Grant Levin, piano. Aaron Cohn, bass. Mitchell Wilcox, drums.   The art of the trio, exemplified by the work of three sympathetic and immensely talented musicians.

Walker Brents III tells stories from a variety of traditions, by turns amusing, enlightening and enigmatic. Get out of the crush of the Glen Park Festival for a captivating time in the bookshop.

Vocalist Jesse Foster with Greg Sankovich, piano Paul Eastburn, bass Mark Lee, drums Jesse Foster calls up a world of sounds with his instrument that blends nicely with his percussion playing. You’d have to say that his instrument is his body channeled through his voice, and we would aver that he plays it superbly. His bandmates on this date have all the verve, talent and skill required for the occasion. You’re in for a uniquely enjoyable show by a San Francisco treasure! $20 cover charge; students $5.  

One of SF’s very top ranked saxophone players with a super-solid rhythm section. Jazz as it is played in San Francisco in 2018!! Joe Cohen, tenor sax Jeremy Lieber, piano Ollie Dudek, bass Jack Dorsey, drums

This is the band that Chuck Peterson started, though Chuck is now retired up to Santa Rosa. With luck, he’ll rejoin the band on the fourth Friday in May when we celebrate 16 years of Friday evening jazz in the bookshop! Chuck’s legacy to us is this band — the 230 Jones Street, Local 6 Literary Jazz Band — featuring Ray Loeckle and  Jerry Logas on reeds; Glen Deardorff on guitar; Dean Reilly on bass and Tony Johnson on drums!

Poet Nikia Chaney reads from us mouth (forthcoming from University of Hell Press, 2018). She is the current Inlandia Literary Laureate (2016-2018) and is the author of two chapbooks, Sis Fuss (2012, Orange Monkey Publishing) and ladies, please (2012, Dancing Girl Press). Nikia is Inlandia poet laureate, founding editor of shufpoetry, an online journal for experimental poetry, and founding editor of Jamii Publishing, a publishing imprint dedicated to fostering community among poets and writers. She has won grants from the Barbara Demings Fund for Women, Poets & Writers, and Cave Canem.

San Francisco writers, predominantly writers of color, have some things to say in this volume about the state of things. Timely and crucial work by “ordinary people,” many of whom are already known as important voices in the struggles that are going on around us as of this historical moment. Editor Shizue Seigel established a workshop “Write Now” a decade ago that has brought out the voices of an impressive legion of clear thinking and engaged citizens of this city that has always held so much promise, and is coveted by capitalistic forces that despite their best efforts can’t stifle our aspirations, accomplishments and promise.  

Jacqueline Berger’s fourth book, The Day You Miss Your Exit, was published by Broadstone Books in February. Her previous books include The Gift That Arrives Broken, winner of the 2010 Autumn House Poetry Prize, and Things That Burn, selected by Mark Strand as the 2004 winner of the Agha Shahid Ali Prize. Her poetry has been featured on Garrison Keillor’s Writers Almanac and has been published in numerous anthologies and journals, including The Iowa Review, American Poetry: The Next Generation, On The Verge, Old Dominion Review, Rhino, River Styx, and Nimrod. She directs the Master of Arts in English program at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont and lives in San Francisco. Thomas Centolella has published four books of poetry: Terra Firma, Lights & Mysteries, Views from along the Middle Way, and Almost Human. His poetry has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, American Poetry Review, Parthenon West Review, Ploughshares,…

The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project and the Jazz Philanthropists Union, with financial support from the Zellerbach Family Foundation, present Alternative Acts: Seeking Truth Above #F a series of six concerts beginning April Fools Day and concluding May 20th   April 21st animals and giraffes Phillip Greenlief, saxphones and Bb clarinet Claudia La Rocco, text and voice Danishta Rivero, voice and electronics John Shiruba, electric and acoustic guitars and preparations read more on Phillip Greenlief here: https://www.bayimproviser.com/artist/117/phillip-greenlief   The “Alternative Acts” series is devoted to improvised and other avant garde musical approaches by locally based artists: — April Fool’s Day, Ouroboros Sheldon Brown and Joseph Noble, reeds; Andrew Joron, theremin; Clark Coolidge, drums — April 18th, Dalachinsky:Cherkovski:Coolidge:Earl 3 poets and 1 pianist –  April 20th,  Drummer Scott Amendola’s 3-in-1 with Raffi Garabedian, saxophone and Zach Ostroff, bass — April 21st, animals and giraffes Phillip Greenlief, saxphones and Bb clarinet Claudia La Rocco, text…

we’ll tellya more soon… both great players, and sympatico to boot. if you know, you know, and if you don’t, and you come, you’ll find out. hallelujah, eh linda?      

The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project and the Jazz Philanthropists Union, with financial support from the Zellerbach Family Foundation, present Alternative Acts: Seeking Truth Above #F a series of six concerts beginning April Fools Day and concluding May 20th   April 18th: Dalachinsky:Cherkovski:Coolidge:Earl 3 Poets working with 1 Pianist   The “Alternative Acts” series is devoted to improvised and other avant garde musical approaches by locally based artists: — April Fool’s Day, Ouroboros Sheldon Brown and Joseph Noble, reeds; Andrew Joron, theremin; Clark Coolidge, drums — April 18th, Dalachinsky:Cherkovski:Coolidge:Earl 3 poets with 1 pianist –  April 20th,  Drummer Scott Amendola’s 3-in-1 with Raffi Garabedian, saxophone and Zach Ostroff, bass — April 21st, animals and giraffes Phillip Greenlief, saxphones and Bb clarinet Claudia La Rocco, text and voice Danishta Rivero, voice and electronics John Shiruba, electric and acoustic guitars and preparations — May 5th, Dark Metals David Boyce, saxophones/EFX David Ewell, bass Cairo McCockran,…

“Ken Fowser’s fluid phrasing and melodic approach to improvising developed as a result of his exposure to the rich musical legacy of the Philly Sound, following in time with the rhythmic footsteps of John Coltrane, Lee Morgan, McCoy Tyner, Philly Joe Jones, Benny Golson and The Heath Brothers.” “Bruneau plays with clarity, exuberance and swagger…with a sophisticated harmonic palate…soul and beauty…brash or pretty…he’s a natural jazz musician.” Touring out of New York City, saxophonist Ken Fowser and trumpeter Josh Bruneau will be coming into Bird & Beckett Tuesday night fresh off a five-night run at The Black Cat in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District — fully tuned up and wailing. From here, it’s the Pacific Northwest and Vancouver, Philly, then back to NYC where they’ll take up where they left off with a weekly Friday night booking at The Django, a jazz cave in Tribeca’s Roxy Hotel. Fowser and Bruneau are…

The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project and the Jazz Philanthropists Union, with financial support from the Zellerbach Family Foundation, present Alternative Acts: Seeking Truth Above #F a series of six concerts beginning April Fools Day and concluding May 20th   April 20th: Scott Amendola’s 3-in-1 Raffi Garabedian, tenor sax Zach Ostroff, bass Scott Amendola, drums   The “Alternative Acts” series is devoted to improvised and other avant garde musical approaches by locally based artists: — April Fool’s Day, Ouroboros Sheldon Brown and Joseph Noble, reeds; Andrew Joron, theremin; Clark Coolidge, drums — April 18th, Dalachinsky:Cherkovski:Coolidge:Earl 3 poets with 1 pianist –  April 20th,  Drummer Scott Amendola’s 3-in-1 with Raffi Garabedian, saxophone and Zach Ostroff, bass — April 21st, animals and giraffes Phillip Greenlief, saxphones and Bb clarinet Claudia La Rocco, text and voice Danishta Rivero, voice and electronics John Shiruba, electric and acoustic guitars and preparations — May 5th, Dark Metals David Boyce,…

  Don Alberts, an extraordinary bop-influenced jazz pianist and a prolific writer in many veins – whether music, poetry, fiction,  or cultural history, leads a dynamic trio that loves to swing and is ready to go in any direction afforded by the modern jazz idiom! Drummer Ron Marabuto and bassist Larry Epstein are fully up to Don’s plans for an evening of jazz and be-bop-Bud Powell, Horace Silver, Dizzy Gillespie and a slew of Don’s originals.