SAN FRANCISCO — In celebration of 80 years of the history and rich musical recording industry in San Francisco, the U.S. Postal Service will hold a Building Bridges ceremony at SFJAZZ, 201 Franklin St., during the Family Matinee with Linda Tillery & The Cultural Heritage Choir, Saturday, February 23, 2019 at 11:00 a.m.

A Building Bridges Music Recording History Postal Station will be on site where the public and collectors can purchase specially-designed souvenir envelopes with the newly issued Gregory Hines stamp and a special pictorial postmark applied. San Francisco Postmaster Abraham Cooper will be on hand to personally cancel the Hines stamp and pictorial postmark for presentation to SFJAZZ.

SFJAZZ is a recognized international leader in jazz creation, presentation, and education and explores the full spectrum of jazz—from the music’s origins in the African American community, to its diverse present-day expressions around the world. Through ensembles, such as SFJAZZ Collective and the SFJAZZ High School All-Stars, the organization supports the highest levels of composition, performance, and recording – both of these two ensembles record and release a new album on SFJAZZ Center stages each year.

The concert and ceremony will be livestreamed to the public via SFJAZZ.org/live, Facebook.com/SFJAZZ and YouTube.com/SFJAZZ. Members of the audience will receive the cache with the stamp and postmark as a gift from SFJAZZ.

San Francisco’s abundant music recording history and abundance of talent stretches back to 1938, when ethnomusicologist Sydney Robertson Cowell first recorded the folk songs of immigrants living in Berkeley, CA.

The illustration in the rectangle portion of the special postmark is illustrated by Aneka K. Bean under the art direction of Karen E. Lile, Art Director USPS – Building Bridges Special Postal Cancellation Series. The microphone is a contemporary recording mic found in many recording studios, but also represents the concept of recordings that began in Berkeley in 1938 with Cowell.

The piano in the illustration was part of the first Music Recording History series which began November 17, 2018 in Berkeley. The wall of windows in the illustration represents the SFJAZZ building.  The Building Bridges logo was created by Karen Lile and Kendall Ross Bean and was granted to USPS and Building Bridges in 1996 when the USPS-Building Bridges cancellation series began.

For further information on the concert, visit https://www.sfjazz.org/tickets/productions/family-matinee-w-linda-tillery--the-cultural-heritage-choir/.

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations

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