Collaborate to keep San Francisco safe, neighborhood by neighborhood, block by block, household by household, shop by shop; for our part, we’ll operate chiefly at the door until the tragedies subside and the experts & authorities let us know that the tide has turned in our favor again. We’ll be allowing in just a few…

Scroll down to read the posts for the shows we’ve mounted in the past seven-plus months, since the pandemic lock-down began. Every time you see the “load more” button, go ahead. It’ll stop offering you that option once you’ve arrived at the first show of the current period, back on March 12th. The March 12th…

Tonight, exuberant jazz from trad to bop with trumpeter Andrew Stephens, bassist Dexter Williams and drummer Carson Messer. Rooted in the Sacramento jazz scene, the three have long years in the music that belie their youth. Catch the show from the screen at the top of this website! That’s a brand new thing, so we’ll…

Just about now, we can all use an evening that takes us away from the pain of our times. Scott, Eric and Smith will give us that, and will attest to the promise of better times coming. Three fine musicians of long association, all familiar to Bird & Beckett audiences from countless jazz dates over…

Q. R. Hand was a hip & humble & towering figure among San Francisco poets for decades, since his arrival from Brooklyn in 1970. We’ve just lost him at age 83. San Francisco Poet Laureate Kim Shuck hosts a reading in tribute to Q. R. featuring a number of poets who knew him well.  …

Eric Shifrin, jazz pianist par excellence and free spirit, has gathered the In Crowd in the City’s saloons and salons for decades. Tonight, he’s bringing in Ollie Dudek on bass and Mark Lee on drums for two eclectic sets of jazz pearls, pop tunes and your occasional novelty number. Gems from Jelly Roll Morton to…

The remarkable young vibraphonist Dan Neville has just returned from a year-long immersion in Cali, Colombia. While he had arrived in Cali with plans to stay from January-March 2020, Dan found himself stranded in Colombia as the pandemic hit and closed Colombia’s borders. Dan made good use of the time overseas, traveling frequently to Colombia’s…

Jazz, Poetry & Afrobop! Avotcja with the Genius Wesley Trio Avotcja lives and breathes as poet, musician, musicologist, broadcaster, mentor of young artists, friend and colleague of countless others. With her programs on KPOO (La Verdad Musical) and KPFA (Bebop, Cubop and the Musical Truth), she’s exhibited for decades her deep connection to Afro-Caribbean, African…

Larry Vann, the Groove Merchant, brings his long-time working trio, with Michael Warren on bass and Tim Landis on guitar, for 90 minutes of jazz, soul, blues and funk. Larry has performed with Curtis Mayfield, Elvis Bishop and Charlie Musselwhite, among a raft of superstars, and he’s played the Bird & Beckett stage many times,…

Kalil is one of the most riveting jazz vocalists to come along in a generation. He was raised here in the Bay Area on Nigerian Afrobeat and Highlife music, classically trained for the world’s opera stages, then spirited into a world of jazz, enraptured by the jewels of melody, rhythm and eloquence of the bountiful…

Joshua Raoul Brody has a half hour of song for you from the Bird & Beckett stage from 11:45pm to 12:15am tonight to ring out the old year and bring on the new! Don’t fret if you just need to bury your head under your pillow tonight. It will be up for viewing the next…

Master guitarist Duncan James,  harmonically sophisticated and always swingin’, has played jazz on our stage countless times in the last couple of decades. He returns to Bird & Beckett for his traditional last-Sunday-of-the-year-booking, this time with Carla Kaufman on bass and Benny Watson on piano.   Tune in this evening at 7:30 pm on Facebook…

Wednesday 12/16 at 7:30pm, Walker Talks! Catch Walker Brents III, the store’s resident mythologist philosopher poet, holding forth on the gift of truth. Lewis Hyde’s book, The Gift, is the inspiring text here, with Truth the enriching theme, like an intuitive moral compass. Clean simple spare lines betokening beautiful proportions, inwardly sensed, like Shaker furniture…and…

Live jazz from the bookshop every Friday since 2002! Tonight, jazz vocalist Kalil Wilson celebrates the holiday season with the Genius Wesley Trio Kalil Wilson, vocal Luis Peralta, piano Isaac Coyle, bass Genius Wesley, drums In less than a decade, vocalist Kalil Wilson has become one of the most potent and promising young vocalists of…

Bird & Beckett’s Grants Coordinator Jenna Littlejohn hosts Third Parent Family and Youth Services co-founders Daveea Whitmire and Whitney White in a benefit to raise funds for Third Parent, an organization putting its current emphasis on delivering free meals and other support to families during the Covid-19 pandemic, with a broader goal of providing help…

Join us for a celebration of this Season of Love, with two wonderful musicians in close collaboration on the bookshop stage. Share an evening with vocalist Kalil Amar Wilson and pianist Javier Santiago, two master musicians joining together to present a Holiday program wrapped up just for lovers. Children of all ages are invited to…

We’re excited tonight to present a blazing and soulful 90-minute preview of the shape of Glen Park jazz to come, as the Simon Rowe Organ Trio, with Dave Mac Nab on guitar and Tony Johnson on drums, holds forth from the bookshop stage! The trio draws on the work of organ legends Melvin Rhyne and…

Jim Peterson, saxophone Scott Foster, guitar Joe Kyle, Jr., bass Larry Vann, drums The New Squatoolas return to Bird & Beckett with their high spirited survey of the New Orleans jazz & funk scene of the 1970s and 1980s. Catch the show on Bird & Beckett’s Facebook page or YouTube channel. $20 suggested donation / pay what you can…

Tony Johnson — regular drummer for Bird & Beckett’s 4th Friday anchor group the 230 Jones Street Local 6 Literary Jazz Band (aka, the Chuck Peterson In Absentia Band) — leads the Jones Street Irregulars tonight through a tight & swinging 90-minute set of bebop & standards! Bob Kenmotsu, tenor saxophone Jeffrey Burr, guitar Eric…

William Blake is a towering and somewhat mystifying figure of the 18th Century Romantic Era in England, well known if scarcely understood for his visionary and unfathomable etchings and poetry. In parallel with his great artistic expression is a political sensibility that is at once timeless and immediate. Walker Brents III, in another of his…

Andrew Speight – alto sax Keith Saunders – piano Essiet Essiet – bass Sylvia Cuenca – drums Bebop & Standards                 Catch the show on Bird & Beckett’s Facebook page or YouTube channel. $20 suggested donation / pay what you can at this link you can also simply go to PayPal…

Scott Foster, guitar David Boyce, saxophones Cairo McCockran, drums   Guitarist Scott Foster has been a keystone of the Bird & Beckett jazz scene since it started in 2002. Every third Friday he puts together a fresh aggregation to explore and celebrate another rich vein in the jazz gold mine.   Tonight, the trio promises…

Two sets of standards and originals from four premier Bay Area jazz talents Erik Jekabson, trumpet Dave Mac Nab, guitar John Wiitala, bass Hamir Atwal, drums Catch the show on Bird & Beckett’s  Facebook page or YouTube channel. $20 suggested donation ~~pay what you can ~~ at this link you can also simply go to PayPal and send…

Lucky us! Catch the show on Bird & Beckett’s Facebook page or YouTube channel. $20 suggested donation / pay what you can at this link you can also simply go to PayPal and send your donation to [email protected] or use the Venmo app on your smartphone and send to @birdandbeckett your generosity allows us to guarantee a “fair” wage…

The Americano Social Club reminds you to wear your mask, and minimize your riskier impulses… they do the same… but remind you also that you’re free in your hearts and souls, and for the very lucky ones, in the company of your very significant others… they’re pleased to offer up their music for the present…