Sunday & Monday
2 days – 6 poets – 4 jazz musicians

Sunday, June 17 – 2:00 pm

Poets!

Matthew Keuter has published in journals across the U.S. and U.K.  The Short Imposition of Living, a book length collection of poetry, is available from Rain Mountain Press.  His plays have been produced in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado and New York City.  Matthew edits the little mag called Mudfish: A Journal of Art & Poetry.

Jennifer Kulbeck is a poet, letterpress printer, collector of stray pastimes, people and household objects from garage sales and street corners, and graduate student in the creative writing program at SF State.

Daniel Suarez in a first generation Cuban-American. born and raised in Chicago, who now resides in San Francisco.  He is currently in the process of translating the poetry of Robert Creely into Spanish and the poetry of Jose Lezama Lima into English.  His poems can be found in the Columbia Poetry Review, Gesture, RHINO and the VelRo Reader.

Broadsides for each poet made by the extraordinary duo of Jen Kulbeck and Thomas Edler will be available for purchase at the reading.

Sunday at 4:30:

Orion’s Joy of Jazz

which way west?
Sunday concert series

Ruben Salcido, sax; Steve McQuarry, piano; Ron Crotty, bass; Orion Edmonson, drums.

Orion’s JOY OF JAZZ promises to deliver “crowd pleasing Jazz, Latin Jazz, Soulful Ballads and Bluesy tunes,” and we have ample reason to believe they will.  Particularly when we note that veteran bassist Ron Crotty (Cal Tjader, Dave Brubeck, etc., etc.) is on the gig…

Drummer Orion Edmondson, who leads this group and who has graced the Bird & Beckett stage on many occasions in the past, hails from the New York City area.  He’s been teaching and gigging professionally in the Bay Area since the 60s.  His playing invests the music with ample pots of soul, taste and originality, and his engagement in the groundswell that is the Occupy movement is just one indicator of how he keeps time with the vital pulse of life.

Pianist Stephen McQuarry is a noted composer and arranger, and has performed with numerous distinguished jazz musicians, including Dizzy Gillespie, Clare  Fischer, Louie Bellson, Red Rodney and Tom Scott, as well as with John Cage, Laurie Anderson and countless others whose names you might not recognize but whose musical affiliations and influence are great.

Sax and flute player Ruben Salcido studied with Freddie Redd, Joe Henderson, Wayne Wallace and Mel  Martin.  He’s performed with New York flautist Dave Valentin, as well as with Mark  Levine, Larry Dunlap, Freddie Redd, Vince Wallace, the Escovedos, Frank  Rosolino and many others. Ruben was instrumental in creating and  managing the Pacifica Jazz Festival and he currently  performs with the Sound Wave big band  under the direction of  composer/arranger Bob Enos.  He also performs, composes and arranges  music for the Full Spectrum Big Band.

Rounding out this quartet is the jazz veteran and local treasure Ron Crotty on bass.  Ron’s recorded work is known to millions around the world from his time with pianist Dave Brubeck in the late 1940s and early 1950s, particularly the recordings made with the trio that included vibraphonist Cal Tjader as well as the 1953  “Jazz at Oberlin” record made by the quartet that included Paul Desmond on sax and drummer Lloyd Davis.  60 years on, with many thousands of live dates under his belt, Ron’s still going strong.  Ron has made several appearances at Bird & Beckett over the years, and will be back in the fall in a trio with guitarist Tony Corman and horn player Frank Phipps.

As a unit, this group truly embodies
the JOY OF JAZZ!

“Thanks for making the world a
more peaceful and joyful place,”
sez Orion. 

Occupy Bird & Beckett for this gig
& you’ll be doing your bit!

____________________________________________

Monday, June 18, 7 pm

MORE POETS!

plus an open mic! so bring your best…

hosted by Jerry Ferraz — 1st & 3rd Monday of each month

Noel Black lives in Colorado Springs with his wife, artist Marina Eckler, and their son Ursen.  Co-founder with Ed Berrigan of LOG Magazine and publisher of the Angry Dog Midget Editions in the late 1990s, he has since worked as a writer and producer for a wide variety of media outlets including The Stranger and WNYC.  He currently works as a producer for KRCC public radio.  He is the author of six chapbooks, including Hulktrans (Owl Press, 2008) and In The City of Word People (Blue Press, 2008).  His most recent book of poetry is USELYSSES (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2011).

Cralan Kelder was born in 1970 and grew up between California and The Netherlands.  An anthropologist by training, he has edited numerous literary magazines, including Full Metal Poem and Retort.  His latest book is Give Some Word, published by Shearsman.  Previous books include: Lemon Red (Coracle 2005), and City Boy (Longhouse 2007).  He lives in Amsterdam with his wife, the evolutionary biologist Toby Kiers, and their children.

Sunnylyn Thibodeaux grew up in Louisiana and later moved to San Francisco, California, where she lives with her husband, fellow poet and co-publisher of Auguste Press and Lew Gallery Editions, Micah Ballard.  Her first full length collection, Palm to Pine, was published by Bootstrap Press in 2011.