Eric & the In Crowd Go to the Movies on Friday 9/12 at 6pm – $20 donation appreciated, students $10, kids free. byob. Eric Shifrin concocts a combo on the 2nd Friday of each month, always a good natured affair to kick off the weekend.

Greg Gotelli’s San Francisco Quintet is up Friday at 8:30pm, with Joel Behrman on trumpet, Tod Dickow on tenor sax, Matt Clark on piano, Jeff Saxton on bass and Greg Gotelli on drums, cooking in a hard bop vein.  $25 cover charge; byob.

Steven Lugerner’s SLUGish Ensemble plays Saturday 9/13 at 7:30pm. Steven, plays bari sax and tenor, and has a terrific band, with Justin Rock, guitar; Ian McArdle, synthesizer; Michael Potter, piano; Alan Jones, bass; Mike Mitchell, drums, playing his own compositions, derived from the terrain on which we sit. $25 cover charge for this six piece band, byob.

Jim Bruno, Americana singer/songwriter–a singer’s songwriter, often called a songwriter’s songwriter–brings his trio Sunday 9/14 at 5pm, with a $20 cover, and, yes, something to drink, if you bring it…

That’s enough for the first half of September.

 

 

Harvey Wainapel is coming up in the third weekend of September at Bird & Beckett, and Lisa Mezzacappa and Darren Johnston have consecutive shows planned for the fourth weekend… lots of great stuff ahead!

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How does this thing work? Those in the know, know to bring a twenty for the band (that’s cash, baby!) and something to sip if they’re so inclined! They bring an extra fiver or two when the bands get bigger than a quartet. Paying the talent a respectable guarantee is how we keep our pool of talented professional gigging musicians housed and fed. Believe it or not, though it seems like “playing,” they’re hard at work, and when you’re the one(s) listening, they’re working for you! and you! and you! Happy Labor Day!

What’s a gigging jazz musician? All too often , it’s a musician who drives 50 miles in a $500 car with a $5,000 instrument to play a $50 gig! Is that how it should be? Uh uh! Let’s recognize ’em as professionals — well-schooled experts at their craft with sophisticated and expensive equipment — and let’s keep ’em gainfully employed close to home. Way too many places ask musicians to play for a beer and a plate of food and whatever they can beg from the audience. If we pay ’em each a guaranteed $150 apiece for three or four hours of their time, skill, training and talent, we still call that insufficient, but it’s a start! Frankly, since the bloom went off the rose with the passing of the worst phase of this five-years-and-counting endemic pandemic, $100 is the best we can do for a guarantee, though we supplement it the second cover charges pass that mark.

Write your congressperson & tell ’em to call us and ask us how they can help. We’re allied with the Independent Musicians Alliance, Jazz in the Neighborhood and Whippoorwill Foundation to push for better wages and working conditions for the Bay Area’s culture workers. We think it’s the thing to do! We need legislation to create the mechanisms that can allow that to happen consistently and on a sensible scale. 

Want to support the cultural programming at Bird & Beckett? Donate to our nonprofit! Want to support the bookshop? Buy books here! Don’t read? Buy a greeting card! You get the picture. We love ya for it!

Spend a goodly portion of your discretionary money in the neighborhood and it’ll make your neighborhood thrive. Carry some cash! Try not to teach your kids to put a two dollar purchase on a card! Try to avoid that yourself! It makes your mom and pop shops happy every time they don’t have to pay a cut to the financial industry just to do business with you.

Believe us when we tell you that it’s a pleasure to serve the community, and each of you individually, and that we appreciate your goodwill and your investment in the neighborhood!