Keystone Corner

Introducing, the Keystone Korner Jazz Club. Located on Vallejo Street (and now transformed into a restaurant), it was first a blues club and then one of the most important jazz destinations in San Francisco and arguably, nationwide. In its heyday, the club hosted musicians such as Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon, Art Blakey and Bill Evans. In her 2012 book Keystone Korner: Portrait of a Jazz Club, Kathy Sloane calls the club the “World’s First Psychedelic Jazz Club.” What was so unique about the club, Sloane writes, was its informal, relaxed atmosphere: “People could go backstage and talk to the musicians, the musicians would come out front. The distance between performers and audience was totally permeable.”