Shake off the workweek with a happy hour or two in the company of veteran drummer Tony Johnson and his merry crew — Bob Kenmotsu on tenor saxophone, Keith Saunders on piano and Matt Montgomery on upright bass. Two solid sets of straight ahead jazz & bebop, swing & bossa nova. Tony has been plying…

On Friday, March 24th, the Tony Johnson Quartet, with Bob Kenmotsu, Keith Saunders and Eric Markowitz, swings the blues from bebop to bossa 5:30-8pm. But we’re not done at 8! The Dewayne Oakley Blues Ensemble kicks off a late Friday time slot in earnest, 9-10:30pm. We don’t promise a late show every Friday, though we’ve…

  Dark Days and a Black Dog, performed by esteemed actor Andrea Snow and directed by Jael Weisman (both Obie Award winners) from the book by Emily Keeler, evokes seven heartwrenching, darkly comic years in the writer’s life, at once shocking and breathtakingly familiar.   Emily Keeler is a four-time recipient of the National Endowment…

Enjoy a classic jazz trio, led by drummer Vince Lateano–a crucial presence on the San Francisco jazz scene since the mid-1960s. Veteran bassist Peter Barshay and the fine young pianist Ben Stolorow join Vince on the third Sunday evening of every month for a deep and pleasurable swing through jazz standards, bop, blues and bossa….

Bossa Nova crooner Masha Campagne and her project Voz Da Lapa celebrate passion & saudade of Brazilian Samba & Bossa, honoring creativity & artistic modernization of Tom Jobim, Gilberto Gil, and other Brazilian legends. JazzTimes magazine noted that “Brazilian stylist Campagne is blending the wistfulness of Astrud Gilberto with the robust liquidity of Flora Purim” praising her spellbinding, sensuous vocals full of rich…

Guitarist Scott Foster makes jazz new each and every time out, and always swings. Every third Friday, he presents a fresh ensemble at Bird & Beckett. This week Scott is joined by featured artist Kevin Rayhill on piano, and great jazz players well familiar to Bird & Beckett audiences — Jim Peterson on sax, Dan…

Francis Wong, saxophones William Roper, tuba Scott Oshiro, flute & electronics Jordan Glenn, drums with poet Lynn Huang Francis Wong and William Roper go way back, and take it forward with two young lions. $20 cover charge (cash please) reservations, call 415-586-3733  

In Narrow Escapes, memoirist Louise Nayer takes the reader on a journey filled with danger and romance. Haunted by a terrible accident and adrift in love, the writer travels through Morocco, to New York City and finally, on a solo journey, to California, thousands of miles from her home. Set in the early 70s at…

Alchemy! Not as it seems, this ancient art. Neither is it otherwise. Is it what science was before science became what it is? Yes and no. Were the ancient alchemists really believing they could turn lead into gold? If so, what were their actual raw materials? Regardless of the answers to such questions, Walker Brents…