Joel Behrman, trumpet.
Karl Dray, trombone.
Tod Dickow, saxophone.
Matt Clark, piano.
Jeff Saxton, bass.
Greg Gotelli, drums.

$25 cover charge; byob.
Students $10.

For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733.

The San Francisco Sextet features first call musicians always on full display with talents equal to the best jazz players on the planet and an ever expanding book of tunes that catches the hard bop spirit of the best of the Blue Note and Prestige years. You’ll always be pleased and floored by this band and the consummate skill of the practitioners on stage.

Trumpeter Joel Behrman grew up in Belleville Illinois, a St. Louis suburb. At age 9 he started on his first instrument, trombone, a horn he still plays frequently today. He went on to earn his music degree at the University of Miami, studying with world-class improvisers like Ira Sullivan, Barry Ries, John Bailey, Jason Carder and Al Hood. Joel has performed with such such notables as Jimmy Cobb, Chris Potter, Ledisi, Jazzmeia Horn, Helen Sung, Chester Thompson, Dayna Stephens, and has recently toured and recorded with drumming superstar, Sheila E as well as her father, the latin jazz legend, Pete Escovedo. Since moving to the San Francisco bay area, he’s performed with several local jazz musicians including Marcus Shelby, Tiffany Austin, Howard Wiley, Mike Olmos, Patrick Wolff, Adam Klipple, Anton Schwartz, Larry Vuckovich, Jules Broussard, and Lavay Smith. In 2012 he released his debut album, Steppin Back. Outside the jazz world, Joel has toured with American Idol winner, Phillip Phillips, K.C. and the Sunshine Band and Boz Scaggs. He’s also performed with Etta James, Gladys Knight, Natalie Cole, Tony! Toni! Tone!, The Funk Brothers, Barry Manilow, and Josh Groban.

Trombonist Karl Dray cut his chops as a student in the Seattle and Vancouver jazz scenes and moved to the Bay Area in 2012, where he has performed and recorded with a variety of jazz, latin, reggae, funk, and pop ensembles, including Harold Jones and the Bossmen, Electric Squeezebox Orchestra, Morchestra, Edgardo Cambon, Rene Escovedo, Rise Up, Elenah, Eureka Sound, West Grand Brass Band, Undertones, Dafunkus, and more. New to the Bird & Beckett bandstand, he’ll be a discovery to us and to most of the audience.

Saxophonist Tod Dickow displays a style steeped in the traditions of be-bop and modern jazz, with influences including masters such as John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon and more, and also heavily influenced by a crop of Coltrane devotees like Michael Brecker, Dave Liebman, Steve Grossman and Bob Berg. While studying music at The College of San Mateo, Tod won several outstanding soloist awards at Collegiate Jazz Festivals, as well as an Outstanding Soloist award from Downbeat Magazine’s 1978 Student Music Awards. Performing in the SF Bay Area as a both a leader and as an in demand sideman over the years has provided opportunities to perform at many major venues and events such as The Monterey Jazz Festival, The Kool Jazz Festival, Yoshi’s and SFjazz while backing many well known artists such as Dave Brubeck, Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Wilson, Frank Sinatra Jr., and more. Recordings include The Faith and Credit Big Band, The James Leary Big Band, Full Spectrum, The Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, The Bay Area Jazz Composers Orchestra, Al Molina Latin Jazz Quintet, Lisa B.,The Turtle Island String Quartet, Chris Trinidad and Charged Particles. Visit the Discography section for the complete list.

Bassist Jeff Saxton, a classic journeyman bassist, called to perform on over 300 dates a year throughout the region, putting him among the busiest bassists in Northern California. Having grown up in Palo Alto, now residing in San Mateo, he got his start in the ’80s, he performed with the San Jose City Jazz program that also produced Chris Cain and Sylvia Cuenca. In the ’90s, an extended break from professional music followed until the onset of Covid — when he co-founded “The House of Bop” with the late Andrew Speight. Over the next two years, that project attracted well known local artists Keith Saunders, Matt Clark, Joe Warner, Adam Shulman, Sylvia Cuenca, Akira Tana and several guest artists, among them Terrell Stafford, Craig Handy, Eddie Henderson and others. 

Pianist Matt Clark is hands down at the top tier of pianist on the coast. He received his BFA in Jazz Studies from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and has recorded and/or performed with Bobby Hutcherson, Benny Golson, Eddie Marshall, John Faddis, David “Fathead” Newman, Gene Bertoncini, Joshua Redman, and Teddy Edwards. Matt has toured extensively throughout Asia, Europe and the United States including appearances at the Monterey, San Francisco, Vienne, Big Sur, Stanford, and Rochester jazz festivals in addition to televised performances for CNN Showbiz Today and numerous PBS specials. Beyond his gigging and recording, he’s a clinician, lecturer in jazz history, and ensemble instructor at the Stanford, Oaktown and Cazadero jazz workshops.

Drummer Greg Gotelli fields any number of great bands in the Bay Area, from the SF Quintet with vocalist Darlene Langston to the Buena Vista Jazz Band with clarinetist Don Neeley to vocalist Lorretta Gooden’s Hammond B3 combo. Many of the great veterans of Bay Area jazz have found a berth with Greg’s groups, including Noel Jewkes, Charlie McCarthy, Erik Jekabson, Si Perkoff, Benny Watson, Al Obidinski, Frank Jackson, Duncan James, Glen Pearson, Chuck Bennett, Denise Perrier, Mike Greensill, Marty Eggers, John Hunt, Andrew Storar, John Clark and a host of others. A modest but dapper guy keeping good time at the kit, Greg is a regular Medici of the Bay Area jazz scene. The personnel in his San Francisco Sextet and San Francisco Quintet is fluid, but comprises top players every time out — musicians that do the City proud.