Back in 1999, the year we opened Bird & Beckett, Jerry Ferraz was on the first poetry reading we presented, alongside Justin Desmangles and Dan Richman. He’s remained at the center of our poetry presentations ever since. Until now. Jerry has been saying for years that his “compass points North” and now he’s done it,…

Pay what you can, and enjoy the process whereby musicians find their way among their peers, without specific preparation and  preconceptions, just years of learning their craft and learning to listen and learning to respond to the moment, to the tradition and to the next musical idea. It’s fascinating and vastly entertaining, and Bird &…

Max Perkoff, trombone and piano Charlie McCarthy, tenor sax and flute Chuck Metcalf, bass Tony Johnson, drums $20 suggested donation; byob In the late 1950s and 1960s, 230 Jones Street in San Francisco was the headquarters of the San Francisco Musicians Union, Local 6 of the American Federation of Musicians, covering the counties of San…

Indigo Joanne Hotchkiss, to whom this reading is dedicated, was a co-founder in 1979 of the Haight Ashbury Literary Journal. Co-editors Alice Elizabeth Rogoff and César Love co-host and participate in this reading, which will feature local poets who have poems in the current issue — Ed Mycue, Kitty Costello, Nellie Wong, Karen Melander-Magoon, Rafael…

  Join us for a celebration of Robin Michel’s new collection of poems, Beneath a Strawberry Night Sky (Raven & Wren Press, 2023). Free. Refreshments provided. “It has taken nearly three decades to get this book ready for prime time,” says R0bin. “Earlier versions of these poems, with the exception of two, were written during…

Vocalist David Gonzalez has pulled in a couple worthy associates from his late ’60s & ’70s gang — drummer Vince Lateano and bassist Peter Barshay — to celebrate a piano player who was central to the hip ‘n happenin’ latin jazz funk rock world of the Bay Area in the era, with young Matt Clark…

Four master musicians perform iconic classics and standards of the Afro Latin repertoire. Marco Díaz – piano , trumpet Julio Pérez – percussion Carlos Caro – percussion Saúl Sierra – bass $20 cover charge (cash please) reservations: 415-586-3733 byob click here to hear Saúl’s last Bird & Beckett outting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRB5kOu1ST4 Saúl Sierra was born and…

Guitar and Saxophone Explorations The evening will feature an eclectic mix of jazz, original and improvised music for guitar and saxophone in an intimate duo setting. Scott and Sheldon are reuniting after a long hiatus and say they’re looking forward to sharing work from their collaboration 25 years ago and updating their work together with…

Scott Foster & Sheldon Brown play the early show, Friday the 20th from 6-8pm, reactivating a duo project that’s long overdue! From 8:30 to 10pm, the Peter Zak Trio — with Marcos Varela on bass and Sylvia Cuenca on drums — plays the late show. Saturday evening at 7:30, it’s bassist Saúl Sierra’s Latin Jazz…