San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
MEDICAL CENTER, SFJAZZ GET SWINGING
Hospitals are not always places of joy. But a rollicking progressive party broke out Feb. 7 on all 11 floors of the sparkling, new California Pacific Medical Center on Van Ness, where supporters, doctors and staff celebrated the hospital’s $2.3 billion state-of-the-art campus.
Live music, cocktails, food stations, a mixology lab and beer garden were featured at the fun-filled See the Future gala that drew 600 guests. Tickets started at $500 then quickly rose like a fever to $10K or $50K, which allowed access to the top Tiffany-sponsored VIP floor, where guests sipped Dom Perignon while the jeweler commemorated the occasion by engraving silver baubles.
But everyone had access to wireless watches synced to wall panels guiding explorers on “high-tech, high-touch” tours and interactive demonstrations of CPMC’s medical advances like its Da Vinci robot or the labor-simulation station.
The roster of glittering gala chairs was stacked with stalwart CPMC supporters. And though it’s long, it’s definitely printworthy. So bravo and brava to: CPMC Foundation chairman Sloan Barnett and trustees Carol Bonnie, Dr. Carolyn Chang, Gail Glasser, Allison Speer, Pia Cohler, Lisa Lenzo, Brad Defoor, Jacqueline Sacks and Ken Novack.
“I’m incredibly lucky to be in this position during this incredible era in the history of CPMC,” enthused hospital CEO Dr. Warren Browner. “For over 150 years, CPMC has served the people of San Francisco, helping them live healthier lives. Our new state-of-the-art facilities at Van Ness and Mission-Bernal represent a huge leap in that mission.”
Naming rights are a great fundraising tool. And CPMC attracted deep-pocketed donors who shelled out big bucks for wings, the ER and gardens along with anonymous patronage: including Roger Barnett and his wife, Sloan; Mimi Haas; Randi and Bob Fisher; Jan and Maria Manetti Shrem; Dr. Harvey Glasser and
his wife, Gail; Caren and David Edwards; Pamela and Ted Deikel; Elizabeth Peters; Ken and Debby Novack; Mary Beth and David Shimmon; Michele and Shelby Notkin; and Denise Hale, who funded a waiting area in honor of her late husband, Prentis Cobb Hale, and her medical hero, Dr. Laurie Green.
Two of the hospital’s most important spaces are named for late champions of medicine and gourmet retail: the private physicians’ dining room is named in honor of the Dr. John N. Callander. And say goodbye to dreary hospital cafeterias when you step into the sleek, sun-filled Chuck Williams Cafe.
“This is a community hospital, for everybody. Right across the street are our medical offices accessible by a tunnel beneath Van Ness,” marveled Tony Wagner, a retired health executive and ex officio CPMC foundation trustee. “But it’s also beautiful: A guest said she was planning to get sick just so she can check in here.” Cha-cha-cha: When an old-school Catholic hears the word invocation, a waft of incense comes to mind. But that word had a secular, swinging definition at the Jan. 31 SFJazz Gala when honoree Chucho Valdes joined other musicians onstage in the Robert M. Miner Auditorium — and their opening “invocation” morphed into a joyful jam of sizzling salsa.
This beloved annual fete raised $1.2 million for SFJazz’s artistic and education programs that serve more than 23,000 San Francisco and Oakland students at public middle schools.
Led by a stellar host committee starring a lot of Swigs (including gala cochairs Darian and Rick Swig sons, post-party chairmen Benjamin Swig and Adam Swig), big-ticket patrons first partook of cocktails, canapes and a Paula LeDuc dinner.
“Whenever I walk in this building, I get chills,” said Rick Swig, a longtime SFJazz supporter, photographer and advocate for Cuban artists. “When you talk about legends, no one would argue that Chucho and Omara Portuondo are the most important living musicians in Cuba. And they’re both here, tonight, at SFJazz.”
Seven hundred more fans joined the concert where SFJazz Artistic Director Randall Kline presented the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award to pianist-composer Valdes, a six-time Grammy winner and king of the Cuban music scene.
Chucho was joined onstage by other jazz royalty, including Dianne Reeves, Corinne Bailey Rae, Stefon Harris, Andre Hayward, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, SFJazz’s Collective and All-Stars Big Band.
The crowd hooted and hollered along but you could hear a pin drop when 88year-old Portuondo, a member of the Buena Vista Social Club, expertly crooned a heart-stopping rendition of her song, “Besame Mucho.”
But as the cheering crowd exited, a nonmusical royal was mobbed like Lady Gaga: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who cheerfully posed for numerous selfies as her security kept a close eye on our nation’s third-ranking politician.
Since founding SFJazz 36 years ago, Kline admits he’s no longer starstruck by the famous musicians he works alongside.
“I’m just a sucker for the music, especially this whole idea of the Caribbean basin being the birthplace of jazz. I deeply respect what these artists do for their craft,” he said. “But I am a bit starstruck tonight by having Nancy Pelosi in our house. Watching her these last few months is like these musicians: Her entire life, she’s worked her ass off her for her craft. She is not just a politician anymore — like Chucho, like Omara, Nancy is a hero.”
Catherine Bigelow is The San Francisco Chronicle’s society correspondent. Email: missbigelow@sfgate.com Instagram: @missbigelow