653 Chenery Street
in San Francisco's Glen Park neighborhood
1-415-586-3733
[email protected]
Open to walk-in trade and browsing
Tuesday to Sunday
noon to six
Live Streams every weekend!
Refresh your browser to catch a show in progress!
Visit our Facebook page or YouTube channel!
But nothing beats being in the room with the music & the musicians!
Clive Matson’s roots in the beat generation go back to NYC in the early 1960s, and he’s been an important writing guru in the Bay Area for decades. We’re pleased to welcome him back to the shop with his recent collection, Hello Paradise, Paradise Goodbye. He’s a reliable link to the consciousness that bloomed from the cataclysm of World War II, significant as we enter a period of massive doubt that history will not repeat itself as parody or farce, but as a new cataclysm of profound loss and tragedy. The moment is dire. The Beats looked at a devastated world and plumbed its reality with all the creative tools at their disposal. The beat goes on. Clive is joined tonight by Karen Pierce Gonzalez. Just the titles of her book, Moon kissed, Earth wrought, Vision drunk (Bottlecap Press 2025), and her six chapbooks to include Down River with Li Po (Black…
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Bring $25 cash for the band. Also something to sip, if you wish. Until 5pm, you can call for a reservation — 415-586-3733. Seating starts at 6:45pm. Be prepared to huddle in the front of the store and browse the new releases until then! Waiting for your place at the counter at Le Cygale? Fine and good, but drop $5 in the bucket by the register for the musicians as a courtesy… Bassist Harold Carr has primarily been known as a sideperson (e.g., Lightnin’ Hopkins, Bobby McFerrin, John McCuen, Crystal Gayle, Steve Lacy). He is excited to share his compositions in this album release concert featuring long time friends Andrew Voigt (sax & flute), Bruce Ackley (clarinet), Flavia Cervino-Wood (violin) and Derek Coombs (piano). Harold has been musician/poet-in-residence at the Banff Centre in Canada, guest soloist at the Frutillar Music Festival in Chile, composer/soloist with the Guangdong Modern Dance Company…
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Chris Planas, guitar, Ben Luis, bass. Matt Willlis, drums. $20 cover charge; byob. Students, $10. For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733. Just catching a tune while waiting for dinner? Drop $5 in the bucket for the musicians! Guitarist and leader Chris Planas was a founding member of Hawaii’s world beat favorites Pagan Babies, a band that played Afro-pop, reggae, soca and Latin musics. Pagan Babies had 12-year residency at Anna Bannana’s with a regular mention in Fodor’s, produced well-reviewed cds and significant airplay for Chris’s tunes “Where’s the Party” and “Healing Rain.” The band performed in Papua New Guinea, Bangkok and California clubs such as Slim’s in SF and the Palomino Club in LA, and shared the stage with Black Uhuru, UB40 and Third World. Since then, Chris has been the bandleader for classic acts such as the Drifters, the Shirelles, Mitch Ryder, Mark Lindsay (of Paul Revere…
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Rhonda Benin, vocals. John R. Burr, piano. Ron Belcher, bass. Mark Lee, drums. $20 cover charge (cash at the door, please); byob. Students $10. Just catching a tune while waiting for dinner? Drop $5 in the bucket by the register for the musicians! All ages, wheelchair accessible. BLUES is jazz’s greatest influence. From the time when jazz evolved from the sounds of the Mississippi Delta a century ago right up to the modern jazz of today, the blues has been a benchmark for jazz musicians. Its influence on jazz from its inception to today cannot be explained by mere words alone; one has to hear their sounds to truly comprehend their meaning.” Vocalist Rhonda Benin has created AIN’T NO JAZZ WITHOUT THE BLUES, a musical experience to do just that!
Read MoreLots in store for you through Halloween! 10/2: Featured poets Clive Matson & Karen Pierce Gonzalez + open mic — by donation. 10/3, happy hour show: Harold Carr Quintet – $25 – with Bruce Ackley, Andrew Voigt, Flavia Cervino-Wood & Derek Coombs. 10/3, late show: Chris Planas Trio – $20 – with Ben Luis & Matt Willis. 10/4: Vocalist Rhonda Benin – $20 – with John R. Burr, Ron Belcher, Leon Joyce. 10/5: A Community Music Center jazz combo + student-centric jam session — by donation. 10/5, late show: L.A. guitarist Josh Gerowitz + 2 – $20. _____ 10/10, happy hour show: Eric & the In Crowd On the Town for Fleet Week. 10/10, late show: Pat Wilder & the Shakers Blues Band. 10/11: Ben Slater Trio. 10/12: Trouble Town – Americana music every second Sunday afternoon. _____ 10/14: Love Call. 10/16: Gus Hurteau Trio. 10/17, early show: Scott Foster…
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Here at Bird & Beckett Books, we’ve always relied on the kindness of neighbors and strangers to make it all work; and we’ve always found that strangers don’t stay strangers long! Your tax-deductible donations to our 501(c)3 nonprofit, the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project, FEIN 261906810, are the secret sauce. Book sales and cover charges at the shows are crucial, but only go so far to fill the cornucopia of culture that you’ll find here at Bird & Beckett! You can donate through our website using PayPal. Or if you prefer, you can drop off or mail us a check made out to the “Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project” — write “tax-deductible donation” in the memo line. Cash is fine if you prefer. Use your donor-advised fund if you have one. See if your employer offers a matching donation. You can also donate on a recurring, monthly basis…
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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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Ryan Ancheta is one of our favorite young jazz musicians. He made a good impression on veteran drummer Vince Lateano and his trio partners Peter Barshay and Ben Stolorow at the jam session about three years ago while still a student at RASOTA, and he’s come back on stage here many times since, epitomizing the kind of upcoming player who knows he’s got a lot to learn from the elders on the bandstand, listening and taking part in the musical conversation that goes on with every tune. Now he’s a couple years in at UC Berkeley, a data science major playing music whenever there’s a minute to spare from his studies. And he does find time to spare. He’s never left the music and the music has stood by him, nurtures him, for sure! Ryan has invited friends to play some music together on the 28th, and you’re welcome to…
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Bring your axe! Bring something to sip and bring a few bucks to help us pay the trio. Or donate to the nonprofit to really help us sustain the jam session. It’s not a high revenue situation, this jam session, but the tradition is crucial and the trio is crucial– they’re professionals, and they rely on jobs like this to help them pay the rent. From each according to their ability to each according to their needs. It’s the true American way. So is being generous with your talents The professionals have a lot to teach you, whether you’re a musician or a spectator. Some of it’s about the music and some of it’s about being human in a world where we need all the humanity we can hold on to. Oh, and it’s a whole lot of fun! The last Sunday of every month. You just don’t ever really…
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Darren Johnson, peace cannon. Kai Lyons, guitar. John Wiitala, bass. Lorca Hart, drums. $20 cover charge; byob. Students, $10. for a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733. An exciting prospect, this quartet! We said that before the date, and here’s our vindication: Darren Johnston has graced the stage at Bird & Beckett countless times (well, 28 times by our latest count) since guitarist Scott Foster invited him on board for a quartet date a decade ago, about two dozen of those occasions as a leader and collaborator in a variety of formations, dubbed variously Bye Bye Bartok, The Pipes, Locomotive Sunflower, Ghost Call, Tales End, Freefall, Swerve Control, Double Scorpio and this one, Standard Issue! When Darren Johnson’s Standard Issue last played Bird & Beckett, the four-piece combo was intent on playing “standards, a lot of them from off the beaten path.” Here they are back again, again with Kai…
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Aaron Bennett, saxophone. Kyle Bruckman, synthesizer. Brett Carson, piano. Mark Clifford, vibes. Lisa Mezzacappa, bass. Jordan Glenn, drums. $25-30 cover charge; byob. Students, $10. For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733. Bassist, bandleader and composer Lisa Mezzacappa has been assiduously and playfully exploring the concept of worldbuilding in the othrwrldly cycle, a suite of music inspired by her fascination with the speculative fiction of Ursula Le Guin, Haruki Murakami, Samuel R. Delany and David Mitchell— as a way to envision new kinds of musical interaction, storytelling, structure and play. Lisa is no stranger to big concepts, with projects that have been based on the hardboiled 1940s sensibility of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, the 1970s & ’80s fabulist playfulness of Italo Calvino and many other metamusical nourishments along the way. She’s always in the company of musicians game to embark and engage on whatever journey she wants to make,…
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Bob Kenmotsu, tenor saxophone. Keith Saunders, piano. Tomoko Funaki, bass. Tony Johnson, drums. $20 cover charge, byob. Students $10. Kids free. For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733. It’s been 65 years since Aussie Tony Johnson slipped into the country via Canada and took up residency in San Francisco. Tony immediately made his mark on the San Francisco jazz scene, recording a live album with vocalist Bev Kelly in 1959 alongside Pony Poindexter and Flip Nuñez at the Coffee Gallery on Grant Street, produced by Orrin Keepnews and engineered by Wally Heider, released on Riverside in 1960. Along the way, he’s gone on the road with Earl Hines, Peggy Lee and Swing Fever, and has consistently gigged all over town, without flagging. Tony was a long-time fixture in Smith Dobson’s quartet alongside Keith Saunders and Eric Markowitz at the Club Deluxe on Haight Street a couple doors from the…
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Hidden San Francisco has recently been issued in a second edition, which Chris Carlsson, one of San Francisco’s preeminent radical historians, presents to a Glen Park audience at Bird & Beckett on Thursday, September 25th at 7pm. With its roots in Shaping San Francisco and FoundSF, twin projects born in the mid-1990s, the first edition of Hidden San Francisco debuted in 2020, offering context and a road map for a deep exploration and celebration of San Francisco’s radical soul. That first edition, built on four major themes of ecology, labor, transit and dissent explored in annotated walks and bike rides to peel back layers of the city’s history, delved into the Bay Area’s long prehistory, examining the region’s geography and the lives of its indigenous inhabitants before the 1849 Gold Rush changed everything. It revealed a storied past told through the experience of the streetcar conductors, secretaries, ironworkers, labor organizers,…
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We’re closed Mondays, and reopen for the week Tuesday at noon, selling books & doing the usual. Noon to six, Tuesday to Sunday are the regular store hours. We’re here late several days each week, presenting events. This week, on Wednesday we begin a five-day run of literary and jazz events in the evenings — three book/literary events and four jazz dates. Detail follows below. Here’s the short version: 9/17, 5pm: Too Much Love, Stories of Mothering. A reading. 9/17, 7pm: Compassion Guy – a memoir-in-progress reading by Maria Breaux. 9/18, 7:30pm: Walker Brents III on Alan Watts – a livestream. 9/19, 6pm: The Scott Foster Trio with Noel Jewkes & Sam Bevan. $20 adults; $10 students; kids free. 9/19, 8:30pm: The Joel Behrman/Jesse Levit Quintet. $25/$10. 9/20, 7:30pm: The Harvey Wainapel Quartet. $20/$10. 9/21, 5pm: The Vince Lateano Trio. $20/$10/free. Just checking out the music? Pay if you decide to stay for…
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Jim Bruno, rhythm guitar and vocals. Jim Barnes, lead guitar. Andrew Sisco, bass. $20 cover charge (cash at the door, please), byob. $10 for students, kids free. For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733. Americana artist Jim Bruno has been called a “songwriter’s songwriter”. His songs have been recorded by numerous recording artists including Shawn Colvin, Chuck Prophet, Maurice Tani, Cliff Eberhardt and more. Sample the trio’s recent recording “Strawberry Moon” here. As a performing songwriter, Bruno has performed with or opened shows for Grammy Winner Shawn Colvin, Timothy B Schmidt of the Eagles, Graham Parker, John Gorka, Charlie Musselwhite, Joe Ely, Greg Brown, Mary Lou Lord, Steve Forbert, Bill Morrissey, Big Twist, and Cliff Eberhardt. He’s performed at the Greenwich Village Folk Festival, the Udine Folk Festival in Udine, Italy and has toured five times in Europe. He also played bass, guitar and sang in the Shawn Colvin…
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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.
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We're immensely appreciative of Jazz in the Neighborhood for having stepped in as our temporary fiscal sponsor for a few months, while we straightened out some paperwork to get nonprofit status restored to the BBCLP. We're happy to say that's been done, and all past, present, and future donations made directly to the BBCLP are fully tax-deductible!
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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
