Our current run started Thursday, the 8th, with HowellDevine. the fabulous delta blues trio, in our weekly canyon moonlight Americana series (blues, soul, country, rockabilly) series and continued Friday, the 9th with our weekly jazz in the bookshop party featuring Voz do Brasil, the fabulous Club Deluxe Sunday night house band that showcases vocalist Liza Silva… and on it goes!

Saturday, September 10th, two shows:  Grant Levin Duo (4-6 pm) and the Noel Jewkes Quartet (7:30-10 pm). An astonishingly talented young pianist and a legendary, much adored elder of the tenor saxophone take the stage as leaders in turn. Jazz as it’s played in San Francisco in 2016! Proof positive of its vital relevance and sheer joy.

In the evening (7:30-10 pm), Noel’s quartet date features Grant on piano along with bassist Greg D’Augelli and drummer Jeff Minnieweather.

Greg is Grant’s duo partner earlier in the afternoon (4-6 pm).  Grant plays his duo concerts each 2nd and 4th Saturday afternoon, but this month has to skip the 9/24 date. But take heart, because on the afternoon of Saturday, September 17th, guitarists Randy Vincent and Jordan Samuels share the stage (more on that below).

Sunday, September 11th, two shows:

At 2 pm, poets Chana Bloch and Susan Cohen read their work.
Chana Bloch’s Swimming in the Rain: New and Selected Poems, 1980-2015 was released last year, and she has published four earlier poetry collections, The Secrets of the Tribe, The Past Keeps Changing, Mrs. Dumpty, and Blood Honey.

She is co-translator of the biblical Song of Songs, The Selected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai and his Open Closed Open, and Hovering at a Low Altitude: The Collected Poetry of Dahlia Ravikovitch.

Susan Cohen is a journalist and poet in Berkeley, California. She’s been a newspaper reporter, a contributing writer to the Washington Post Magazine and a faculty member of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2013, returning to her first love, she earned her MFA in poetry and she subsequently won Red Dragonfly Press’s David Martinson-Meadowhawk Prize for a debut collection of poetry, leading to the publication of her book, A Different Wakeful Animal.

At 4:30 pm, the Sharman Duran Quartet.  Renowned as a vocalist, equally regarded for her piano work, and sought particularly for the combination of those elements, Sharman Duran is also a songwriter and lyricist of consummate skill whose projects are complex and multi-faceted. Her group today features tenor player Tod Dickow, bassist Alex Baum and drummer Bob Blankenship, seasoned musicians with decades of experience with Ms. Duran.

Monday, September 12th (7-9 pm), Omertapalooza, take 1. Poet/publisher Les Gottesman hosts the first in a six-reading sequence to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Les’ small poetry press, Omerta. Readers today will be David Anderson from Washington, D.C., Bruce F. Kawin from Boulder, Colorado and Bill Zavatsky from New  York City.

Note: The fun continues on Sunday, September 18th (2 pm) when Diane di Prima reads some Outtakes, and on Monday, September 26th (7-9 pm), when Les presents Potus & Flotus of Poetry, David Meltzer & Julie Rogers, with pianist Bill Crossman and sax player Zan Stewart. And then, 3 more events follow at Green Arcade (“take 2,” we’d say) on Market at Gough.

Gottesman likes his retaliations medieval, and so we have Omerta Press and its wonderful output. Each of these has at least one title from Les’s press, Backstory, a story from David Anderson, the press’s first prose fiction outing; Starting Over, poetry from Bruce Kawin; and Haiku & Co. and Rimbaud: Ten Poems from Bill Zavatsky. Diane di Prima’s Outtakes is just now being brought out by Omerta Press; her chapbook Poems are Angels was published in 2013. Omerta recently, also in 2013, published David Meltzer’s Stunt Man as well as Julie Rogers’ Street Warp.  Omerta has published Bill Berkson, Ellen Teichert, Nachman Obzinger, the poets who will read at Green Arcade in October, several more… Les himself is a child of 1968 and many of its implications. We’re proud to be associated with Les and his press for this series of readings. Plus, it’ll be fairly fun, we bet.

Tuesday night we take a breather… but then on it goes…

Wednesday, September 14th, 7-9 pm, the Bird & Beckett Book Club takes on Paula Hawkin’s Girl on a Train, a pop confection maybe, but it can’t always be Tolstoy!

Thursday, September 15th, 8-10 pm, Our canyon moonlight series featuring the non-jazz realms of blues, soul, r&b, country and rockabilly is in week three of its new schedule, and is already well on its way!

Every third Thursday, like 9/15 , you can catch The Seducers, a classic/outlaw country band featuring Joe Goldmark on pedal steel guitar, Mitch Polzak on lead guitar and vocals, Hank Manninger on bass and vocals, and Kenny Owen on drums.  Coming up: Moonshine Mabelline, country rockers, on 9/22, Jinx Jones the rockabilly titan on 9/29 and the GG Amos West Coast Blues trio on 10/6.

Friday, September 16th, 5:30-8 pm. jazz in the bookshop every Friday after work! Third Fridays feature the Scott Foster Quartet, assembled  from the freshest organic ingredients each week especially for you, and tonight Scott will feature Joshi Marshall, sax, Sam Heminger, bass, and Omar Aran, drums — delectable and delicious locally sourced jazz, just like they serve up at Chez Panisse!

 

 Saturday afternoon, September 17th, 4-6 pm, we present a guitar summit duo encounter between rising star Jordan Samuels and the legendary Randy Vincent!

Jordan has his sights set on a number of great guitarists that have graced the local scene lo these past decades and is eager to bring them to the Bird & Beckett stage on occasion over the months to come for some intricate conversations in jazz – nonverbal and deeply nuanced..

Saturday night, 7:30-10 pm, The Michael Parsons Quartet! Click here for detail on this exciting date! Suffice to say here that Michael’s been gone too long, and we’re delighted to have him back in town. Paris can do without him for a month or two!

Sunday afternoon, September 18th, 2-4pm, Diane di Prima, San Francisco poet laureate emeritus and a legend of the New York beat scene in the 1950s is still going strong, and reads some “Out Takes” from her chapbook published by Les Gottesman’s Omerta Press, as the Omertapalooza continues!

Sunday afternoon, September 18th, 4:30-10 pm, the Walter Savage Trio takes the stage, with Maya Kronfeld on piano and Ranzel Merritt on drums. Jazz veterans Savage and Merritt take it to another level with younger generation jazz comer Kronfeld (a 2008 Berkeley grad in philosophy and comp lit). She’s a rhythm-driven player who has been heard in venues ranging from LA’s Viper Room to New York’s Lincoln Center, and her own trio has been featured on KCSM.!

Monday night, September 19th, 7-9 pm, Poets Cara Vida and Jennifer Barone are featured in our twice-monthly poetry series hosted by Jerry Ferraz and always featuring an open mic, one of the best in town! Cara Vida is way over the top and Jennifer is solidly in the pocket, and you are guaranteed a fantastic experience. So shed that fear of poetry and get down here! Treasures untold at Bird & Beckett time and again!

Tuesday and Wednesday, we take a real break and close shop at 7 pm, so we can start it up again for another dozen events into the first days of October… Be sure to come along for the ride, and pick up a book for those quiet evenings at home!