Jim Grantham, tenor saxophone.
Scott Foster, guitar.
Ollie Dudek, bass.
Omar Aran, drums.

$20 cover charge / byob.
Students $10 / kids free.
For a reservation, call the bookshop at 415-586-3733.

Bassist Don Prell, born in 1929, has passed at the age of 96. We’ll pay tribute this Friday to Don and his long-running band, SeaBop, when guitarist Scott Foster convenes a session with a few of the many SeaBop alumni who did serious jazz time with the irrepressible band leader.

Don was a professional jazz musician from the age of 15, when he joined Los Angeles Local 47 of the American Federation of Musicians, requiring special permission to join because of his age. Soon, he went on the road with the Frank Ortega Band and along the way he played with prominent jazz musicians including Buddy Rich, Chet Baker, and Claude Williamson. In the mid-1950s, he was the bassist for the Bud Shank Quartet, touring and recording albums with the band in 1956 and 1957.

He played for the San Francisco Symphony for 30 years; after retirement, in 1988 he formed the SeaBop Ensemble, which played at various San Francisco spots, including Bird & Beckett, but was principally docked at the Bay View Boat Club where Don held forth on Tuesdays for nearly four decades.

Beginning in late 2002, Don was a core member of the Chuck Peterson Quartet, which was where it all began for jazz in the bookshop at Bird & Beckett! He may be gone from the bandstand, but he made an indelible impression here and pretty much everywhere he went.