylvester Day. Far from a rigid, bureaucratic ritual, the moment finds Britt emotional and laughing with joy as he reads aloud the formal city decree.
The recording is bursting with joyous moments like this, and despite the grandiose venue (far larger than the local spots where Sylvester first started), it feels like a personal, intimate celebration for friends and family. On “You Are My Friend,” he thanks his community for supporting him from the early days performing the Elephant Walk at 18th and Castro and squeezing in “our first rehearsal in a Volkswagen on our way to Marin County” to his growing stardom as he traveled the world. Yet he professes his determination to stay in San Francisco when referencing his visits to LA, New York, and Paris: “That was fabulous, but it ain’t like it is right here.”
— Ronny Kerr
AMERICAN (?) MUSIC
What is American music? A classical piano album is predisposed to inspire contemplation, but the perspective that Lara Downes brings to her work focuses on specific questions about what it means to be American. On her latest album This Land, by reinterpreting and reimagining “American” music such as Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and Paul Simon’s “America,” Downes uses her skill and platform as one of classical music’s most respected pianists to question colonialist and white Eurocentric ideas about America from within its own canon.
As a specific example, “Variations on This Land Is Your Land” takes the cheerful self-assuredness of the original tune and churns it into a complex, dissonant, and delicate meditation on whose land we live on, and what it means to tell and re-tell that story. Frequently collaborating with local ensembles SFCM Orchestra and the SF Ballet Orchestra, Downes is a Bay Area treasure, nationally renowned via her active performing career and as the host of NPR’s AMPLIFY with Lara Downes. This Land is out now via Pentatone.
— Ainsley Wagoner
SHOW RECS
Our top show recommendations for the coming week:
[punk] Marbled Eye, Dummy, Mo Dotti, Ambient Living — Sep 19 at Ivy Room
[punk] George Jr. & The 911’s (cassette release), Freak No Hitter, UFO Baby, Worm Saloon — Sep 19 at the Golden Bull
[experimental] Chuck Johnson (album release), S'hell's Gate, Katsy Pline (DJ) — Sep 19 at Thee Stork Club
[d&b] Shelter 17-Year Anniversary — Sep 19 at Underground SF
[experimental] San Francisco Electronic Music Festival — Sep 19-22 at Audium and the Lab
[rock] Green Day, The Smashing Pumpkins, Rancid, The Linda Lindas — Sep 20 at Oracle Park
[rock] Cass McCombs, Papercuts — Sep 20 at the Chapel
[house] Never Dull, 3kelves b2b Dylan C. Greene — Sep 20 at Audio
[gospel] Healing Through Song w/ The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir — Sep 21 at SFJAZZ
[rock] REAL NEATO ft. Agouti, Analog Dog, Cumbia Assassins, Fake Fruit, The Grease Traps, Mae Powell, Plovver, Skyway Man — Sep 21 at Rio Nido Roadhouse
[club] Fault Radio Moving Out Party — Sep 21 at 670 Commercial St.
[goth] Jock (EP release), Whine, Wife, Love Spiral — Sep 21 at Eli’s Mile High Club
[techno] NO BIAS x GENERAIDERZ ft. Swan Meat, Technopagan, Cel Genesis, and more — Sep 21 at F8
[house] ELEMENTS ft. David Harness, nina sol, Blu Moon, floridawtr — Sep 21 at Ra.co for tix & location
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