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!
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, but here’s the short version: 9/17, 5:15pm: 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 Talks, a live stream – Walker Brents III on Alan Watts. 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…
Read MoreHere’s what’s in store for you through mid-October: 9/25 – Chris Carlsson presents Hidden San Francisco, 2nd edition. 9/26, happy hour show – Tony Johnson Quartet. 9/26, late show – Lisa Mezzacappa Five-Ish (Six). 9/27 – Darren Johnston’s Standard Issue. 9/28 – Jam session hosted by the Vince Lateano Trio. 10/2 – Featured poets Clive Matson and Karen Pierce Gonzalez + open mic. 10/3, happy hour show – Harold Carr Quintet with Bruce Ackley & Andrew Voigt. 10/3, late show – Chris Planas Trio. 10/4 – Vocalist Rhonda Benin & Quartet. 10/5 – CMC jazz combo + student-centric jam session. 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. And check the events calendar linked from the…
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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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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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Steven Lugerner, bass clarinet/baritone saxophone. Justin Rock, guitar. Ian McArdle, synthesizer. Michael Potter, piano. Alan Jones, bass. Mike Mitchell, drums. $25 cover charge; byob. Students, $10. For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733. With Urban Crawl — the third album from the SLUGish Ensemble — composer, reeds player and bandleader Steven Lugerner turns his gaze to the horizon with tunes marked by lithe, flowing lines and lush textures. With a rarified sense of balance, Lugerner has embraced his namesake gastropod, creating beatific SLUGish soundscapes unlike any other denizen in the jazz kingdom. Urban Crawl offers a bracing antidote to despair, angst and ennui. read more (and buy the download) here
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Anthony Wonsey, piano Billy Edwards, bass Minchan Kim, drums $20 cover charge (cash at the door, please); byob. Students, $10. Reservations, call 415-586-3733. Anthony Wonsey took his trio with bassist Billy Edwards and drummer Minchan Kim to Luanda, Angola in April to back saxophonist Steve Carrington for Unesco & ResiliArt’s International Jazz Day, 4/22/25. Now, the trio has arrived for a weekend run of shows around the Bay Area, starting with this date at Bird & Beckett. They played dates in Minchan’s Seoul, Korea, and soon will play clubs in Germany, another of Minchan’s stops in a budding career. Catch the trio with Carrington at Eve’s Lounge in Brooklyn on Thursdays. Anthony Wonsey graduated from Berklee College of Music in 1994, and worked with Roy Hargrove, Antonio Hart and their cohort. He later played in the bands of Carl Allen, Vincent Herring, Curtis Lundy, Buster Williams, Clark Terry, Elvin Jones…
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Eric & the In Crowd Go to the Movies on Friday 9/12 at 6pm – $20 donation appreciated, students $10, kids free. byob. Eric Shifrin concocts a combo on the 2nd Friday of each month, always a good natured affair to kick off the weekend. Greg Gotelli’s San Francisco Quintet is up Friday at 8:30pm, with Joel Behrman on trumpet, Tod Dickow on tenor sax, Matt Clark on piano, Jeff Saxton on bass and Greg Gotelli on drums, cooking in a hard bop vein. $25 cover charge; byob. Steven Lugerner’s SLUGish Ensemble plays Saturday 9/13 at 7:30pm. Steven, plays bari sax and tenor, and has a terrific band, with Justin Rock, guitar; Ian McArdle, synthesizer; Michael Potter, piano; Alan Jones, bass; Mike Mitchell, drums, playing his own compositions, derived from the terrain on which we sit. $25 cover charge for this six piece band, byob. Jim Bruno, Americana singer/songwriter–a singer’s…
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Berkeley’s veteran jazz ensemble, The Actual Trio returns to Bird & Beckett for an evening of original, spiky, whimsical, groovy and spontaneous music. Led by guitarist John Schott (T.J. Kirk, John Zorn, Steven Bernstein), the trio has just released its third CD, entitled “Spires.” Double bassist Dan Seamans (New Klezmer Trio) and drummer John Hanes (Henry Kaiser, Doublestroke, Russian Telegraph) are Schott’s long-time colleagues, forging a unique sound and telepathic trust over fifteen years of playing as a trio. Featuring a suite of pieces inspired by the famous Watts Towers in Los Angeles, the trio’s new record continues their devotion to making honest, heartfelt and carefully wrought music. $20 cover charge (cash at the door); byob. Reservations, call 415-586-3733.
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Three more awesome musicians on one stage would be hard to imagine. Craig, Essiet and Sylvia are long-time collaborators in jazz and make for a magnificent trio. Hope you can join us! $20 cover charge; byob. Students $10. Reservations, 415-586-3733.
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You never know who might drop in to jam… maybe you! Serious jazz players welcome. Audience, too!
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Can’t make it to Sacramento for the 10th Annual Hot Jazz Labor Day Weekend Jubilee? We have a premier New Orleans jazz duo for you Saturday, the 30th! Marc Caparone on trumpet, and singing, and Jeff Hamilton on piano, two highly regarded practitioners of the art of trad jazz from New Orleans’ Congo Square and Preservation Hall and many an offshoot, will entertain you with two sets of jazz sweet and hot! The New Orleans originators of jazz music steamed up from the Gulf Coast through the bayou and out of Dixie on the Mississippi riverboats to Memphis, St. Louis and Davenport, from which it was just a short hop to Chicago and on to Detroit and New York City… and the other distant metropoli, way out west to the territories, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle… Marc and Jeff promise a sweet and hot experience of that diaspora to…
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Kristen Strom, saxophone. Tammy Lynne Hall, piano. $20 cover charge; students $10. Call the shop at 415-586-3733 for a reservation. Byob. Tammy Lynne Hall has had a long and storied career in music, and is held in extremely high regard by her peers and her audience. We’re always pleased when she can work in a performance at Bird & Beckett, and particularly so in dialog with Kristen Strom, a fabulous voice on the tenor saxophone with experience wide and deep. You’re in for a splendid evening of music. Read more here: https://tammyhall.com/ and here: https://www.kristenstrom.com/
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Macy Blackman, piano. Bing Nathan, bass. Larry Vann, drums. $20 requested donation; students $10; kids free. BYOB. Call the shop for a reservation, 415-586-3733. Let the good times roll! Macy is a piano professor in the tradition of Professor Longhair, James Booker and Mac Rebennack, aka Dr. John, in a long line going back to Fats Waller and Jelly Roll Morton. He’s got a thousand tunes and a thousand stories. Bing and Larry are Macy’s long-time partners in crime who know just what to do to pull off whatever capers Macy might mastermind. Lots of great music in store for you, and a whole lot of gruff charm.
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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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To take our SURVEY, click here, and help the BBCLP get to know you better! As Duke Ellington always said, we love you madly...
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
