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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]
Talk, Jazz, Jazz, & Jazz, <br>then, More Talk & More Jazz! _____ Thursday, March 19, 7:30pm – livestream only Walker Talks…on Sufi poet Hafez _____ Friday, March 20, 6:00pm Mutant Audio with David Boyce {$20} _____ Friday, March 20, 8:30pm Amendola / Knudsen / Muntz {$20} _____ Saturday, March 21, 7:30pm Vernaculars play Sonny Sharrock’s Ask the Ages {$25} _____ Sunday, March 22, 5:00pm Shakespeare Dharma: A Queer Journey through the Truth & Refuge of Shakespeare’s Verse _____ Sunday, March 22, 7:30pm Ralph Alessi Quartet on tour {$25} _____ Reserve a seat by calling the bookshop at (415) 586-3733. We’ll hold your reservation until the music starts. No advance ticket sales; plan to pay with cash at the door, and byob. Student price $10; kids free, unless otherwise noted. _____ MORE DETAILS: Thursday, March 19, 7:30pm Walker Talks…on sufi poet Hafez Walker Brents III considers _____ Friday, March 20, 6:00pm…
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Hafez, the global poet, keeper of spinning planets in their places, dweller upon the threshold of taverns. Hafez, the one of one mind with the one mind of all. Hafez, who loses himself in the true self. Hafez lived in Shiraz at the same time as Chaucer lived in England. His command of the intricate poetic form known as the “ghazal,” within which he compressed, like open secrets, the elusive signs and concepts of God’s hands and God’s eyes, is one-of-a-kind, in terms of world literature. There is also Hafez the Sufi saint. Well, not a saint exactly, though there are plenty of them. More like a “rend” which means a mystic libertine, denouncing insincerity while gripped with all the perplexities that bedevil us, the common people, for whom he has made oracles. Oracles and intricate simplicities. For us. Walker Brents III explores these aspects of the poet Hafez. Catch…
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Exploring the tonal and atonal universe on a daring journey into the unknown. $20 suggested donation / byob. Students $10. Kids free
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Kasey Knudsen, saxophones Mat Muntz, bass Scott Amendola, drums $20 cover charge (cash at the door, please) / byob. Students $10. For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733. __________________ “Nobody fuses like Scott Amendola – he’s not pandering, he just loves to rock, and freak out, and write actual tunes, and improvise, and devise a space where great musicians can explode.” Greg Burk, metaljazz.com “Amendola’s music is consistently engaging, both emotionally and intellectually, the product of a fertile and inventive musical imagination.” Los Angeles Times “If Scott Amendola didn’t exist, the San Francisco music scene would have to invent him.” Derk Richardson, San Francisco Bay Guardian “Amendola has complete mastery of every piece of his drumset and the ability to create a plethora of sounds using sticks, brushes, mallets, and even his hands.” Steven Raphael, Modern Drummer “…drummer/signal-treater Scott Amendola is both a tyrant of heavy rhythm and an electric-haired…
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Encore: Vernaculars Plays Sonny Sharrock’s Ask the Ages Karl Evangelista, guitar David James, guitar Francis Wong, sax Chris Trinidad, bass Jimmy Biala, drums $25 cover charge (cash at the door please) / byob. Students $10. For a reservation, all the bookshop at 415-586-3733. Fresh from an SRO performance at The Back Room in Berkeley this past weekend, Vernaculars convenes at Bird & Beckett for an encore performance of “Ask the Ages,” the final album by legendary free jazz guitarist Sonny Sharrock. In a departure from other live versions of this recording, this evening will feature a twin-guitar frontline: local firebrands Karl Evangelista and David James. Bassist Chris Trinidad, drummer Jimmy Biala, and renowned saxophonist Francis Wong complete the quintet. Vernaculars is a collective ensemble of Bay Area-based artists pushing the language of Filipino American music, Asian American jazz, and avant-garde concepts into the future. The group draws inspiration from…
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Shakespeare Dharma recounts Matthew Perifano’s rich and strange journey with Shakespeare that began with a reading group that approached Shakespeare as mind/body practice rather than as theater. Eventually, this reading group would form Birnam Wood Musical Shakespeare Co. and Matthew would discover his facility for setting Shakespeare’s verse to music. As Matthew became more knowledgeable about Buddhist Dharma, he discovered connections between Buddhist teachings and the truth about human nature and human existence to be found in the plays and sonnets of Shakespeare. Certain passages have become like sutras to him which he is happy to share with you. Ultimately, on a most profound level, Shakespeare became a refuge of solace and healing during the darkest days of the AIDS epidemic.
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Ralph Alessi, trumpet. Adam Benjamin, piano. Richard Giddens, bass. Mark Ferber, drums. $20 cover charge (cash at the door, please). BYOB. Students, $10. Trumpeter Ralph Alessi–ECM recording artist and acclaimed instrumentalist, composer, and educator known for his distinctive and innovative approach to jazz improvisation and composition–returns to his Northern California roots, on tour out of NYC. He’s travelling up and down the California coast and into the central valley with a purpose-built quartet. Pianist Adam Benjamin, based in New Orleans, is on faculty at University of Nevada, Reno; while bassist Richard Giddens, born in Fresno, headed to NYC at age 17, built a career in jazz and is Director of Jazz Studies at Cal State Fresno and drummer Mark Ferber, raised in Moraga, works out of Brooklyn and Los Angeles. Ralph Alessi was born in 1963 in San Rafael and raised there in a musical family. His father, Joseph Alessi,…
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Although the bookshop is typically closed on Mondays, we’ll be open Monday, March 23rd for two events that hold great meaning for us. Dan Richman — a poet and musician, a philosopher of the human spirit and the natural world, a toiler in the earth, an activist in the preservation of wetlands and bird habitats, a good friend — passed away a few months ago. Family and friends will host a gathering in the bookshop at 2pm on Monday the 23rd to honor Dan and celebrate his time among us. In the first year of our shop, 1999, Dan and two fellow poets inaugurated a quarter century of readings that have become a tradition at Bird & Beckett. Over the years, on many occasions he presented plays, prose and poetry and played classical guitar here. We’ll always miss him and are richer for having known him. Please join us. At…
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On March 5th, 2007, a car bomb destroyed blocks of a street in Baghdad with a history dating back to the 8th century as a site where booksellers displayed their wares and people gathered to exchange ideas. The street has since been repaired, rebuilt and reopened. The world remains besieged by violence. Memory and culture persist. At 5pm Monday the 23rd, we will honor the human spirit that prevails in the face of unspeakable horror, with poets gathering to commemorate the anniversary of a juncture in the Iraq war that presaged the current horrors bedeviling humanity.
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An Evening with Poet Kim Addonizio & Danny Caron, guitar, with Peter Barshay, bass A WORDPlay Benefit for Options Recovery Services Arts for More and Bird & Beckett present an intimate evening of poetry and music with acclaimed writer Kim Addonizio, joined by accomplished jazz and blues guitarist Danny Caron and bassist Peter Barshay. This special WORDPlay performance is a benefit for Options Recovery Services – Addiction Recovery in the Bay Area — supporting programs and organizations that provide critical resources, healing spaces, and second chances for individuals and families navigating recovery. Addiction touches nearly every community. Recovery is not a straight line. And art has long been a companion in that journey — a place to process, to feel, to remember who you are. Your presence helps strengthen recovery networks across the Bay Area and reminds us that healing happens in the community. Kim Addonizio is the author of…
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Drummer Tony Johnson’s residency at Bird & Beckett continues, this month with his quartet featuring Bob Kenmotsu on tenor saxophone, Keith Saunders on piano and Eric Markowitz on bass. Tony swam ashore from Australia in 1959 and hit North Beach swingin’. The singer Bev Kelly led a date at the Coffee Gallery in October 1960 with Pony Poindexter on saxophone, Flip Nunez on piano, Johnny Allen on bass and Tony, himself, on drums, recorded by Wally Heider, produced by Orrin Keepnews and released by Riverside Records as “Bev Kelly, Live at the Coffee Gallery.” Here’s a taste. $20 suggested cover charge / byob. Students $10; kids free. For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733.
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Charles Chen, piano Mikiya Matsuda, bass Benny Amón, drums $20 cover charge, cash at the door / byob. Students $10; kids free. For a reservation, call the bookshop at 415-586-3733 Classic 1940s-1960s piano trio, inspired by the likes of Ahmad Jamal, Clarence Profit, George Shearing, Errol Garner and many, many more.
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Here’s a little backstory, to get us to where we now stand… in re: the Fridays, anyway… Read on! And thanks for being part of the Bird & Beckett story in the present day. /s/Eric Whittington, proprietor, since 1999 Once upon a time, in the late spring of 1999, Bird & Beckett opened its doors down on Diamond Street where Manzoni now serves exquisite Northern Italian cuisine to the ravenous epicures who’ve found their way to Glen Park. We took on the nicely appointed 1,000 square foot space from the four-year-old Glen Park Books, and paid our rent to Manhal Jweinat, still to this day the crepemaster behind the counter of his kitty-corner coffee house, Higher Grounds, which he opens in the early morning before jamming across the street to handle his love child, Manzoni through the dinner hours. Amazing fella, and still a good friend, that Manhal! Within…
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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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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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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
