Live Streams Every Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm, and more!

View them on our Facebook page or YouTube channel

Friday, March 31, April Fool’s Day & the Sunday hangover… Three (count ’em, only three!), ok, make that four Medium Huge Shows!
Jinx Jones Jazz Friday early, Charles Unger Jazz Friday late, Harvey Wainapel Jazz Saturday, Matthew Perifano Songwriter Sunday

Catch the Jinx Jones Jazz Trio at the Friday Happy Hour show, 5:30 to 8pm on Friday the 31st — and pick up a copy of his first jazz trio cd, magnificently recorded live at Bird & Beckett back when the thing was abornin’! Then scoot over to La Corneta to grab a taco and…

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Mark your calendar:
Tuesday, April 4th – 7:30pm
Dan Wilson Trio

Dan Wilson, guitar Brian Ho, organ Sylvia Cuenca, drums New York-based guitarist Dan Wilson, making a West Coast swing through San Francisco, worked extensively with the late Joey DeFrancesco, as well as with bassist Christian McBride. Tonight, he’ll be working with the fine Bay Area organist Brian Ho and his New York City colleague, the…

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Friday, April 7th – 5:30-8pm
Sebastian Pinillos Quintet

This evening, saxophonist Sebastian Pinillos brings The Odiaga Project, a quintet performing Afro-Peruvian folk music arranged in a jazz setting, incorporating native Peruvian instruments. Born in Lima, Peru but raised in the northern city of Trujillo, Sebastian took up the tenor sax at age 12, the flute at 18 and the clarinet at 21, and…

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Mark Your Calendar:
Tuesday, April 11th – 7pm
Lester Chambers and co-writer Tee Watts
celebrate Lester’s 83rd birthday and his memoir,
Time Has Come: The Revelations of A Mississippi Hippie

         

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Yes! Believe your five senses–
shows for in-store audiences
resumed in mid-June 2021,
and continue apace

Bird & Beckett’s events open to the public have been back since mid-June 2021. Mask up if you’re inclined, and do come in! (Not vaxxed? Please get vaxxed and be safer!) Jazz, poetry & more live in the shop and live streamed Come to 653 Chenery if you’re in town! Doors open at 7:20 for…

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O Pioneers of the Cosmostream! We’ve been vaccinating you against the plague of boredom and the scourge of demagoguery with live streamed events twice a week and more since March 2020, when it all came down!

Hungry to hear some of Bird & Beckett’s past live streams? On the home page you can scroll down to read the individual posts for the shows we’ve mounted in the past several months, a hint of what’s gone down since the pandemic lock-down began. In more amazing times, it would take you right back…

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Sunday, March 26th – 5-7pm
Jam Session with the Vince Lateano Trio

Vince Lateano, drums Peter Barshay, bass Ben Stolorow, piano All jazz players welcome to take the stage. Or just come to listen. No cover charge. If you can’t make it into the shop, you might be able to catch the live stream on our Facebook page or YouTube channel. If you do, your donations to…

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Saturday, March 25th – 7:30-9:30pm
The Lost Trio with Ian Carey

Phillip Greenlief, saxophone; Dan Seamans, bass; Tom Hassett, drums with special guest Ian Carey, trumpet. Originals and the likes of Bird, Monk, Ornette, Wayne Shorter… The Lost Trio, now celebrating 28 years of wandering through the landscapes of jazz, is excited to announce the latest chapter in their collaborations – this time with trumpeter/composer Ian…

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Friday, March 24th at 9pm
The Dewayne Oakley Blues Ensemble

Come out for the late set at Bird & Beckett, Fridays from 9-10:30pm! Kicking off nine consecutive Fridays of late shows after their fabulous Bird & Beckett debut in early March, bassist Dewayne Oakley and guitarist Ralph Nelson offer a gorgeous romp through a rich repertoire of blues, soul and jazz on March 24th. March…

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Friday, March 24th – 5:30-8pm
Tony Johnson Quartet

Shake off the workweek with a happy hour or two in the company of veteran drummer Tony Johnson and his merry crew — Bob Kenmotsu on tenor saxophone, Keith Saunders on piano and Matt Montgomery on upright bass. Two solid sets of straight ahead jazz & bebop, swing & bossa nova. Tony has been plying…

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Mark your calendar!
March 24-26
Four Big Shows!
Friday late shows kicking in!

On Friday, March 24th, the Tony Johnson Quartet, with Bob Kenmotsu, Keith Saunders and Eric Markowitz, swings the blues from bebop to bossa 5:30-8pm. But we’re not done at 8! The Dewayne Oakley Blues Ensemble kicks off a late Friday time slot in earnest, 9-10:30pm. We don’t promise a late show every Friday, though we’ve…

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Thursday, March 23rd at 7:30pm
Dark Days & A Black Dog

  Dark Days and a Black Dog, performed by esteemed actor Andrea Snow and directed by Jael Weisman (both Obie Award winners) from the book by Emily Keeler, evokes seven heartwrenching, darkly comic years in the writer’s life, at once shocking and breathtakingly familiar.   Emily Keeler is a four-time recipient of the National Endowment…

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Sunday, March 19th – 5-7pm
Third Sundays with the Vince Lateano Trio

Enjoy a classic jazz trio, led by drummer Vince Lateano–a crucial presence on the San Francisco jazz scene since the mid-1960s. Veteran bassist Peter Barshay and the fine young pianist Ben Stolorow join Vince on the third Sunday evening of every month for a deep and pleasurable swing through jazz standards, bop, blues and bossa.…

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Saturday, March 18th – 7:30-9:30pm
Masha Campagne: Voz da Lapa

Bossa Nova crooner Masha Campagne and her project Voz Da Lapa celebrate passion & saudade of Brazilian Samba & Bossa, honoring creativity & artistic modernization of Tom Jobim, Gilberto Gil, and other Brazilian legends. JazzTimes magazine noted that “Brazilian stylist Campagne is blending the wistfulness of Astrud Gilberto with the robust liquidity of Flora Purim” praising her spellbinding, sensuous vocals full of rich…

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Friday, March 17th – 5:30-8pm
Scott Foster Quintet
with Kevin Rayhill

Guitarist Scott Foster makes jazz new each and every time out, and always swings. Every third Friday, he presents a fresh ensemble at Bird & Beckett. This week Scott is joined by featured artist Kevin Rayhill on piano, and great jazz players well familiar to Bird & Beckett audiences — Jim Peterson on sax, Dan…

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Thursday, March 16th – 8:30-10pm
Francis Wong Special Quartet

Francis Wong, saxophones William Roper, tuba Scott Oshiro, flute & electronics Jordan Glenn, drums with poet Lynn Huang Francis Wong and William Roper go way back, and take it forward with two young lions. $20 cover charge (cash please) reservations, call 415-586-3733  

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Thursday, March 16th – 7-8pm
Narrow Escapes
Louise Nayer presents her memoir

In Narrow Escapes, memoirist Louise Nayer takes the reader on a journey filled with danger and romance. Haunted by a terrible accident and adrift in love, the writer travels through Morocco, to New York City and finally, on a solo journey, to California, thousands of miles from her home. Set in the early 70s at…

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Monday, March 13th – 7-9pm
VirtualPoets! Kim Shuck hosts featured poets Lourdes Figueroa and Yeva Johnson, with an open mic to follow

On the second and fourth Monday of each month, San Francisco Poet Laureate Emerita Kim Shuck hosts an online poetry series, with featured poets and an open mic on the 2nd Monday and an all-open mic format on the 4th Monday. Information on how to participate follows at the bottom of this post. This evening’s…

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Wednesday, March 15th – 7:30pm
Alchemy
A Walker Brents III Live Streamed Talk

Alchemy! Not as it seems, this ancient art. Neither is it otherwise. Is it what science was before science became what it is? Yes and no. Were the ancient alchemists really believing they could turn lead into gold? If so, what were their actual raw materials? Regardless of the answers to such questions, Walker Brents…

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Sunday, March 12th – 5pm
The Seducers!

America’s favorite honky tonk band, The Seducers, resident at Bird & Beckett since the Great Riptide Fire of 2015, returns for its regular odd-months second Sundays booking — a Bakersfield to Nashville rave-up that never fails to please. Joe Goldmark, pedal steel master, is captain of the ship, though his charismatic second lieutenants Mitch Polzac…

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Sunday, March 12th – 12-3pm
Jerry Ferraz, solo guitar and songs
Steve Arntson, solo piano

Two musicians who have long inhabited the liminal spaces of the San Francisco bohemia perform from the Bird & Beckett stage this afternoon. Poet and troubadour, guitarist and painter Jerry Ferraz, born in San Franciscan in 1950, grew up in Eureka Valley, the watershed from Twin Peaks that feeds the Castro District. He wandered the…

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Sunday, March 12th – 10-11am
SF Lives Live Talk: A conversation with
Mike Shriver, HIV/AIDS activist and policy worker

SF Lives Live Talks–Journalist Denise Sullivan + guest live streamed every 2nd Sunday at 10 a.m. San Francisco journalist Denise Sullivan conducts a monthly series of conversations (the second Sunday of each month from 10-11 a.m.) with The City’s activists, educators, arts and cultural leaders and workers, the everyday people who help make this place…

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Saturday, March 11th – 7:30-9:30pm
Dewayne Oakley Blues Ensemble
with Jazzy Raja, featured vocalist

Dewayne Oakley, bass violin Raja, vocals Ralph Nelson, guitar Rob Rhodes, drums BYOB and a twenty for the band! Reservations, call 415-586-3733 The blues speak to all of us, and we’ll let the Dewayne Oakley Blues Ensemble speak for itself. Enjoy these videos, and then come to the show. There’s nothing like being in the…

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Friday, March 10th – 9-10:30pm
Masaru Koga Quartet

    Reed and flute player Masaru Koga, who left the Bay Area for New York a few years ago, returns to Bird & Beckett joined by pianist Frank Martin, bassist Essiet Okon Essiet and drummer Sylvia Cuenca for an intimate and open conversation in jazz. $20 cover charge, byob. Reservations – (415) 586-3733

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Friday, March 10th – 5:30-8pm
Eric & the In Crowd
The Peninsula Project

2nd Fridays jazz happy hours are the province of Eric Shifrin and a deep pool of talent he’s cultivated over decades on the San Francisco scene. Tonight, his “Peninsula Project!” from the gutters of North Beach to the gilded shelves of the bookstore. BYOB and some dough for the musicians. A twenty fits the bill…

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Thursday, March 9th
7:30-9:30pm
The Electric Ûd Quintet
featuring the music of
Farhad Bahrami

Farhad Bahrami, electric ûd and compositions Hafez Modirzadeh, saxophones John-Carlos Perea, electric bass Amir Abbas Etemadzadeh, tombak and daf Keshav Batish, drums $25 cover charge at the door (cash, please) BYOB.  Reservations, call 415-586-3733.           Born to Iranian teachers on Fullbright scholarships to the U.S., Farhad Bahrami’s childhood was spent in…

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Thursday, March 9th
5:30-6:30pm
Saxophonist Peyton Pleninger
+ Drummer Myron Cohen:
The Billy Higgins Legacy Duo

Drummer Myron Cohen carries the spirit of the late Billy Higgins into the present day, with joy and a propulsive, irresistible beat.  In the countless iterations of his Billy Higgins Legacy Project, he honors the mentoring he received by the late great drummer Higgins with his own mentoring of many, many brilliant emerging players, taken…

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Our events are put on under the umbrella of the nonprofit 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 501(c)(3) non-profit...
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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