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653 Chenery Street in San Francisco's Glen Park neighborhood
Open to walk-in trade and browsing Tuesday to Sunday noon to six
phone: 1-415-586-3733 email: [email protected]
Keith Felton and Jessica Loos read new and recent work as the featured poets in our first Thursday of the month poetry series, a Bird & Beckett tradition dating back a quarter century. The reading and the following open mic are hosted and moderated by Jerry Ferraz and Michael Koch. Jessica, who cut her teeth with the Living Theater on the Manhattan’s Lower East Side, has been a central presence on the North Beach poetry scene for decades, well known as an organizer of events including the readings at North Beach First Fridays and the annual North Beach Festival. Bring 3 minutes of your own poems to read in the open mic segment. No charge, though donations are appreciated.
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Lewis Jordan, alto saxophone, poetry. Sandi Poindexter, violin. Ollen Erich Hunt, bass. Jimmy Biala, drums. with special guests Sean Norris, tenor saxophone, and Dave Shaff, trumpet. $25 cover charge / b.y.o.b. Students, $10. Cash at the door, please. With six musicians on the stage tonight, your additional donations are welcome and appreciated to augment the performers’ guaranteed wages and to fund student discounts. To reserve seats, call the bookshop at 415-586-3733. Lewis Jordan began Music at Large in 1976, dedicated to interdisciplinary and multicultural productions, with presentations incorporating music, theater, dance, poetry and visual art. Since that time, Music at Large has been a vehicle for producing musical performances of his own and others’ work, plays, and panels. At the core of Music at Large is the commitment to bring people together by bridging arbitrary distinctions that have only served to divide us from ourselves, as well as serving to…
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Leave the pomp and the madness of the 4th aside. Ned Boynton and Duncan James will satisfy your hunger for something real and beautiful, with Simon Planting and Bob Blankenship adding the necessary on bass and drums. A two-guitar quartet in the spirit of Duncan’s experience playing alongside George Barnes in Barnes’ quartet in the final years of the master guitarist’s storied life. Much as Duncan James learned volumes from intertwining his guitar with that of Barnes, Ned has taken the lessons learned from Duncan to carry the music on into a new century. Politics aside, the culture wends its way forward. $20 cover charge / byob. Students $10; kids free. For a reservation, call the bookshop at 415-586-3733. Born in 1921, at age 10 George Barnes was likely the first person to play an electrically amplified guitar — a Sears Roebuck Silvertone fitted with a pickup by his brother…
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Come out for our monthly “student-centric” jazz jam session! If you’re game to play, bring your instrument(s) and be ready to call a tune. The session will start after a short jazz set by this month’s session hosts, an octet from San Francisco’s Community Music Center. Just want to come out and experience the fun? Bring your ears and a little cash to help us pay the CMC combo. Jazz in the Neighborhood is underwriting part of the festivities to lighten the load, but we’ll need your help as well. Whether you’re coming to play or just to listen, you’re an integral part of the afternoon. The Community Music Center, with campuses in the Mission District on Capp Street and in the Richmond District on 30th Avenue, has been teaching students of all ages and income strata the pleasures, rudiments and intricacies of music across the genres for over a…
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The After the End of the World Coretet formed in San Francisco in the summer of 1989. All four member of the group are composers, long-time practitioners, and devotees of music to the core. This iteration of the group is the same as on the recording called ’13’, and features Annelise Zamula on saxophones and flute, Bill Noertker on bass, Dave Mihaly on drums and Jon Birdsong on trumpet. Some singing may occur, who’s to say? The set will be a mix of their original music and some choice covers. Jon Birdsong is visiting from his home in the EU, so this is an extraordinarily rare opportunity to experience the AEWC live and in person. The chemistry of these four together is singular and choice. Come hear this group, buy a book, talk to the musicians between sets. Soul and allure guaranteed. The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project, a…
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YIPPEE! I think I saw it move! Did you see it move!?!? Nancy Kurshan, a founding member of the Yippees and lifelong activist, is coming to Bird & Beckett with her new book.
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Plenty to look forward to the rest of the summer! Here’s the rest of July… July 10th: Eric & the In Crowd with Raul Ramirez, the tropical side of latin ‘n jazz popular song July 11th: S.E. Willis & the Willing – blues July 12th (happy hour): Joe Goldmark, pedal steel, with Mitch Polzak & the Royal Deuces – americana July 12th (late show): Freddie Bryant’s Kaleidoscope West Trio – jazz July 15th: Joel Eis, a talk with visuals: “Left off the Program: The Censored History of Labor Theatre in America, 1880-1940” – LaborFest July 17th: Scott Foster 3rd Fridays residency: Guitar madness! Myles Boisen and Scott Foster on guitars, with Lisa Mezzacappa, bass, and Eric Garland, drums. July 18th: Kristin Strom / Jhoely Garay Quintet – Brazilian July 19th: Peck Almond with the Vince Lateano Trio – jazz July 21st: The Diversity Principle…
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The posts that follow show you what’s come and gone. Search the videos on our youtube channel or facebook page to find evidence of what you remember, or what you missed! Then, make sure you catch the next thing that catches your fancy. The live streams are great, but live music in a room with folks you know or ought to get to know, that’s irreplaceable…
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Wednesday, June 24th — 7pm. no charge. buy a book! San Francisco Poets Ava Koohbor, Of Flesh and Frequency: A Poetics of Sound Making. Jessica Loos, Tambourine. Marina Lazzara, The House Begins an Alphabet. Music by Blind Van de Monk. _____ Thursday, June 25th – 7:30pm $20/byob Students $10. Tango No. 9 Catharine Clune, violin. Greg Stephens, trombone. J Raoul Brody piano & accordion. Zoltan diBartolo, tenor. _____ Friday, June 26th – 7:30pm, $20. Byrds of a Feather: Vampire President & Garden of Delights jazzreggae resistance & solution. David Byrd, sax & vocals. Toho Saunders, bass & vocals. Carlos Caminos, guitar. Eli Goldlink, keys. Jordan “J Bird” Davis, drums. _____ Saturday, June 27th – 7:30pm, $20. B3B4 – organ jazz classics and originals. Kevin Gerzevitz, organ. Tom Griesser, saxophone. Scott Foster, guitar. Dan Foltz, drums. _____ Sunday, June 28th – 5pm. donate! Jam…
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Tom Griesser, saxophone. Kevin Gersevitz, organ. Scott Foster, guitar. Dan Foltz, drums. $20 cover charge at the door. Cash, please! BYOB. Students $10. Kids free. For a reservation, call the bookshop at 415-586-3733. Reservations honored until show time. Doors open at 7:15pm. “For the sound of today’s organ combo, look no further than B3B4.” -Pete Fallico, KCSM Radio Host and CEO of Jazz Organ Fellowship. Four of our favorite players on the local scene have been thrilling audiences for years with their funky little combo called B3B4, offering a rich dive into the diverse and divine jazz organ repertoire built up in the 1950s & 1960s by the greats of the Hammond B3, including Jimmy Smith, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Jack McDuff, and, pictured below, Jimmy McGriff & Richard “Groove” Holmes, and mixing in tunes that seem tailor-made for the purpose — including some of their own. It’s a high standard,…
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David Byrd, sax & vocals. Toho Saunders, bass & vocals. Eli Goldlink, keys. Jordan “J Bird” Davis, drums. $20 cover charge, byob. Students $10. For a reservation, call 415-586-3733. Byrds of a Feather introduce their two fresh recordings, now in release: Vampire President and Garden of Delight. Vampire President aims to encourage resistance and a solution for the pollution of the current administration. David Byrd is unique in his penchant for infusing a heavy reggae vibe into his bebop and modal jazz, though just as often he stays right there in solid jazz territory, always with massive respect paid to the influences of Charlie Parker & John Coltrane, Eddie Jefferson, Gene Ammons, Sonny Stitt and the whole body of Chicago and Detroit players… He was born and raised on the musical mecca of 47th street in Chicago, where his uncle, Red Saunders was the drummer and bandleader at the famous…
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Once there was a bandoneon player named Isabel, all the emotional yearning of tango can be summed up in that memory, and yet the stirring of the spirit is strong and will not be quashed. There came along the dandy Zoltan. He gave heart and fortitude to the others, to Catharine whose sturdy palimpsest could again hold and quill inscribe anew an expansive melody of desire, hope, regret, exultation, to Greg, plosives opened by the svarabhakti vowel, the drop of water that opens the whiskey, to Joshua, an ocean of orchestration at his expressive command. Come back, Kamikaze. Come back to the living. Come to Bird & Beckett and live some more. Catharine Clune, violin Greg Stephens, trombone Joshua, J Raoul, Brody, piano Zoltan diBartolo, voice $20 cover charge at the door, cash please / byob Students, $10. For a reservation, call the bookshop at 415-586-3733.
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Jonah Hieb, trumpet. Brahm Sasner, piano. Isaac Coyle, bass. Guilhem Fourty, drums. $20 cover charge / BYOB. Students $10. For a reservation, call (415) 586-3733. Guilhem Fourty, born and raised in Toulouse, France and now based in NYC, is bringing a modern jazz quartet to Bird & Beckett to present his original music and arrangements of jazz standards. His quartet at Bird & Beckett tonight features two of Guilhem’s young colleagues on the New York scene, both with west coast roots: Jonah Hieb, raised in the Pacific Northwest, and Brahm Sasner on piano, out of the Bay Area city of Lafayette., On bass, we have the great Isaac Coyle, raised in the East Bay city of El Cerrito. Isaac is jamming out to Glen Park for this gig from another engagement (in fact, we hear this is his fifth gig in the last 24 hours), so we’ll start with a…
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Sunday, June 21st – 5-7pm. Sunday Happy Hour Show. The Smith Dobson Quartet. Smith Dobson, saxophone. Keith Saunders, piano. Eric Markowitz, bass. Tony Johnson, drums. It’s the Sunday happy hour show at Bird & Beckett, so bring something to sip and pay what you can. Bring a snack for yourself or bring some food to share. Stay for a tune, stay for a set, stay for the evening. $20 is nice, but you decide what it’s worth, and what you can afford; students $0 to $10, your call; kids free. This long-running combo under Smith Dobson V’s leadership held forth for years at the Club Deluxe on Haight Street. The Club Deluxe has just now reopened, but perhaps you haven’t gotten there yet to brave the enthusiastic and well juiced patrons? God love ’em! Get a taste in Glen Park, where you can recapture the magic — or capture it…
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Jim Grantham, tenor saxophone. Scott Foster, guitar. Ollie Dudek, bass. Omar Aran, drums. $20 cover charge / byob. Students $10 / kids free. For a reservation, call the bookshop at 415-586-3733. Bassist Don Prell, born in 1929, has passed at the age of 96. We’ll pay tribute this Friday to Don and his long-running band, SeaBop, when guitarist Scott Foster convenes a session with a few of the many SeaBop alumni who did serious jazz time with the irrepressible band leader. Don was a professional jazz musician from the age of 15, when he joined Los Angeles Local 47 of the American Federation of Musicians, requiring special permission to join because of his age. Soon, he went on the road with the Frank Ortega Band and along the way he played with prominent jazz musicians including Buddy Rich, Chet Baker, and Claude Williamson. In the mid-1950s, he was the bassist…
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SUPPORT BIRD & BECKETT - DONATE TODAY!
Your donation to the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project helps us pay for a multitude of operating expenses necessary to present, promote and preserve local music, poetry, and more.
Help us keep the arts alive and thriving!
The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project was created in 2007 "to present, document and archive the creative work of significant living writers and musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area, for a neighborhood audience and future generations," continuing the work we began when the store was established in 1999.
We continue to present a full slate of programming of live music and poetry readings, and produce a literary journal and poetry chapbooks, and we seek and welcome your continued financial support by way of donations.
Click on "donate" in the navigation bar above. Better yet, make a check out to the “Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project” and drop it off or mail it to:
Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project
653 Chenery Street
San Francisco, CA 94131
Call us at (415) 586-3733 to find out how else you might lend your support.
The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project
Our events are put on under the umbrella of the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project (the "BBCLP"). That's how we fund our ambitious schedule of 300 or so concerts and literary events every year.
The BBCLP is a [Read More ]
The Independent Musicians Alliance
Gigging musicians! You have nothing to lose but your lack of a collective voice to achieve fair wages for your work!
The IMA can be a conduit for you, if you join in to make it work.
https://www.independentmusiciansalliance.org/
Read more here - Andy Gilbert's Feb 25 article about the IMA from KQED's site
