653 Chenery Street
in San Francisco's Glen Park neighborhood

1-415-586-3733
[email protected]

Open to walk-in trade and browsing
Tuesday to Sunday
noon to six

 

Live Streams every weekend!

Refresh your browser to catch a show in progress!
Visit our Facebook page or YouTube channel!
But nothing beats being in the room with the music & the musicians!

Saturday Night Jazz Club!
The Grant Levin Quartet
featuring Noel Jewkes
October 11th – 8-11 pm

Pianist Grant Levin has become appreciated as among the very finest young pianists on the local jazz scene, and his collaboration with seasoned tenor sax player Noel Jewkes has paid dividends for both of them, and for audiences all around the Bay Area.  Tonight, they’re joined by veteran bassist Chris Amberger, one of Grant’s very earliest proponents,…

Read More...

Friday, October 10th – 5:30-8:00 p.m.
The Bird & Beckett Bebop Band
plays jazz in the bookshop

Drummer Jimmy Ryan leads a stellar rotating crew of musicians on the 2nd Friday of each month — usually two horns on the front line, piano, bass and drums.  This week, he’s got Stu Pilorz on trombone; Stephen Norfleet on tenor sax; Don Alberts on piano; and Bishu Chatterjee on bass.  Each time out, there’s a slight adjustment in the…

Read More...

Sunday, October 5 – 4:30-6:30 pm
Duocracy: Ian Carey and Ben Stolorow

Duocracy, a project of trumpeter Ian Carey and pianist Ben Stolorow, focuses on classic tunes from the rare to the familiar, ranging from Gershwin and Gordon Jenkins to Thelonious Monk and Henry Mancini, plus occasional original tunes. Within that repertoire, they aim for interplay, unpredictability, and surprise. (You can see them performing one of their…

Read More...

Sunday, October 5th – 2pm
Taurean Horn 40th Anniversary Reading

Taurean Horn Press 40th Anniversary Reading — Publisher Bill Vartnaw and a roster of fine poets celebrate one of California’s key small presses.  Poets Q. R. Hand, Gail Mitchell, Jeanne Powell, Kim Shuck will be joined by other alumni of the press to be announced.

Read More...

jazz club: Saturday, Oct. 4th – 8-11 pm
The Smith Dobson Quartet
with Ben Goldberg

Clarinetist Ben Goldberg has been playing at the top echelon of American progressive jazz for a couple of decades and has recorded prolifically, including a recent session with tenor sax player Smith Dobson, the leader of our 1st Saturday “jazz club” sessions.  Drummer Hamir Atwell and bassist Eric Markowitz, two key and wonderfully creative players on…

Read More...

First Fridays jazz in the bookshop!
Don Prell’s Seabop Ensemble
5:30 to 8:00 pm

The first Friday of every month, it’s always Don Prell’s Seabop Ensemble — a fixture in San Francisco’s longest running neighborhood jazz party! Don has had a six decade love affair with the string bass and jazz, beginning back in the 1950s.  That’s when he first made his mark as a mainstay of the Bud Shank…

Read More...

Sunday, September 28th – 4:30-6:30 pm
El Guajiro! Johnny Escobedo

Cuban son, boleros y guajiras from a three-piece ensemble led by singer and guitarist Johnny Escobedo, with Norman Downing, percussion and vocals; Roberto Razon, tres cubano and vocals! The sounds of Havana and the Cuban countryside! Read more on El Guajiro site:  click here!

Read More...

Sunday, September 28th – 2:30 p.m.
Walker Talks!
Eriugena’s theology of the logos

Walker Brents III weaves a fascinating web of insight, association, speculation and delight the last Sunday of every month, following his muse where it takes him on topics divers — from epic literature to mythological tales to the enigmas of poetry and the profundities of philosophy and religion. Today at 2:30, join his many devotees to…

Read More...

Saturday, Sept. 27th – 8-11 p.m.
The Michael Parsons Quintet
Farewell concert
& live recording session!

Michael is leaving for Paris, drawn by love, and vowing to return, in 2016, married, we sincerely hope, to the lovely Siham!  He’s unquestionably the best young bebop piano player on the local scene, having climbed quickly to that level over the past decade since arriving here from the Central Valley town of Lodi.  There,…

Read More...

The CCSF Struggle: A report from the trenches

A report on a recent ACCJC/Herrera conference– A friend of Bird & Beckett writes: “​If I had known it would be this interesting, I would have urged more to attend. Traffic was a problem in getting there. But inside the courtroom, the half-hour case management conference was rewarding. It started with the usual, the People…

Read More...