653 Chenery Street
in San Francisco's Glen Park neighborhood

1-415-586-3733
[email protected]

Open to walk-in trade and browsing
Tuesday to Sunday
noon to six

 

Live Streams every weekend!

Refresh your browser to catch a show in progress!
Visit our Facebook page or YouTube channel!
But nothing beats being in the room with the music & the musicians!

jazz club! when lights are low…
The Vinnie Rodriguez Quartet!
Saturday, August 27th – 7:30-10:00 pm

Jazz Club! when lights are low... 10-25-14 at Bird & Beckett: Leader Terrance Tony (alto sax) with Eugene Pliner, piano; Aaron Cohn, bass; and Vinnie Rodriguez, drums.

Jazz Club! when lights are low… 10-25-14 at Bird & Beckett: Leader Terrance Tony (alto sax) with Eugene Pliner, piano; Aaron Cohn, bass; and Vinnie Rodriguez, drums. Photo by Angela Bennett.

Ben Flood, tenor sax
Eugene Pliner, piano
Adam Thompson, bass
Vinnie Rodriguez, drums

Vinnie Rodriguez has done yeoman’s duty every fourth Saturday on our jazz club series since its inception in the summer of 2014. Vinnie was on drums behind leader/pianist Michael Parsons on the very first round of jazz club dates, and when Michael moved away to Paris to marry and become an expat jazz player there, Vinnie supported alto sax player Terrance Tony who took on the fourth Saturday leadership role. Upon Terrance’s untimely demise in April 2015, Vinnie stepped up to lead the charge.

This week will only enhance Vinnie’s solid record on the Bird & Beckett bandstand, as he’s recruited tenor play Ben Flood, pianist Eugene Pliner and bassist Adam Thompson to the cause of nonstop swingin’!

Back when we started our Saturday night series, two full years ago, we asked several young local players — pianists Michael Parsons and Grant Levin, multi-instrumentalist Smith Dobson (sax, vibes, drums) and bassist Heshima Mark Williams (well, ok, Hesh at age 65 or so is the outlier there, but nobody’s more youthful than he!) — to play in a monthly rotation, and — most important — to bring to our stage the best jazz talent the Bay Area has to offer. We knew there were treasures untold all around the Bay Area in terms of great players whose names should be on the tips of every jazz fan’s tongue. These four leaders, interim leader Terrance Tony, and Vinnie himself have given us just what we asked for. No jazz club in the City That Knows How can challenge our achievement, we’re certain! Glen Park audiences have been truly blessed in that regard!

In his sixteen month tenure as leader, Vinnie has provided show after show of deeply engaged jazz for the Bird & Beckett audience. Anyone who has made it to his dates will attest to great evenings of jazz — Cole Porter’s tunes featuring tenor player Lyle Link and pianist Ben Stolorow; Ornette Coleman’s compositions interpreted with the able work of saxophonist Patrick Wolff and bassist Doug Stuart; Horace Silver’s music interpreted by pianist Keith Saunders and bassist Adam Gay; the list goes on… Vinnie has recruited so many stellar players for his dates, including trumpeters Erik Jekabson and Jay Sanders, bassists John Wiitala, Charles Thomas, Noah Schenker, Aaron Cohn and Robert Overbury; pianists Adam Shulman and Larry Chinn; saxophonists Tim Lin, Danny Brown and Scott Barnhill; trombonist Scott Larson — the list goes on!

Now it’s time to crack the jazz club shell open a bit wider! Vinnie, Smith, Grant and Heshima will continue to bring in groups many times each year, but we’ll also interrupt that steady rotation to spotlight groups led by many other fine local players — often the very players that these leaders have introduced to us as their featured sidemen along the way. Don’t hesitate to come out any Saturday night– we guarantee you’ll get a great show that demonstrates how rich the local scene is, boasting countless great players of all generations, age 17 to 91 at least!

Alongside New York and Paris, San Francisco is undoubtedly one of the greatest jazz capitals of the world. Only New Orleans, the birthplace of this wonderful music, can claim supremacy. We don’t hesitate to claim San Francisco’s position on the very next tier!

Bird & Beckett proudly presents jazz music as it is played in San Francisco in 2016 and beyond!

TAKE OUR SURVEY

To take our SURVEY, click here, and help the BBCLP get to know you better! As Duke Ellington always said, we love you madly...

The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project

Our events are put on under the umbrella of the nonprofit Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project (the "BBCLP"). That's how we fund our ambitious schedule of 300 or so concerts and literary events every year.

The BBCLP is a 501(c)(3) non-profit...
[Read More ]

 


The Independent Musicians Alliance

Gigging musicians! You have nothing to lose but your lack of a collective voice to achieve fair wages for your work!
The IMA can be a conduit for you, if you join in to make it work.

https://www.independentmusiciansalliance.org/

Read more here - Andy Gilbert's Feb 25 article about the IMA from KQED's site

Sign Up for Our Weekly Emails!