Mark your calendar now for: —Walker Brents III explores the radical politics of Romantic Era poet, artist and visionary William Blake on Wednesday, 11/25 –Tony Johnson’s 230 Jones Street Irregulars, w/Noel Jewkes, Jeffrey Burr and Eric Markowitz, play jazz from swing to bop on Friday, 11/27 — The New Squatoolas play New Orleans jazz & funk…

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…

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! Noel Jewkes, saxophone Jeffrey Burr, guitar Eric Markowitz,…

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 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 at this…

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 arrived at the first show of the current period, back on March 12th. The March 12th…

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…

Drummer Sylvia Cuenca brings pianist Peter Zak and bassist Essiet Okon Essiet to Bird & Beckett Saturday evening for two sets of jazz trio work. Sylvia’s career has included four years in the Joe Henderson Quartet and eleven years in trumpeter Clark Terry’s band. All three musicians are New York-based, in the midst of major…

A throwback to the great small jazz groups of the early 1960’s, the Sanders/Larson Jazz Quintet is a mainstay of the San Francisco jazz community, honed in countless nights on the bandstand of Club Deluxe and other great Northern California venues. The quintet’s sound and style is rooted in the 60’s Blue Note era, the…

Sao Paolo-born Liza Silva with her band Voz do Brasil has supercharged the Sunday night revels at Haight Street’s Club Deluxe for more than a decade, creating magic week after week. That’s been on pause for reasons of which you’re well aware, but performing tonight with her long-time colleagues Ray Scott on guitar, Alex Baum…

Jose Simioni came out to San Francisco from Washington D.C. for a couple of days a couple dozen years ago, with “a guitar, an amp, a sleeping bag and a few clothes” and figures he was playing The Saloon on Grant Avenue within a year or so. Since then, he’s played every imaginable venue in…

Multi-instrumentalist Jeff Sanford leads a talented quartet of merrie melodions at Bird & Beckett this Friday,  playing sublimely cheerful and deeply poignant music offered up in the face of our current time of massive smoky virusy political madness. Favorite standards and a few tunes Jeff has written this month! ~~ Links to the live stream…

Allegra Bandy – vocals Scott Larson – trombone Keith Saunders – piano Eric Markowitz – bass   Allegra Bandy and Scott Larson have been playing music together for over a decade in many different settings, from jazz standards, ska and reggae to big band soul.  As husband and wife, they share a love for playing…

Walt Whitman saw it coming!  The basic themes are nothing new, no less perplexing, no less calling for creative resolution. Imagine him saying now what he has already said:  “In politics–just as it is in religion–some people get an idea of the necessity of believing certain things, not so much from weight of evidence, out…

Joe Warner, piano James Wiley, bass Deszon X. Claiborne, drums Consummate piano trio work for today! Jazz in America, 2020 live streamed from Bird & Beckett Joe Warner, by dint of massive talent and tireless engagement in the art and beauty of jazz, has taken up permanent residence deep in the heart of America’s classical…

Take in the show this evening on YouTube  or  Facebook Donate to help us reward the musicians with a decent payday     DONATE     in challenging times and just ’cause they’re worth it! Jim Peterson brings guitarist Scott Foster and bassist Aaron Germain to Bird & Beckett tonight. Jim has played and taught saxophone…

Guitarist Scott Foster is joined by Adam Shulman on organ and Dan Foltz on drums, offering up two sets of music to bring you joy and uplift the spirit. Says Scott, “It’s clearly a time when we all can use a couple hours of uplift and a chance to lose ourselves in music that soothes…

Jinx Jones and Angeline Saris bring their jazz duo to Bird & Beckett. Both musicians are enthusiasts of the luxurious jazz guitar and bass duos of the hard bop and soul jazz era. This special event celebrates the instrumental stylings of artists like Grant Green, Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell, and Charlie Christian. Jinx and Angeline…

To order Margaret’s book, email us at [email protected] Margaret Randall, whose memoir  I Never Left Home: Poet, Feminist, Revolutionary was brought out this past March by Duke University Press, will focus for this talk on the just-released book My Life in 100 Objects (New Village Press), in which she takes an anecdotal excursion through items,…

  Transition Party!  Originally scheduled last May as a farewell concert after 35 years in the San Francisco Unified School District, this live stream performance will be a celebration-transition concert as John Calloway continues his work as an artist/musician as well as a 20 years-plus faculty member at the School of Music and College of…

MUSIC FOR OUR TIMES: Revisiting old jazz tunes that bring consolation, courage and conversation to our present time. Doug Goodkin (piano) is most well-known as a music educator, an internationally acclaimed teacher of Orff Schulwerk and teacher of children for 45 years at The San Francisco School. He is the leader of Doug Goodkin & the Pentatonics, whose…

Lyle Sheffler returns with a program including works by Alonso Mudarra, Manuel de Falla, Augustin Barrios, Dietmar Ungerank, Isaac Albéniz, Leo Brouwer, George Frideric Handel and Fernando Sor.   ______________________________________________________________________ Take in the show on YouTube  or  Facebook Suggested cover charge — $20 Please donate only what you can $2 to $200 sliding scale available!…