Phil Elwood has passed away

[Christiern]

Sad news: Phil Elwood has passed away, followingsurgery that he was expected to survive. Phil was a mainstay on the San Francisco jazz scene, a person I always felt privileged to know. Here's the SF Chronicle's obit:.

PHIL ELWOOD: 1926-2006

Beloved Bay Area jazz and blues critic

- Joel Selvin, Chronicle Senior Pop Music Critic

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Phil Elwood, one of the best friends jazz and blues ever had, died Tuesday of heart failure, only four weeks after the death of his beloved wife, Audrey. He was 79.

As a critic for half a century, Elwood pursued a lifelong love affair with the music that began in the living room of the Berkeley home of Depression-era photographer Dorthea Lange, when he first heard a record by Louis Armstrong as a high school student.

"I wish I could go back and stand in that living room again," he said two years ago. "I'd remember exactly how it felt."

Elwood covered jazz, rock, blues and comedy, the entire panorama of nightlife, for the San Francisco Examiner beginning in 1965. He continued his career at The Chronicle after the two papers merged in 2000 and retired in 2002. He was an endless fount of jazz lore, an unflagging enthusiast of the music and a world-class raconteur blessed with an extraordinary memory.

He was also one of the first people to broadcast jazz on the FM dial. His weekly radio program, "Jazz Archive," began in 1952, when very few people even owned FM radios. His show continued on Berkeley's KPFA until 1996. "Talk about old school," said rock musician Huey Lewis, "he was a music lover. Imagine that. He actually loved the music. They don't make 'em like that anymore."

"Phil was the quintessential jazz critic,'' said jazz great Jon Hendricks, who lived in the Bay Area for many years and rubbed shoulders with Elwood at clubs and festivals around the country and the world. "Most jazz critics love the music, but Phil knew the music as well as loved it. He and Ralph Gleason hung in the clubs, hung with the cats. They were part of the scene just like the musicians. Phil loved it all, from Bunk Johnson to Louis to Bird, up through Coltrane and into the avant-garde. He was the complete critic.''

George Shearing, the great jazz pianist who knew Elwood for half a century, said: "We lost a very capable and musically savvy writer in Phil Elwood. He knew his craft and he knew his music. But beyond that, he was my friend, whose wit, loyalty and kindness knew no bounds.''

"Phil was an awfully good man," said rock musician Boz Scaggs. "It was always nice running into him at shows, mostly jazz and blues for us. I could always count on him for the historical perspective and some funny stories."

Elwood was born March 19, 1926, and raised in Berkeley, where his father was an agriculture professor at the University of California. He first saw Count Basie in 1939 from the balcony of Sweet's Ballroom in Oakland while he was still attending Berkeley High School. He used to ride his bicycle around to Oakland thrift stores and spend his paper route money buying old jazz 78s by King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton and others. Those discs were the beginnings of a legendary jazz record collection, which he stored in a serpentine basement in his North Berkeley home.

He also had an entirely separate career teaching American history to high school and college students throughout the East Bay, rising early to go to class after meeting post-midnight Examiner deadlines covering some nightclub show or rock concert. He also taught a famous history of jazz class at Laney College in Oakland that, over the years, was attended by many aspiring musicians and critics.

"I remember him coming into his Monday night jazz history class at Laney College in the mid-'70s," said Chronicle jazz writer Jesse Hamlin, "with a funky old record player and a old briefcase stuffed with scratchy albums, most without their jackets. He'd just start riffing and reminiscing and playing records, never referring to notes, for 90 minutes at a stretch. That music was in his veins."

"Phil was always there," said jazz vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, "He was the person on the scene. He didn't call somebody to ask what happened; he was right there to watch and hear for himself. Everything he wrote was his own personal experience. Even if he didn't write about it, he'd be there. He liked a lot of different musicians, and he was very proud to be part of the music world and proud of the people around him, and he made you feel proud to be part of it. It didn't matter whether he gave you a good review or a bad review, what mattered was Phil was there."

Over the course of his distinguished career, Elwood covered anything that moved on stage. In his 2002 farewell column for The Chronicle, he noted the breadth of acts he covered in just his first weeks on the job. "I reviewed Stan Kenton one night and Lena Horne the next," Elwood wrote. "I heard Charlie Byrd at El Matador, and Tom Lehrer at the hungry i; also Art Blakey, Chico Hamilton, Denny Zeitlin. Kay Starr, the Mills Brothers, Cannonball Adderley, Joe Bushkin and bassist Vernon Alley, and Duke Ellington at Basin Street West. My first seven weeks (21 reviews or features in print) ended Aug. 31 with a Beatles show at the Cow Palace that afternoon and Judy Garland at the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos that night."

One of his most famous reviews came when he caught an unknown opening act at a long defunct San Francisco nightclub called the Matrix and gave the young Bruce Springsteen -- appearing with his rock group Steel Mill -- his first major review.

After his retirement from The Chronicle, Elwood continued to write a column for the Web site Jazz West. In 2002, he received the Beacon Award from the San Francisco Jazz Festival and was the subject of a tribute concert, underwritten by See's Candies.

He is survived by his sons, Peter and Josh, both of Berkeley, and Benjamin of St. Paul, Minn.; his daughter Lis of Sierra City; and six grandchildren. No services are planned.

Chronicle staff writer Jesse Hamlin contributed to this report.

Edited January 11, 2006 by Christiern

[catesta]

Sounds like a real loss to the music world.

[AllenLowe]

he was a great guy - knowledgable and nice - a real loss -

[sheldonm]

...very sad! I spent quite a bit of time with Phil at the Chicago Jazz Fest this past September as I have the past few years. I tried to find him at Monterey this past year but for some reason, we just didn't hook up. Lots of great stories as he has covered every Monterey Jazz Festival plus many others. He also told me a great story about writing the forward to Jim Marshall's new book on Jazz.....guess he showed up to Jim's house to discuss the book, Jim didn't recognize him at first and pulled the door open with his gun out .....I guess Jim's crazy that way!!!!

I remember sitting at the base of the stage during the Chicago Jazz Fest a few years ago while it was raining and he asked me to shoot a picture of him writing with one hand and holding on to his umbrella with the other hand. He wanted to show his wife how hard he was working!!! I'll post that image if I can dig it out this evening.

Anyway, quite a shock to hear of Phil's passing, we've lost one of the good guys!

Mark

[Chuck Nessa]

One of the true gentlemen.

[sheldonm]

Here is an image of Phil I made in 2004. The original is in color but my scanner sucks so here it is in bw.

m~

Here's a better color version.

Edited January 31, 2006 by sheldonm

[BFrank]

I was lucky enough to sit next to him in a small club in the Mission District while enjoying the Sam Rivers Trio a few years ago. Very personable and friendly. I had seen him in clubs several times over the years, too.

Nice obit here - JazzWest - as well as his last column.

[BFrank]

SF Chronicle

- LEAH GARCHIK

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Because Phil Elwood, jazz critic for the Examiner and then The Chronicle, would have been 80 on Sunday, it will be Elwood weekend around here. At 1 p.m. Saturday, Yoshi's in Jack London Square is hosting a free tribute show of jazz artists, including Mike Lipskin, Kim Nalley, John Santos and Richard Hadlock.

KPFA, where Elwood began doing a jazz show in 1952, has proclaimed Sunday all his. The Yoshi's show will be broadcast, as well as classic Elwood shows and interviews, and (live) a Sunday night free musical celebration at the Great American Music Hall.

This 8 p.m. show will include jazz, rock, blues, folk and more, "the full breadth of Elwood's catholic taste,'' says Joel Selvin, who with Jesse Hamlin has organized it. An altar made by Rebecca Nichols Bivona will include some of Elwood's personal effects, including a letter from (pre-kidnap) Patty Hearst thanking him for getting her tickets to a Monkees concert.