This Saturday, September 3 is the world premiere of 'Blues in the City' by Marcus Shelby at the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival! Location: Esplanade, Yerba Buena Gardens, Mission Street, between 3rd and 4th streets. Time: 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. Free and open to the public. For additional information, visit: https://ybgfestival.org/event/marcus-shelby-blues-in-the-city/ Marcus Shelby is an iconic figure on the Bay Area jazz scene, and over the past 20 years the bassist, composer and bandleader has created extraordinary, historically informed musical settings for some of the Bay Area’s most exciting vocalists. His work has illuminated overlooked facets of the African-American experience, from the abolitionist movement and the Port Chicago mutiny trials to Negro League baseball. For his latest project Blues in the City he’s collaborating with San Francisco Poet Laureate Tongo Eisen-Martin and a stellar new ensemble of musicians, examining how San Francisco’s most vulnerable citizens–the homeless, the poor and BIPOC communities–have been drastically impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The original suite is keyed to Nina Simone’s directive that “An artist’s duty...is to reflect the times.”