Friday, Nov. 29th – 5:30-8:00 pm: Special Fifth Friday Booking!  

Mike Lipskin, acclaimed Harlem stride piano master, teams up with reed player Jerry Logas, whose way with early New Orleans style clarinet is exquisite, and world-class ragtime guitar specialist Craig Ventresco.

Born in New York, Mike Lipskin was digging his father’s Fats Waller records by the age of four, and by high school he was making his way to Harlem to learn the intricacies of Harlem stride piano technique from some of the originators of the music, including Willie “The Lion” Smith, Luckey Roberts, Cliff Jackson & Donald Lamberts.  Listening to one of Mike’s recordings of the music, Waller’s guitarist from the old days, Al Casey, said “I think I’m with Fats right now!”  We’re delighted to welcome Mike back to Bird & Beckett for this return trio engagement, in very good company indeed!

Bird & Beckett regulars have a long love affair with the clarinet work of reed player Jerry Logas, who plays here regularly on the first Friday of each month.  Jerry and Mike have worked together extensively in the past, and mesh beautifully when teasing out the beauty of Honeysuckle Rose, St. James Infirmary and other classics of the early days of jazz music.

Craig Ventresco is no stranger to the Bird & Beckett stage either, and we can never get enough of his guitar work, drawing deeply from 78rpm disks of early blues, ragtime and vaudeville era popular song.  San Franciscans can hear him nearly every week of the year in one or another North Beach spot or the Atlas Cafe, and lucky we are, as he’s known and heralded worldwide by the top acoustic guitarists and most savvy aficionados for his skill and his deep, uncanny connection to the music and its creators.