The Jazz Philanthropists Union presents… Pianist Grant Levin leads a quartet featuring the flutist Lori Bell, up from San Diego for the date! David Ewell on bass; Hamir Atwal on drums. Bell is an award-winning musician “of admirable depth and broad musical sympathies whose recordings and live performances over the years have set new and…

Brett Karner – trumpet Xander Johns – baritone saxophone Jackson Contugno – tenor saxophone Spencer Hoefert – guitar Cris Carrera – bass Robert Chapa – drums Top talent from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s “Roots, Jazz and American Music” program play Brett’s arrangements of some holiday chestnuts and a few numbers by the Ink…

$20 cover charge; $10 for students/musicians/low income. Trumpeter Geechi Taylor is a cornerstone of the Bay Area jazz scene. He’s bringing a slammin’ quartet into Bird & Beckett tonight for your pleasure Geechi Taylor, Trumpet/Vocal Michael Aaberg, Piano Ollie Dudek, Bass Michael Mitchell, Drums.  

Gaea Schell, piano, flute & vocal Dan Neville, vibes David Pinto, bass Carlos Ramirez, congas   As drummer Albert ‘Tootie’ Heath has said, Gaea “plays the heck out of the piano with them small hands.” Read more at http://www.gaeaschell.com/

Josiah Luis Aldrete, a founding member of the Molotov Mouths Outspoken Word Troupe, joins forces with fellow poet Tongo Eisen-Martin, to call the troupe to assembly at Bird & Beckett for an evening of incendiary expression! The Molotov Mouths — 3 women and 4 men from diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds: Chilean-born Ananda Esteva, queer activist…

The Cottontails jump, jive & wail through two sets of rollicking jazz, blues and R&B drawing on music from the 1920s through the 1940s. Karina Denike, vocals Michael McIntosh, piano Tom Griesser, tenor saxophone & clarinet Joe Kyle, Jr., bass Randy Lee Odell, drums

The thought of Norman O. Brown.  A gifted teacher, the arc of whose work goes all the way from the crypto-freudian utopianism of the 1960s to the offering of a crucial alternative to the divisive “clash of civilizations” interpretation of contemporary cultural conflict.  A visionary symbolic thinker, and a staunchly compassionate humanist as well.

The Jazz Philanthropists Union presents… at jazz club! when lights are low… The New Squatoolas play good-time jazz drenched in the traditions of New Orleans! Jim Peterson, sax Scott Foster, guitar Joe Kyle, Jr., bass Larry Vann, drums

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 — a swinging, bop-oriented quintet that bears a direct line of descent from the trio led by tenor player Chuck Peterson that launched our tradition…

Jack Hirschman, San Francisco’s 4th poet laureate, between devorah major and Diane di Prima, and one of the most productive poets to have held that position, is one of our favorite people in the world and a magnificent and prolific poet. He’s also unwaveringly committed to and the champion of the masses of individual humans…