16 tickets ($20 cash, please) available at the door starting at 5 pm day of show.
~~2 tix per person only, please.~~
Claim a seat, get some dinner and get back here before 7:15!
Some standing room will be available starting at 7:15.
Limited seating, so please be advised!

Born in Oakland in 1955, David Murray came of age as a saxophonist under the profound influence of free jazz masters Albert Ayler and Archie Shepp and proceeded to become a major figure of avant garde jazz beginning in the mid-1970s. He is highly regarded for his rich and diverse compositions, technique and sound, influenced by such greats as Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster and Paul Gonsalves as well as the modern masters. Murray is widely known for his work as a founding member of the World Saxophone Quartet, alongside Oliver Lake, Julius Hemphill and Hamiet Bluiett, which recorded 21 albums between 1977 and 2010 while touring internationally to huge acclaim. Along the way, Murray also recorded a tribute to Coltrane in 1999, and played Madison Square Garden with the Grateful Dead in 1993. He recorded a tribute to the Dead, “Dark Star,” in 1996. Since 2013, the David Murray Big Band Featuring Macy Gray has wowed audiences internationally, while he’s also been busy and making waves with his Infinity Quartet, most recently heard in performances with poet Saul Williams, and the Power Trio, with pianist Geri Allen & drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, heard on the new cd, “Perfection.”  

David Murray is justly considered one of the top jazz saxophonists in the world.

Multi-percussionist Kahil El’Zabar, born in Chicago in 1953, joined the American Association of Creative Musicians (AACM) in 1971 at the age of 18 and became its chairman in 1975. During those formative years, he was closely associated with the avant garde while also delving deep into his study of African traditions. “I grew up in a period when African Americans, as a large body, finally started addressing our roots. With African drums there was such an appeal in the way of playing with the hands and the sense of the entire body being involved in the playing of the instrument.” He exhibits a mastery of a wide variety of instruments, from the elementary – congas, bongos, African drums, shekere, gongs, and trap drums – to the esoteric – balaphon, marimba, sanza, kalimba and berimbau. In the mid-1970s, El’Zabar established two groups, The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble and The Ritual Trio, which remain active to this day.

El’Zabar graced the Bird & Beckett stage this past February with his Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, playing to an ecstatic audience. We’re very gratified by his desire to return, this time with David Murray — an association that dates back on vinyl to their 1989 duo date “Golden Sea.”

Following that first duo record, El’Zabar was featured on three David Murray albums in the early 1990s — “A Sanctuary Within,” alongside percussionist Sunny Murray (1991), and two with a seven-piece band, “The Tip” (1994) and “Jug-a-Lug” (1994). Murray and El’Zabar, again as a duo, released “One World Family” in 2000 and “We Is” in 2004. The Kahil El’Zabar Trio album “Love Outside of Dreams,” recorded in 1999 and released in 2002, featured David Murray and bassist Fred Hopkins.

$20 cover.
We’ve taken a few reservations by email in advance;
most of the seats will be available only on the day of the show.