The Jazz Philanthropists Union presents jazz club! when lights are low… every Saturday night, 7:30-10 pm, at Bird & Beckett This week featuring the Wick/Knudsen/Glenn Trio- jazz inside & out Kasey Knudsen, sax Miles Wick, bass Jordan Glenn, drums

Pianist Grant Levin and bassist Charles Thomas converse in jazz for two sets, always with something new to say about familiar topics.

Talk about your San Francisco jazz… On the fourth Friday of each month, our weekly jazz in the bookshop series features The 230 Jones Street, Local 6 Literary Jazz Band — aka The Chuck Peterson Quintet — five musicians whose history on the local jazz scene dates back 60 years, to the very early 1950s.

Get in with the in crowd! Eric Shifrin, jazz pianist par excellence and free spirit, has gathered the in crowd in the saloons and salons of the City for several decades. Associates Bing Nathan (bass) and Dennis Norby (drums)  have been there with him all along the way, and they swing it in the bookshop these days on the last Thursday of the month — helping you shake off the tough times and celebrate the good times.

The Jazz Philanthropists Union presents jazz club! when lights are low… every Saturday night, 7:30-10 pm, at Bird & Beckett Tonight– Aaron Germain Chance Ensemble featuring all original music by bassist and composer Aaron Germain Mary Fettig, sax and flute Murray Low, piano Jon Krosnick, drums Aaron has played in a multitude of genres with fantastic musicians, deeply engaged and creative no matter the setting. The Chance Ensemble is a chance for Aaron to collaborate with highly esteemed peers to explore musical territory without reservation, and has already produced a highly acclaimed cd of some of this music with Mary Fettig and others. This live date in the intimate setting of Bird & Beckett will undoubtedly be a delight. Do come! $10 cover charge. $9 wearing a pussy hat!

What can we say about Scott Foster!? He’s just Bird & Beckett’s favorite guitarist… soulful, deep and endlessly inventive. He’s been steady on the gig here since 2002, now assembling a new act for you every third Friday. Tonight, he’s joined by his colleague and friend, woodwind virtuoso David Boyce. David is a titan of a tenor player, with a high profile career reaching back to the early 1990s when the Broun Fellinis made their debut on the local scene, mixing Afro-Caribbean strains into straight ahead and acid jazz. He’s also a wonderful writer, with a great piece of prose fiction featured in the latest issue of Bird & Beckett’s literary annual, “Amerarcana.”

“Sexy shack-shaking music” from HowellDevine – Arhoolie recording artists! The first blues act signed by this crucial record label in 27 years! And now Arhoolie — home to Lightnin’ Hopkins, Mississippi Fred McDowell and the zydeco king, Clifton Chenier — has been picked up for distribution by the Smithsonian. The world is HowellDevine’s oyster… or mudbug… They’re a juggernaut of rural blues, evoking the ghosts of the Mississippi delta and bringing those ghosts howling right into the now. A rollicking present day experience in deep communion with an archetypal past reality. Joshua Howell (slide guitars, harmonica, voice) Pete Devine (drums, washboard) Joe Kyle Jr. (bass) Read all about ’em! Click here!!!  

Lida Parent was born in Inglewood,  in Southern California, and raised in nearby Chatsworth.   She writes: I began writing when I was 9 years old.  I learned it was a creative way I could connect my feelings to people.  My imagination took me to a live painting of opportunity.  I enjoyed reading literature, and began writing poetry at the age of 19. I loved what balance it gave to my words and the beauty poetry instilled. During my twenties,  I met with a group of 9 poets at a coffeeshop in Winnetka,  Ca.  They became close friends and introduced me to my first open mics and poetry readings,  where I began to embrace the art of performing.  In 2013, I completed a course the Community Literature Initiative,  and became a published author at the end of the year.  In 2015, by first book of poetry was relesed entitled,  “In Love and…

Rick Brown, trombone; Steve McQuarry, piano; Carl Herder, bass, and Vinnie Rodriguez, drums

Afghan American author Tamim Ansary presents his latest work, Road Trips: Becoming an American in the Vapor Trail of the Sixties, which recounts stories from his years as part of the American ’60s and’70s counterculture, after he arrived from Afghanistan and “dropped out” of a society he’d never been a part of. Ansary writes memoir, history, fiction, and essays on politics, current events, arts, sports, philosophy and whatever else captures his imagination. His book West of Kabul, East of New York, was selected by San Francisco as its One City One Book pick for 2009.  

  Grant Levin leads a quartet, featuring Tony Peebles on sax with Giulio Cetto on bass and Jeff Minnieweather on drums. $10 cover.

Don’t miss Grant Levin on piano and Joe McKinley on bass this Saturday afternoon. One day, these duo dates will go down in the annals of the San Francisco jazz scene as legendary.

Henry Hung (trumpet) assembles a hardy crew of jazz electronica habitués to explore the smoldering rubble that remains after last night’s Klaxon Mutant Allstars show. The band is called Amplifier, and the personnel includes Marcus Stephens (sax); Ian McCardle (keys); Giulio Cetto (bass); Jeff Marrs (drums).