Friday, May 2nd – two concerts: at 6pm, it’s a trio led by trumpeter Mike Olmos; then, Mike is back at 8:30 in saxophonist James Mahone’s quartet. A phenomenal night of small combo jazz. $20 bucks cash for either show, or catch both for $35. Byob, as always, and a reservation is always a good idea — call the shop at 415-586-3733.

Saturday, May 3rd at 7:30pm, trumpeter Erik Jekabson brings a quartet with Matt Renzi on saxophone. $20 cover, cash please!

Sunday, May 4th at 5pm, Vietnamese guitarist Tri Pham brings trumpeter Ryan Ancheta and a fine young rhythm section, for a quintet set. The quintet will stick around ’til 7 to host a student-centric jam session in our monthly first-Sundays series. Tri is at the SFCCM while Ryan is at UC Berkeley.

And, at 8pm, the self-same Sunday the 4th, vocalist Judy Butterfield fronts the quintet Mean to Me, with Ben Slater on sax and piano, Dave Shaff on trumpet, Sam Heminger on bass and Cairo McCockran on drums.

Then, we’ll take a couple days off to concentrate on the retail, bricks-and-mortar bookshop business before returning Thursday the 8th for a Hindustani recital featuring sarodist Souryadeep Bhattacharya and tabla maestro Ferhan Qureshi. Ferhan has been kind enough to curate a wonderful series of Hindustani and Carnatic concerts at Bird & Beckett, roughly once a month for the past many months, with no end date in mind.

Friday, the jazz is back, again with two shows, the first at 6pm and the second at 8:30pm, each with a $20 cover charge (cash, please, as always, and as for all of our shows, byob.  Feel free to call the shop at 415-586-3733 to reserve. Pay at the door when you arrive.) The May 9th show will feature the marvelous pianist and raconteur Eric Shifrin, playing the music of Jelly Roll Morton — the man who, he claims, invented jazz!

That’s not that far from the truth, and at the very least, Jelly made the Spanish tinge a perfect element of the music. Eric has the amazing Ryan Calloway on reads, and the world’s hippest bass player, Ari Munkres, as well as a drummer we have not yet here heard — Jason Hansen. We’ll be all ears!

And, then, at 8:30pm, we’ll ride to the further reaches of jazz, in the capsule of bassist Lisa Mezzacappa, in the company of Aaron Bennett on tenor saxophone, Mark Clifford on vibraphone, Brett Carson on keyboard and Jordan Glenn on drums. There’s an evening for you! Catch both shows and we’ll knock five bucks off the second show.

Then, Saturday the 10th, Japanese vocalist/singer-songwriter/improvisor Saki Minakimoto brings a fabulous group of Bay Area jazz geniuses to realize her conception: Ian Carey on trumpet, Beth Schenck on saxophone, Matt Wrobell on guitar, the aforementioned Lisa Mezzacappa on bass and the very great drummer, Jon Arkin. Hang onto your hats! It’s gonna be a fun ride!

And closing it out, on Sunday the 11th we invite you to fall in love, get hitched and enjoy a Nashville Honeymoon in the charming and capable company of Nashville Honeymoon, with Lynne Maes singing and playing rhythm guitar on some of her own terrific tunes and a passel of country classics, alongside her husband, the fabulous Hank Manninger, sharing the vocals and doing the lead guitar work. Bassist Tim Wagar and drummer Paul Revelli round out the ensemble and pedal steel master Joe Goldmark slathers the buttered sound of steel over the whole lovely concoction. Spend your time with us. You’ll love it. Hats off to Jean Conner, Glen Park resident, seminal artist, gardener, observer, human, for making country music affordable for many years at Bird & Beckett!