Jerry Ferraz hosts our twice-monthly poetry series. Buford Bunton and Steve Carolan feature tonight, followed by an  open mic. Bring something to read! Don’t write poetry? You can always bring the work of a favorite poet to share. Of course, poets love an audience, so you can come as that if you wish! All welcome…  

Shel Silverstein — yes, the one famous for Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, The Giving Tree — wrote hit songs for Johnny Cash, Dr Hook and The Medicine Show, Marianne Faithful, Bobby Bare and Willie Nelson, among others. In fact, he helped put together the band Dr Hook and the Medicine Show as a vehicle for his songs. San Francisco’s premier country music singer/songwriter and bandleader Misisipi Mike Wolf, invites Rik Elswit (guitarist for Dr Hook and friend of Silverstein), Gayle Lynn, The Shut-Ins and Maurice Tani to join him at Bird & Beckett to sing some of their favorite Shel songs and a few originals, too. Don’t miss out on Bird & Beckett’s burgeoning Sunday night series.  We’re calling the series Canyon Moonlight and it features bands sharing drummer Randy Odell on the first Sunday of the month (Eric & the In Crowd, EaR Candy,…

Roy Brown, organ Larry Douglas, trumpet and vibes Rusty Aceves, drums Roy Brown was born in Sacramento and exposed to jazz at the age of 5 by his parents. He played viola, clarinet, alto and tenor saxophones before realizing the piano was his true calling. In 1994, Roy released an independently produced CD entitled “Courage” on his own label, Roday Records, featuring the late legendary drummer George Walker, who was a mainstay in the Wes Montgomery group for years. Subsequently, Roy studied composition and theory with internationally acclaimed pianist Mark Levine, and after moving to the Bay Area, was soon working with the likes of pianist and educator Dee Spencer, drummer Babatunde Lea, guitarist Eric Swinderman, drummer Kamau Seitu, alto saxophonist Bishop Norman Williams and singer Frankye Kelly. In July of 2005 Roy performed at the Jazz Las Casas festival in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico and in…

Walker Brents III offers a personal interpretation of the mythology, history, and imagery of a deeply rooted artistic tradition.

North Beach Brass Band is both a traditional brass band playing early jazz and golden standards with forays into bebop and an electrified funky jazz act playing classic blues, Motown and soul tunes The band covers almost every American genre, from Louis Armstrong’s favorites to danceable covers of Seventies hits from legends like Aretha Franklin, Jimmy Reed, Buddy Guy, War, Hugh Masakela, The Meters, Jobim, and Miles Davis. Ed Ivey is, like, our favorite person on the planet! C’mon out! Daniel Herrera, trumpet Ed Ivey, tuba Dave Bullers,sax Byron Rynes,guitar Blake Ritterman, traps

“HowellDevine plays The Music with the original feel, intent and spirit, and you can tell they love the music while delivering some real blues in their own way. The singing and playing is never strained and they play with easy confidence…they don’t have to prove anything. There’s tasty slide, harp and rhythm with relaxed vocals that all blend together for a wonderfully satisfying experience…it knocks me out to hear a group playing such good quality blues today.” ~ Charlie Musselwhite “What a pleasure to find a young band that really gets the blues…Deep and true to the roots. Really digging this record and so glad they’re on the scene. ” ~ Bonnie Raitt “We love them – they are great!” ~ Elvin Bishop

Join us on an excursion through some major turning points in the history of the jazz trumpet. Dave Gibbons, piano; Rob Woodcock, bass; and Jon Frank, drums join forces behind the young trumpeter Noah Frank and sax player Ely Strauss to consider jazz trumpet artistry from Louis Armstrong to Terrance Blanchard and Roy Hargrove. Concerts every Sunday afternoon, 4:30-6:30, in Bird & Beckett’s “which way west?” series. Your donations help us pay the musicians.

Every Saturday night at Bird & Beckett… jazz club! 7:30-10pm. $10 cover. On a San Francisco foray from his base in Seattle, Anton Schwartz plays Bird & Beckett in the company of Adam Shulman on piano and Robb Fisher on bass in drummer Vinnie Rodriguez’s quartet. Schwartz committed himself to music at age 27, when he decided to step away from high-level research in Artificial Intelligence. Since then he’s forged ties with some of jazz’s heaviest hitters, including pianists Russell Ferrante, Taylor Eigsti, Randy Porter, Josh Nelson, Art Lande and Eric Reed… guitarists Peter Bernstein, Bruce Forman, Ed Cherry, Julian Lage and Dan Balmer… Trumpeters Dominick Farinacci, Thomas Marriott and Scott Wendholt… and vocalists Ed Reed, Jackie Ryan, Denise Donatelli and Rebecca Kilgore. His recent album Flashmob earned a four-star review in Down Beat. Born in 1967 and raised in New York City amidst a family known for intellectual ferment,…

Pianist Grant Levin and his stalwart ally, bassist Chris Amberger converse in jazz over two generous sets of music.  Bring $10 if you can afford it to help pay these fine musicians.

Swing and bop by long-time masters of the music… the core Bird & Beckett jazz experience.  Not to be underestimated! Chuck Peterson & Howie Dudune, reeds; Glen Deardorff, guitar; Dean Reilly, bass; Tony Johnson, drums, with vocalist Dorothy Lefkovits.

Jerry Ferraz hosts Bird & Beckett’s bi-monthly poetry reading and open mic, this week featuring Zigi Lowenberg working with Oakland pianist Bill Crossman. An open mic follows. Lowenberg was raised in Queens and then relocated to the Bay Area from East Village in Manhattan, and now she’s back in NYC. She’s traveling west in January to read in Berkeley and San Francisco. Lowenberg comes from a family in which the women were heavily involved in politics. Her mother was involved in fair housing issues and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She has worked since 1990 in collaboration with her husband, Raymond Nat Turner in the poetry and jazz ensemble called Upsurge. From New York, Boston, New Orleans, Detroit, Chicago, and Ghana, West Africa, Upsurge has performed nationally and internationally, collaborating across disciplines of jazz, poetry, history and politics. “Raymond and Zigi have such respect for the words…

Jinx Jones, hot shot rockabilly guitarist with a jazz habit, brings his trio — Joe Kyle, Jr. on bass and Ken Owen on drums — to Bird & Beckett, mixing some Monk, Bird & Bud into the locomotive beast that drives audiences to a frenzy up in North Beach at the Saloon and Tupelo, your finer venues far and wide, and out in the sun of the annual Glen Park Festival. Hear them tonight in the comfort of Glen Park’s own little bookshop cum jazz club. Another date in our burgeoning “Canyon Moonlight” concert series. Says Jinx, “Surf-a-billy after hours is the hottest party in town and one of San Francisco’s best kept secrets, (but not for long)!”

The Lost Trio, comprising Phillip Greenlief (reeds), Dan Seamans (bass) and Tom Hassett (drums), performed at Bird & Beckett in July 2015 with guitarist Scott Foster at Scott’s invitation. It was a beautiful occasion, and now the Lost Trio is returning the favor.  You should be here for this! Greenlief is one of the top avant garde sax players of our era, totally rooted in the swinging jazz tradition. The other players? Top notch jazzmen all, each with an individual sensibility that will afford  you plenty of delight. Why would you want to stay home? The opportunities you have at Bird & Beckett to hear truly exceptional music are not to be passed up. Week in and week out, we have the best jazz series in the region. The musicians love to play for you here. Come find out for yourself why that is! Regarding The Lost Trio: The Lost…

Bassist John Wiitala and drummer Greg Wyser-Pratt join Canadian pianist/vocalist Gaea Schell, who’s been making her mark on the San Francisco jazz scene since arriving a couple years ago.             In the judgment of Albert ‘Tootie’ Heath, Gaea “plays the heck out of the piano with them small hands.” Known among her peers for swinging every note, subtle phrasing, and honest lyrical writing, Gaea is a native of western Canada where she grew up playing music from an early age. Recorder lessons at age 6 with family friend, the late San Francisco based drummer Eddie Marshall, was one of her first musical ventures. Pursuit of a classical harp degree led her to check Oscar Peterson, Wynton Kelly and Bill Evans records out of the school library, inspiring a move East and subsequent graduation from the jazz program at acclaimed McGill University in Montreal. Gaea’s real learning, however,…