Guitarist Scott Foster brings in a group on the 3rd Friday of each month. He first started playing Bird & Beckett in the fall of 2002. Ever since, it’s been all good. He’s sure seems to be our favorite musician, our favorite jazz musician, our favorite jazz guitarist, our favorite band leader. Come hear what he has to offer you this week. Cory Wright, on clarinet, has put in time in New York and Los Angeles jazz and creative music circles, and has played with Yusef Latif and Anthony Braxton along the way. Dan Seamans, on bass, brings decades of associations with some of the most adventurous musicians we’ve known. You’ve probably heard him here with the Lost Trio in the company of Philip Greenlief and Tom Hassett.  

Dynamic young players making their mark on the Bay Area jazz & club scene, vocalist Helen Loo, reed player Dan Magay and guitarist Justin Rock (subbing for Karma Beats core member Luke Vesely) offer up a unique, versatile and soulful sound combined with an expansive, genre-bending repertoire. Karma Beats delves deep into music from Brazil, Africa, and rock and jazz as well. They apply their magic to tunes associated with likes of The Beatles, Bob Marley, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Billie Holiday. Karma Beat believes to their collective soul that music should reflect a multi-cultural and universal appeal that knows no borders. Click here to check their trailer on youtube.

Join Margery Snyder and friends of Whitman McGowan to celebrate his masterwork, UNCOMMON KNOWLEDGE (Viridiana, 2015), collected performance texts 1985 – 2012, published one year ago, just a few months before he died in October 2015. As his CDs revealed his gift for fruitful collaboration with musicians & other artists, so this book shows off the interplay between Whitman’s words & the amazing images created by his scratchboard illustrator & Espresso Bar compadre Bruce Litz. It’s a beautiful book, with many of Whitman’s best-remembered rants, songs & monologues—and even if you know his stuff, you’re sure to discover a few new or forgotten gems. We’ll be reading (or chanting) some of Whitman’s best pieces, listening to his recordings & generally letting the memories of Whitman’s unique presence & performance bounce around the bookstore. Please join us! Read the SF Chronicle article by Steve Rubenstein on Whitman after he passed away.  Rubenstein writes, “Whitman…

Every second Saturday, we’re blessed with a pair of performances by pianist Grant Levin — first a duo outing in the late afternoon, and then after a dinner break, a quartet with some of the finest players the bay area has to offer.  In this instance, the duo pairs up Grant with the wonderful bassist Joe McKinley then the quartet features Noel Jewkes, tenor sax royalty in these parts, along with Joe on bass and young Malachi Whitson on bass.

July 8 marks the anniversary of drummer Jimmy Ryan’s passing. And though he’s sorely missed, the momentum he gave to our 2nd Fridays carries on! Tonight, Trombonists Stu Pilorz and Rick Elmore, pianist Don Alberts, bassist Aaron Cohn join forces with drummer Ron Marabuto to call some tunes that Jimmy would have called. Jimmy always said that one day Bird & Beckett’s jazz scene would be well regarded as a high point of San Francisco jazz history, and, despite our desire to remain modest, we’re beginning to admit that we think it might well be true. Come out and celebrate the legacy of a wonderful human being and a swinging drummer, Jimmy Ryan! Born in L.A. and migrating up here in the early 60s, he brought something special to the jazz scene — to Jimbo’s Bop City and Ronnie’s Soulville in the Fillmore in the early ’60s to the Gathering…

    Lucie Vítková is a composer, improviser and performer (accordion, harmonica, voice and tap dance) from the Czech Republic. Her compositions focus on sonification (compositions based on abstract models derived from physical objects), while her improvisation practice explores characteristics of discrete spaces through the interaction between sound and movement. In her recent work, she is interested in the musical legacy of Morse Code and the social-political aspects of music and art in relation to everyday life. Lucie studied at Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno (CZ), Royal Conservatory in The Hague (NL), California Institute of the Arts in Valencia (USA) and at Universität der Künste in Berlin (D). She has studied with professors Martin Smolka, Jaroslav Šťastný, Martijn Padding, Gillius van Bergijk, Michael Pisaro and Marc Sabat. Lucie is currently based in New York City and is enrolled at Columbia University as Visiting Scholar with Prof. George…

The GG Amos Trio with Lincoln Adler on sax, Greg Sankovich on keyboards and bass and Randy Odell on drums celebrate the Independence Day weekend. Guitarist / Vocalist GG Amos is an artist in the West Coast Blues tradition, raised in Sacramento and now based in San Francisco.  She’s honed her craft as a songwriter and entertainer utilizing the soul, jazz, funk and latin elements that make west coast blues what it is. For the past 26 years GG has earned a reputation as a riveting performer with a distinctive, expressive guitar style and an emotionally charged fluid voice…always emphasizing soulful communication with her audience.  Her guitar influences include Carlos Santana, Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson, Magic Sam, Kenny Burrell and Pat Metheny. As a vocalist, her influences have been many but says she learned more about expression, timing and phrasing from the great Louis Armstrong than any other singer. GG’s original songs…

To us, nothing suits the 4th of July weekend as well as a trad jazz party, and few can rival the Buena Vista Jazz Band in bringing that spirit to life. Singer Darlene Langston is featured, with Noel Weidcamp on cornet, John Hunt on trombone, Don Neely on clarinet, soprano sax and alto sax, Si Perkoff on piano, Duncan James on guitar, Al Obidinski on bass and Greg Gotelli on drums. Some call it Dixieland and think of striped sport coats and straw hats and that’s surely part of it, but jazz musicians will tell you that trad jazz is all about the exuberance and intricate abandon of the New Orleans bands of Buddy Bolden, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory and many more.  Come out to enjoy the music!  

Two top Bay Area tenor sax players meet up on the Bird & Beckett stage, with a fine rhythm section.  Miles Wick, bass, and Evan Hughes, drums, add their own excitement to the proceedings.