Filling in for Scott Foster on his traditional third Friday booking at Bird & Beckett, we offer a stellar trio of drummer Sylvia Cuenca, bassist Peter Barshay and pianist Ben Stolorow, performing for you from 5:30 to 8:00pm.   

Peter and Ben are stalwart members of Vince Lateano’s trio, which has a third-Sundays residency at Bird & Beckett throughout 2023. And this coming third Sunday (2/19), Peter will pull a double, playing with the Lateano trio at from 5 to 7pm, then anchoring a quartet date at 9pm with traveling (from Estonia) drummer Brian Melvin in the company of guitarist Brad Buethe and saxophonist Wayne De Silva.

The Lateano trio, Vince, Peter & Ben, also hosts a jam session at Bird & Beckett on the last Sunday of each month from 5 to 7pm! That’s a scene to be at. Be sure to make it on 2/26!

But returning to the business at hand, this Friday’s jazz in the bookshop happy hour (2-1/2 hours worth of happiness waiting), featuring the trio of Peter, Ben and Sylvia, is bound to please. Make a point of grabbing a beverage from the corner store and coming in with a twenty dollar bill in hand for the trio, then settle in for a lovely time…

Ben — the youngster on the date — already has a dozen-plus years in as one of the finest pianists on the scene, developing a brilliant career.

Peter’s career in jazz was cemented decades ago in a long New York sojourn, performing and touring with master musicians including Milt Jackson, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, Joe Henderson and Joe Lovano.

As for Sylvia, while maintaining a New York-based career international in scope, she’s also become a linchpin in the Bay Area jazz scene these past three years, performing all over the Bay Area (often in rhythm section tandem with her NY-based spouse Essiet Okon Essiet, a Blakey band vet with his own international career).

Though she grew up in San Jose and made her professional debut when called up by the late great guitarist Eddie Duran for an after-hours booking at Pearl’s Jazz Club when it occupied a subterranean room in Pearl’s parents’ Great Eastern Restaurant in Chinatown — where Vince and all the North Beach cats loved to hang and play deep into the night — she moved on early to New York City. From her NYC base, she traveling internationally for four years as a member of Joe Henderson’s Quartet and another eleven years as the drummer in Clark Terry’s group. And that was just the beginning!  Here in San Francisco in the early 2020s, we have a privileged view of a world class career in jazz that’s steaming on full force!