Harvey Wainapel, reeds Adam Shulman, piano Peter Barshay, bass Sylvia Cuenca, drums Reuniting two old friends who have rarely played together in recent years, the Harvey Wainapel/Sylvia Cuenca Quartet promises an evening of fresh musical energy and material, with a mix of originals, “standards” and “ought to be standards!” Sylvia (who has played with Joe Henderson, Clark Terry,…

Sylvia Cuenca, a San Jose native who’s been a first call drummer on the jazz scene in New York City now for several decades, is passing through town and will play Bird & Beckett twice this week — tonight in a quartet with New York organ player Jared Gold and local icons Joe Cohen on…

Ian Carey, trumpet Bob Kenmotsu, tenor sax Mark Levine, piano Robb Fischer,  bass Ron Marabuto, drums Fine, well traveled musicians right down the line, led by pianist Mark Levine — four decades plus playing at the highest levels of the jazz world, a dozen albums as a leader, two Grammy nominations, significant and satisfying bandstand and…

Seabop! Don Prell, leader, on bass, with Al Molina, trumpet, and Jerry Logas, reeds.  Drummer tba. Bassist Prell got his start in L.A. in the 1950s, traveling for several years as a member of the Bud Shank Quartet. He’s been a cornerstone of the Bird & Beckett Friday night jazz series since its inception in…

Catch GG after the game! GG Amos, vocals and guitar Parris Bertolucci, organ Randy Lee Odell, drums GG Amos carries the torch of the African American guitarists and singers who created a distinct West Coast blues style during World War II and the decades that followed — musicians like Lowell Fulson and T-Bone Walker and…

  The Principles Behind Flotation (Skyhorse Press, 2017) is the first novel from Alexandra Teague, a former NEA Fellow, Stegner Fellow, and City College of San Francisco instructor, currently an associate professor at University of Idaho. She has previously published two poetry books—The Wise and Foolish Builders (Persea 2015) and Mortal Geography (Persea 2010), winner…