It’s the wolfman, Jack! Happy Halloween… jazz club! when lights are low… every Saturday night at Bird & Beckett! Tonight:  Tenor sax player Patrick Wolff leads the San Francisco Repertory Jazz Quartet with Adam Shulman on piano Eric Markowitz on bass and Jimmy Gallagher on drums $10 cover

AND SAW THE HEAVEN OPEN (UND SAH DIE HIMMEL OFFEN):  Spirituality here and beyond religion. Narratives, voices, contemplations Peter Erlenwein, Ph.D. will read from his book and engage in discussion with the audience. Dr. Erlenwein offers a fascinating approach towards the complex dynamics of spirituality, religion and society. The title of Dr. Erlenwein’s book, And…

Scott Barnhill, based in the South Bay, is a towering talent on the tenor sax with four decades in the business, and is a key player in the Bay Area. He hails from an important family in Bay Area jazz — his mother, Louise DeLucchi, is a jazz singer, and his late father, the drummer…

Moving beyond the familiar accounts of politics and the achievements of celebrity engineers and designers, Building the Golden Gate Bridge is the first book to primarily feature the voices of the workers themselves. This is the story of survivors who vividly recall the hardships, hazards, and victories of constructing the landmark span during the Great Depression….

Misisipi Mike gathers a few close personal friends to give a nod to Woody Guthrie and Jack Kerouac. Ken Owen reads Kerouac’s ideas on spontaneous prose, bits of “October in the Railroad Earth” and some Kerouac haiku, with the inestimable Henry Salvia on piano. Plus Dylan’s poem for Woody and a couple of Guthrie’s tunes by…

Four old pros create young jazz! These musicians are up to the task. They’re superbly attuned to each other — a quality that doesn’t necessarily come without great effort backed with solid skill and deep experience. Jim Grantham’s quartet dates here have always started with a sound of surprise that can come as a shock to…

Smith Dobson, alto saxophone, leads a fine quartet featuring Keith Saunders, piano; John Wiitala, bass; and Evan Hughes, drums. Smith has been a leading figure in the young Bay Area jazz scene for a decade or more, equally acclaimed on sax, vibes and drums. He leads a quartet at Bird & Beckett the first Saturday…

The indigenous people of the Haida Gwaii, an archipelago of islands off the coast of what is now British Columbia, date back 17,000 years and to this day retain a rich vein of stories — mythopoeic gems, as Walker Brents III would have it. This Sunday afternoon, Walker will tell a few of their stories,…

Saxophonist Matt Zebley joins guitarist Luke Westbrook and bassist Don Prell in drummer Vinnie Rodriguez’ quartet this Saturday, for two sets of straight ahead jazz and bebop. Matt Zebley released his first solo CD, “Live at Moondog” in 1999, and over the years has collaborated with the likes of Tony Bennett, Dave Brubeck, Wynton Marsalis, Yusef…