BIRD & BECKETT CULTURAL LEGACY PROJECT
Walker Talks! Â The last Sunday of each month… This month, Walker Brents III ponders an enigmatic 16th century seer, a doctor in a time of plagues and cataclysms whose uncanny ruminations and oblique, dire prophecies of the future have dazzled and intrigued generations. Nostradamus was a learned and intuitive scholar, a renaissance humanist, a symbolist poet whose grasp of his own time and its possible futures reveal much about the extra-rational underpinnings of our own time of supposed right and reason.
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Four colleagues — jazz professionals for six decade, if not more. Charlie McCarthy, sax Ray Scott, guitar Chuck Bennett, bass Jim Zimmerman, drums. These musicians are all well-traveled, highly regarded players, and have been getting together on a weekly basis for years — when not traveling, that is….
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We’re closed for Thanksgiving day, but then we’re back in full swing with books for sale and live jazz Friday to Sunday, plus a poetry reading on Monday. Friday, November 28th – 5:30-8:00 pm: jazz in the bookshop! The Chuck Peterson Quintet, with Chuck and Howie Dudune on reeds, Duncan James on guitar, Dean Reilly on bass and Tony Johnson on drums. Saturday, November 29th – 8-11 pm: Â jazz club! Â Charlie McCarthy, reeds; Ray Scott, guitar; Chuck Bennett, bass and Jim Zimmerman, drums. Sunday, November 30th – 4:30-6:30 pm: which way west? The Walter Earl Trio Monday, December 1 – 7-9 pm: Â Poets! Emily Wolahan features, with an open mic to follow. Emily’s first poetry volume, HINGE, is due out by the end of the year through the National Poetry Review Press. Â Her poetry has appeared in Boston Review, Gulf Coast Journal, Omniverse, The The Poetry, Drunken Boat and…
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The “Keepers of the Flame” is a jazz coalition created by Dave Bendigkeit on trumpet and flugelhorn, featuring Dave Udolf on piano, Akira Tana on drums, and Chris Amberger on bass. They perform all original songs from the great river of American music where the groove and self-expression are paramount, as well as unique arrangements of the great jazz compositions and familiar songs from the American Songbook. Â Members have performed with everyone from Art Blakey, Cab Calloway, Shelly Manne and Ella Fitzgerald to Freddie Hubbard, Art Farmer, Sonny Stitt, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and so many other giants of this music.
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In her new book, Sapna Thottathil calls on us to rethink the politics of organic food by focusing on what it means for the people who grow and sell it–what it means for their health, the health of their environment, and also their economic and political well-being. Taking readers to the state of Kerala in southern India, she shows us a place where the so-called “Green Revolution” program of hybrid seeds, synthetic fertilizers, and rising pesticide use had failed to reduce hunger while it caused a cascade of economic, medical, and environmental problems. Farmers burdened with huge debts from buying the new seeds and chemicals were committing suicide in troubling numbers. Farm laborers suffered from pesticide poisoning and rising rates of birth defects. A sharp fall in biodiversity worried environmental activists, and everyone was anxious about declining yields of key export crops like black pepper and coffee. “A breath of…
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Alto player Terrance Tony assembles the band each 4th Saturday of the month, drawing on some of the stellar players around the Bay Area.  Tonight, pianist Grant Levin, bassist Aaron Cohn and drummer Vinnie Rodriguez are on the gig! Two years ago, Terrance came out from Houston – where he was born and raised – and immediately gained everyone’s attention with his fleet bebop chops.  “Houston’s a great place to be from,” he says.  We’re lucky to have him call Oakland home! But it was In Houston and Dallas where he became the musician he is today — under the direct influence and bandstand tutelage of some true giants, including Texas tenors Illinois Jacquet, Arnett Cobb, Don Wilkerson and Eddie “Cleanhead†Vinson and Dallas titans James Clay and Marchel Ivery. Terrance toured with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in 1989 in the stellar line up that included Benny Green, Donald Harrison, Javon Jackson and Frank Lacy, playing…
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Saxophonist David Boyce, pianist Ben Slater, bassist Adam Gay and drummer Dave Mihaly join leader/guitarist Scott Foster for a foray across the musical terrain of Thelonious Monk.
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1964 saw the release of A Love Supreme, a jazz record that changed the world’s thinking on jazz, even as John Coltrane had already set the path… This Sunday, percussionist Anthony Brown will celebrate the milestone of the album’s 50th anniversary, with a trio and the eminent poet Genny Lim, a crucial voice on the San Francisco scene since the 1970s,
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It’s jazz club at Bird & Beckett… when lights are low. Special performances, and a sweet vibe to make your Saturday night. Don’t look back!  Tonight, trumpeter, flugelhornist & singer Dave Bendigkeit brings in a marvelous, tight quartet with David Udolf on piano, Peter Barshay on bass and Akira Tana on drums. All of these musicians were deeply involved in creating the jazz that evolved post-1968.  By the time a lot of us thought it was just disco, these guys were driving through the changes into a dizzy atmosphere of their own making.  Says Dave, “No musical ‘rear-view mirrors’ for us…”  They’re artists.  They don’t look back. Yes, they mine some classic material, but they’re also busy creating original music “from the great river of American music where the groove and self-expression are paramount.” Dave began working on the San Francisco jazz scene in the early 1970s, performing with dozens and…
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David Meltzer’s a brilliant poet and he could use a hand!  So come give him a hand, and let’s put together some funds to meet medical expenses.  A $20 donation at the door is requested, though we’ll not turn anyone away as long as space allows!  And much larger donations are definitely encouraged and appreciated.  We’ll also sell a signed letterpress broadside that David’s working up with Nick Whittington as we speak! Colleagues Clark Coolidge, Sunnylyn Thibodeaux, Andrew Joron, Les Gottesman and Julie Rogers will read poems.  Cloud Shepherd and The Rabbles will play music.  Wine, beer and abundant high spirits guaranteed! Can’t make it on November 9th?  No worries!  Visit Meltzerville at this link and it will take you to a place where you can donate to the fund!
Read MoreGuitarist Tom Lander brings in a quartet including saxophonist Charlie McCarthy, bassist Chuck Bennett and drummer Tony Johnson for two sets of jazz standards and originals. All this other stuff this weekend? Â Wonderful indeed. Â Way beautiful! Â But this Tom Lander date is as good as it gets! Â If you’re seriously appreciative of small combo jazz, you should make this date. Â You know the way you spend ridiculous amounts of time at the International Film Festival? Â That should be how you regard the offerings here at B&B, it we do say so ourselves!. Tom was playing blues and rock in Madison, Wisconsin during college in those heady mid -60s before coming out to San Francisco in 1969. Â He continued in that vein here until digging into music he couldn’t just pick up off records, starting a development in jazz advanced significantly by studies with influential guitar teachers like Davis Ramey and…
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Hey y’all! It’s the new thing at Bird & Beckett! Second Sunday of Every Month Surf-a-billy Swing Time Dance Party! First date: November 9th! Lavay Smith’s Swingin’ Trio Featuring Jules Broussard The band starts early & ends promptly so get out of bed and prepare to swing! Read all about Lavay at lavaysmith.com! Read up on Jules at broussard.com
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Noel Jewkes, reeds. Grant Levin, piano. Joe McKinley, bass. Myron Cohen, drums. Always a new twist when Grant Levin brings in some of San Francisco’s finest and most interesting players. “jazz club” every Saturday night, from 8-11. Â When lights are low… Â It’s not like anything you’ve experienced yet at B&B.
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Randy Craig, piano; Robbie MacGregor, guitar; Alex Baum, bass; and Ken Owen, drums play an eclectic mix of jazz, blues and originals.  Craig and MacGregor have been playing regularly on Wednesday nights at the Marsh Berkeley, with a revolving cast of friends, including today’s bassist and drummer, Alex Baum and Ken Owen.  Visit craigandmacgregor.com for more tantalizing detail on that particular little soiree….  A fine time guaranteed with these guys… Randy has written more than 40 scores for the stage and a slew of film scores. He’s been part of two Obie Award-winning plays and scored an Academy Award-nominated ï¬lm. His work has been seen and heard at the Mill Valley Film Festival and the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival among others around the world. A recipient of the Bay Area Theatre Critics’ Circle Award for Best Musical Score, Randy has worked with the San Francisco Mime Troupe, was a founding…
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Tenorman Smith brings in a crack quartet– with Ben Goldberg on clarinet, Adam Gay on bass and Omar Aran on drums. Â Smith has a brand new cd in hand! Â Come celebrate!
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