Avotcja, poetry and small percussion
Sandi Poindexter, violin
Francis Wong, saxophones
Heshima Mark Williams, bass
Raul Ramirez, drums

$20 cover charge
reservations: call 415-586-3733

Avotcja & Modúpue kick off another great year of live music at Bird & Beckett!

For more years than we can count, Avotcja, a formidably great poet/musician/composer/musicologist, has brought her ensemble of musical geniuses, Modúpue to Bird & Beckett on the first Sunday of the year to perform for you.

2024 continues the tradition! Performances by Modúpue are always a joy to experience.

Modúpue was named best jazz group of the year twice, in 2005 and again in 2010, by the Bay Area Blues Hall of Fame. Avotcja herself was named a “Jazz Hero” by the Jazz Journalists Association in 2015. Her radio shows on KPFA (“Bebop, Cubop & the Musical Truth”) and KPFA (“La Verdad Musical”) have been soul satisfying for decades, expressing the boundless joy she always finds in the music and its practitioners.

As for her poetry, no one taps deeper wells of humanity than Avotcja.

Learn more at avotcja.org.

Poet Genny Lim has said, “Avotcja is one tough, no-nonsense poet, deejay, teacher, jazz and world music aficionado. Her homegrown roots stretch from funk to rhythm and blues and jazz in a blazing trail of tongue-lashing poetry accompanied by some of the hottest Bay Area musicians playing.”

Per the late activist/educator Betita Martinez, “Avotcja is a unique voice among our poets, musicians, playwrights and other creative folk today. She combines a fierce, persistent and consistent passion for justice with a beauty of words, sounds and image that can take your breath away. To put it simply, Avotcja is a national and international treasure.”

And writer Ishmael Reed, in the liner notes of Modúpue’s award-winning cd “Live at Yoshi’s” says, “Her ‘Oaktown Blue’ ranks with the works written by the best Blues writers, Bessie Smith, Langston Hughes & Sterling Brown included.”