Mose Allison

Today's San Francisco Chronicle's Datebook section has 2 interesting articles on music from the ongoing SF Jazz Festival, one, an interview with Mose Allison who plays this Thursday with bassist Bill Douglas and drummer Pete Magadini.

"I don't know what I've got going," Allison said from his Long Island home, his soothing Mississippi drawl still in evidence. "I used to tell a joke. Mose the singer and Mose the songwriter got together and said if we could just get rid of this piano player we can make some serious money. The fact is that I try to play jazz piano, and I keep at it, but nobody knows what my classification is. They ask me if I'm a blues person or a jazz person, but I don't consider myself anything. That's up to other people. I've never seen me, you know?"

Mose Allison performs with drummer Pete Magadini and bass player Bill Douglas at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. $24-$44. (415) 788-7353, http://sfjazz.org/.