A Tribute to Don Prell & SeaBop.
Friday, June 19th — 7:30pm.

Jim Grantham, tenor saxophone.
Scott Foster, guitar.
Ollie Dudek, bass.
Omar Aran, drums.

$20 cover charge / byob.
Students $10 / kids free.
For a reservation, call the bookshop at 415-586-3733.

Bassist Don Prell, born in 1929, has passed at the age of 96. We’ll pay tribute this Friday to Don and his long-running band, SeaBop, when guitarist Scott Foster convenes a session with a few of the many SeaBop alumni who did serious jazz time  with the irrepressible band leader.

Don was a professional jazz musician from the age of 15, when he joined Los Angeles Local 47 of the American Federation of Musicians, requiring special permission to join because of his age. Soon, he went on the road with the Frank Ortega Band and along the way he played with prominent jazz musicians including Buddy Rich, Chet Baker, and Claude Williamson. In the mid-1950s, he was the bassist for the Bud Shank Quartet, touring and recording albums with the band in 1956 and 1957. He played for the San Francisco Symphony for 30 years and, after retirement, formed the SeaBop Ensemble, which played at various San Francisco spots, including Bird & Beckett, but was principally docked at the Bayview Boat Club where Don held forth on Tuesdays for decades. Beginning in 2002, Don was a core member of the Chuck Peterson Quartet, which was where it all began for jazz in the bookshop at Bird & Beckett! He may be gone from the bandstand, but he made an indelible impression here and pretty much everywhere he went

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A Birthday Bash for Noel Jewkes
Saturday, June 20th – 7:30pm

Noel Jewkes, reeds
Keith Saunders, piano
Heshima Mark Williams, bass
Mark Lee, drums
Kay Kostopoulos, vocals

$25 cover charge, byob.
Students $10; kids free
For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733

Noel Jewkes and the Bird & Beckett proprietor, Eric, share a birthday, and try to rendezvous in the shop on or about the date each year for a performance by Noel and his compatriots. We’re pulling it off again this year. It’s always a pleasure to present the swingingest cat in Northern California jazz, and it’ll be no exception this year, as Noel turns 86 and Eric turns 70. Come out and help us celebrate! And enjoy some fine jazz in the bargain!

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Sunday, June 21st – 5-7pm
Sunday Happy Hour Show
The Smith Dobson Quartet

Smith Dobson, saxophone
Keith Saunders, piano
Eric Markowitz, bass
Tony Johnson, drums

It’s the Sunday happy hour show at Bird & Beckett, bring something to sip and pay what you can. Bring a snack for yourself or bring some food to share. Stay for a tune, stay for a set, stay for the evening. $20 is nice, but you decide what it’s worth, and what you can afford; students $0 to $10, your call; kids free.

This long-running association of musicians held forth for years at the Club Deluxe on Haight Street. We’re still waiting for that great spot to be resurrected. In the meantime, you can recapture a bit of the magic — or capture it for your very first time — when saxophonist Smith Dobson fronts a rhythm section well known to Bird & Beckett regulars. Relax awhile with some fine bebop, hard bop, post bop, the new thing… some swing… This is San Francisco jazz for a Sunday summer afternoon.

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Sunday, June 21st – 8-10pm 
The Guilhem Fourty Quartet

Jonah Hieb, trumpet.
Brahm Sasner, piano.
Isaac Coyle, bass.
Guilhem Fourty, drums.

$20 Cover Charge / BYOB.
Students $10
For Reservations call (415) 586-3733.

Guilhem Fourty, born and raised in Toulouse, France and now based in NYC, is bringing his modern jazz quartet to Bird & Beckett to present his original music and arrangements of jazz standards. 

His quartet at Bird & Beckett tonight features the fantastic young bassist Isaac Coyle, a vital member of the Bay Area jazz community, and two of Guilhem’s young colleagues on the New York scene, pianist Brahm Sasner, born and raised in San Francisco, and trumpet player Jonah Hieb, raised in Seattle. Isaac is jamming out to Glen Park for this gig from another engagement, so we’ll start with a short trio set of trumpet, piano and drums to set the stage for the full quartet.

Guilhem began drumming at the age of five and went on as a youth to study at the Toulouse Conservatory of Music where he focused on jazz studies. His passion for drums led him to study also with well-respected educators including Daniel Dumoulin of the Dante Agostini drum school.

After continuing his jazz performance studies at Jean Jaurès University, Guilhem received a scholarship at age 19 to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he was mentored by legendary musicians such as Dave DiCenso (Hiromi, Josh Groban, Cro-Mags), Neal Smith (Mulgrew Miller, Steve Nelson), Greg Hopkins (Buddy Rich Band), Ralph Peterson (Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers), Billy Kilson (George Duke, Dave Holland), and Terry Lyne Carrington (Herbie Hancock, Esperanza Spalding, Wayne Shorter).

Guilhem worked as a session drummer throughout his time at Berklee, recording for artists including Zach Santos, Audrey Bussanich, Sam Chandler, Rakel Saranga, Lucas Ghelfi, Chopin Nanan, Richard Stenmeyer, and many more. By the age of 21, Guilhem had played with renowned musicians including Grammy nominee saxophonist Miguel Zenón; and in that same year, he joined the Berklee Jazz and Gender Institute directed by NEA Jazz Master Terri Lyne Carrington.

In 2022, Guilhem received an award from the Fondation de La vocation Marcel Bleustein Blanchet in France. He has also been recognized by the Downbeat magazine within the Berklee Advanced Jazz choir led by Ned Rosenblatt, winning twice the student music award. (2022, 2023). In 2023, he received the 1st annual Jazz Camp Fellowship Award, where he was mentored by Ulysses Owen Jr. and Allison Miller in La Honda, California, as well as the PASIC 23 Ed Shaughnessy scholarship.