653 Chenery Street
in San Francisco's Glen Park neighborhood
1-415-586-3733
[email protected]
Open to walk-in trade and browsing
Tuesday to Sunday
noon to six
Live Streams every weekend!
Refresh your browser to catch a show in progress!
Visit our Facebook page or YouTube channel!
But nothing beats being in the room with the music & the musicians!
“What the hell kind of church service is this?” — STEVE KOTLER, LA WEEKLY At the ungodly hour of 11 a.m. on July 20th, The Evangenitals return to Bird & Beckett with a reprise of their Moby Dick album and much, much more. Bird & Beckett’s favorite band delivers the sacrament at a National Caviar Day booking south of the slot on Saturday, and preaches to the choir at Bird & Beckett Sunday morning before loading the van to return to the Southland and their workaday world of wonder. But first… Wednesday 7/16 – 7:30-9pm. Laborfest Writers Group. no charge, but donations can’t hurt, so honor labor, and bring some cash for the writers to share! Poetry, memoir, fiction and nonfiction by rabble-rousers, activists, leftist radicals, union members, immigrants, native-born and plain old trouble-makers. The group, formed in 2005, includes Alice Elizabeth Rogoff, Barbara Saunders, Jerry Path, Keith David…
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Here at Bird & Beckett Books, we’ve always relied on the kindness of neighbors and strangers to make it all work; and we’ve always found that strangers don’t stay strangers long! Your tax-deductible donations to our 501(c)3 nonprofit, the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project, FEIN 261906810, are the secret sauce. Book sales and cover charges at the shows are crucial, but only go so far to fill the cornucopia of culture that you’ll find here at Bird & Beckett! You can donate through our website using PayPal. Or if you prefer, you can drop off or mail us a check made out to the “Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project” — write “tax-deductible donation” in the memo line. Cash is fine if you prefer. You can also donate on a recurring, monthly basis through PayPal — which is quite a wonderful way to support us. Bright moments ahead, thanks…
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The posts that follow show you what’s come and gone. Search the videos on our youtube channel or facebook page to find evidence of what you remember, or what you missed! Then, make sure you catch the next thing that catches your fancy. The live streams are great, but live music in a room with folks you know or ought to get to know, that’s irreplaceable…
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S.E. Willis & the Willing. $20/adults; $10/students; kids/free. S.E. Willis, piano, accordion, harmonica & vocals. additional personnel to be recruited from the available willing, including the Excelsior’s own guitar wizard Takezo Takeda. S.E. plays classic and original blues, boogie, rock, zydeco and country, all with soul, conviction and authenticity–to paraphrase S.E. himself and the late, great music writer Lee Hildebrand. Born in West Virginia, S.E. has been playing the piano and harmonica since the age of six, and organ and accordion since his teens. He started playing in rock and roll bands along Arizona’s stretch of Route 66 in 1967. Willis has supported Chuck Berry, Bo Diddly, Albert King, Jimmy Rogers, Roy Gaines, and, since 2000, Elvin Bishop. He sang tenor with the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir. And he worked three years with Joseph “Zigaboo” Modeliste. Fifty years in the business and counting, S.E.Willis knows a lot about American roots…
Read MoreSF Lives/Live Talks on the second Sunday of each month via our livestream. Find it on Bird & Beckett’s YouTube channel or Facebook page. Independent reporter Denise Sullivan brings the SF Lives series to Bird & Beckett for a Sunday morning livestream: This month’s guest is Ingrid Valdez, BCBA, a Board Certified Behavior Analyst who brings a behavioral lens to some of the most human experiences—grief, loss, suicide prevention, and emotional support. Her work focuses on the idea that our environment plays a powerful role in how we cope, connect, and find resilience. Ingrid develops and delivers training that make these topics more approachable, offering simple, actionable strategies to help individuals and communities prevent burnout, navigate crises, and support one another through emotional challenges. She’s especially interested in how we understand grief in today’s fast-paced, often disconnected world—and how we can create more compassionate spaces for healing. The SFLives…
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Ron Marabuto Quartet. $20/adults; $10/students; kids/free. Bob Kenmotsu, tenor sax. Ben Stolorow, piano. Ravi Abcarian, bass. Ron Marabuto, drums. Ron Marabuto, the son of John Marabuto, a key Bay Area pianist/arranger throughout the 1950s-1990s, was raised in the East Bay, graduated from UC Berkeley, and spent over a decade in New York City working extensively with such jazz greats as Pepper Adams, Tommy Flanagan and Roland Hanna. Upon returning to San Francisco, he picked up work with Buddy Montgomery, Bruce Forman, Mark Levine and countless other master jazz musicians who have populated the local scene. These days, Ron gigs frequently while teaching and mentoring a new generation of musicians at Oaktown Jazz Workshops (directed by the bassist on tonight’s date, Ravi Abcarian), and has also taught for years at the Stanford Jazz Workshop, JazzCamp West and the Monterey Jazz Festival Education Program. Ron has been on the bandstand at Bird…
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Luis Peralta, piano Jed Holtman, guitar Isaac Coyle, bass Genius Wesley, drums Genius Lee Wesley auditioned on drums for Oaktown Jazz Workshops at the age of eight, launching his education in jazz and building relationships at OJW and through the SFJAZZ High School All-Stars with the members of the quartet you’ll hear tonight. By age 14, fully recognized as a prodigy, Genius was gigging five days a week throughout the Bay Area. The past few years, he’s been studying in Switzerland, and his visits home are avidly awaited. Meanwhile, his quartet mates have become stars right here at home.
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GG Amos Band plays post-war west coast blues. $20/adults; $10/students; kids/free. GG Amos, guitar and vocals Kevin Gerzevitz, organ and piano Vicky Grossi, bass Randy Lee Odell, drums GG has learned the lessons from all the great blues records, countless gigs leading her own bands, and personal experience in the bands of legendary and obscure blues players including Johnny Heartsman, Jimmy McCracklin, Lowell Fulson, Guitar Shorty, Karen Lawrence, Duffy Bishop and John Lee Hooker.
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Novelist/poet/wobbly organizer/book scout Owen Hill & drummer/poet Andrew Levy. Hill reads from Poison Begets Poison. Levy reads from Artifice in the Calm Damages. Also on the docket, Hill’s crime fiction omnibus edition just out from PM Press: The Giveaway: The Clay Blackburn Story The Giveaway collects the Blackburn novels The Chandler Apartments (2002), The Incredible Double (2009) Mayakovsky’s Bugatti (previously unpublished) and a short story, “The Righteous Kill” (2021).
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On the first Sunday of each month, with donor support and the help of a small but avid audience, Bird & Beckett pays a modest stipend to young players still deeply in the process of acquiring an education in jazz. They may be young and they may be still learning the ropes, but their skills and talents can be, and most often are, extraordinary. This month, the bassist Yoav Konig, entering his senior year at the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts overlooking Glen Canyon Park, brings a sextet in which he’s joined by five of his peers, alto saxophonist Harry Jo, trombonist Nate Gilbreath, vibraphonist Spencer Tantameng, pianist Elena Weng and drummer Flora Sullivan. They’ll deliver a 45 minute set that will knock your socks off, and then will conduct a jam session particularly attuned to the talents of student jazz musicians at the high school and college level from…
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With the addition of emerging artist Lucas Davis on trumpet, tbd is a quintet this time out. tbd is the love child of trumpeter Mario Guarneri, a professional musician from the age of 14 or thereabouts, when he joined the musicians’ local in Los Angeles and started learning the ropes necessary for survival as a professional musician in jazz. That was seven decades ago. All along the way, he’s stayed focused on the nuts and bolts of a professional career that spanned classical and jazz worlds. A theme he wrote and recorded for Francis Coppola’s Godfather III has stood him in good stead since the 1990s, but that’s just one facet of his long and storied career. For years, we’ve known Mario as the force behind Jazz in the Neighborhood, now a 501(c)3 nonprofit, a crucial force in raising the consciousness and promoting the solidarity of professional gigging musicians, particularly…
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On Friday the 4th, Dred Scott hits town for the Fillmore Jazz Festival. With vibes player Tom Beckham, they’ll perform a duo set at 5pm, delving into the crystal silence of the classic Chick Corea collaborations that produced three sparkling albums in the early 1970s. Dred is a jazz pianist of the first water, based in NYC for many years since his days as a key figure in the Berkeley High contingent that spearheaded the west coast acid jazz days, soaked in a heavy Latin vibe. Check his site and calendar here. Guitarist Duncan James brings a trio in on the duo’s heels, with guitarist Ned Boynton and bassist Simon Planting, from 7:30-9:30 Friday the 4th, reflecting on Duncan’s experience with the legendary, groundbreaking guitarist George Barnes. Duncan, along with local heroes Dean Reilly (bass) and Benny Barth (drums) made up Barnes’ quartet in the final few years before Barnes…
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On the 3rd, our 1st-Thursdays poetry session kicks off the 4th of July weekend on a packed schedule that’s 2nd to none, with 5 shows in 4 days! That’s an All-American Independence Day holiday run for ya! Fuck Trump and come out to Glen Park for a minute along the way in celebration of diverse, equitable and inclusive San Franfrisco! We love our town and we love our peeps! This time out, the poetry session on Thursday the 3rd features Alice Rogoff, long-time editor of that All-American rag, the Haight Ashbury Literary Journal — righteous, groovy, timeless and timely — presenting Brian Kirven, Keith Gaboury and Sally Love Saunders, contributors to the HALJ’s current issue. Bird & Beckett’s Michael Koch MCs the evening, and troubadour Jerry Ferraz conducts the open mic. Michael and Jerry will both do a poem to open the open, and then we’ll ask Alice to read one…
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Thursday at 7:30, vibraphonist Gus Hurteau returns with Hannah Mayer on piano and Giulio Xavier Cetto on bass. Gus is just returning to town from dates with Gene Perla’s Tiger Quartet at Blues Alley in Washington, DC and An Die Musik in Baltimore! Friday at 6pm, drummer Tony Johnson brings in his quartet with Smith Dobson on saxophone, Keith Saunders on piano and Eric Markowitz on bass. Saturday at 7:30pm, boogie woogie piano star Wendy DeWitt returns with her trio featuring Takezo Takeda on guitar and Kirk Harwood on drums. Sunday at 5pm, drummer Vince Lateano’s trio with Rumi Abe on piano and John Wiitala on bass hosts the friendliest jam session in town! And at 8pm, two legendary musicians, percussionist Kahil El’Zabar and saxophonist David Murray, return in the last Bay Area stop of their Sonic Motion Tour!
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Vibraphonist Gus Hurteau returns with Hannah Mayer on piano and Giulio Xavier Cetto on bass for two sets of originals and jazz standards.
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SUPPORT BIRD & BECKETT - DONATE TODAY!
Your donation to the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project helps us pay for a multitude of operating expenses necessary to present, promote and preserve local music, poetry, and more.
Help us keep the arts alive and thriving!
The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project was created in 2007 "to present, document and archive the creative work of significant living writers and musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area, for a neighborhood audience and future generations," continuing the work we began when the store was established in 1999.
We continue to present a full slate of programming of live music and poetry readings, and produce a literary journal and poetry chapbooks, and we seek and welcome your continued financial support by way of donations.
Click on "donate" in the navigation bar above. Better yet, make a check out to the “Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project” and drop it off or mail it to:
Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project
653 Chenery Street
San Francisco, CA 94131
Call us at (415) 586-3733 to find out how else you might lend your support.
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We're immensely appreciative of Jazz in the Neighborhood for having stepped in as our temporary fiscal sponsor for a few months, while we straightened out some paperwork to get nonprofit status restored to the BBCLP. We're happy to say that's been done, and all past, present, and future donations made directly to the BBCLP are fully tax-deductible!
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To take our SURVEY, click here, and help the BBCLP get to know you better! As Duke Ellington always said, we love you madly...
The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project
Our events are put on under the umbrella of the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project (the "BBCLP"). That's how we fund our ambitious schedule of 300 or so concerts and literary events every year.
The BBCLP is a [Read More ]
The Independent Musicians Alliance
Gigging musicians! You have nothing to lose but your lack of a collective voice to achieve fair wages for your work!
The IMA can be a conduit for you, if you join in to make it work.
https://www.independentmusiciansalliance.org/
Read more here - Andy Gilbert's Feb 25 article about the IMA from KQED's site
