New Orleans in the Grove

Sunday, July 2, at Stern Grove, my friend Alison along with friends celebrated summer birthdays and each other to the sweet music of Geno Delafose & the French Rockin' Boogie who opened for Rebirth Brass Band.

If you weren't there you really missed it. Competition was stiff, I know what with the Fillmore Jazz Festival -- two days of free music, the Stern Grove Festival free and in San Francisco also, at Sloat and 19th Avenue.

You don't want to miss blues, gospel, and R&B legend Sister Mavis Staples Sunday, July 23, tenor Lawrence Browlee, tenor with the San Francisco Opera on Sunday, July 30; Ska Cubano on Sunday, August 6. There are free children's classes at Stern Grove Tuesday and Wednesday, July 11-12, 11-2, in Hawaiian Dance with Halau 'o Keikiali'i who perform Sunday, July 16. Visit www.sterngrove.org.