Come out for some fun with the City Jazz Ensemble, performing original compositions as well as beloved classics in celebration of a successful spring semester at CCSF! The band includes: Vocalists, Adina Pernell and Helen Palma Violins, David Wallace and Madeline Baker Trumpet, Freddy Lee Alto sax, Ferdinand Hartanto Tenor sax, German Murashov Bari sax and clarinet, Van Mares Piano, Megan Wegmann Bass, Elijah Pontecorvo Drums, Raul Menjivar

20 years down, now embarking on the next 20! Plenty more ahead, of course, through the end of the  month, including: — City  Jazz – CCSF Jazz Club’s big combo – coming in on Wednesday the 22nd to celebrate the end of the term with a blowout jam & party, 7pm — The 230 Jones Street band holding forth on Friday the 24th, 5:30pm — The Glen Pearson Quartet featuring the great saxophonist Robert Stewart on Saturday the 25th, 7:30pm — and three events on Sunday the 26th: • Walker Talks — on the Romantic era visionary poet William Blake — at 2:30pm • The Frank Tusa Trio with Akira Tana at 4:30pm • The Evangenitals — up from L.A. with a new cd — at 7:30pm — then, rounding out the month, five more events: • a gathering to remember poet, humanist and dearly missed friend of the shop…

Son of the shop Nicholas James Whittington reads his work, alongside Rod Roland and Micah Ballard in a celebration of their recent collections, No Right Words and Daily Vigs, respectively, the latest pamphlets from Bird & Beckett — a press, of which we are inordinately proud, that owes everything to our aforementioned progeny from the conception of its many offspring through their birthing into this temporal and concrete sphere. Micah Ballard is the author of Negative Capability in the Verse of John Wieners (Auguste Press, 2001; reissued by Bootstrap Press, 2017); three full-length collections of poetry: Afterlives (Bootstrap Press, 2016), Waifs and Strays (City Lights Books, 2011), and Parish Krewes (Bootstrap Press, 2009); and over a dozen small books, including most  recently, Daily Vigs (Bird & Beckett, 2019). With Sunnylyn Thibodeaux, he is co-publisher of Auguste Press and Lew Gallery Editions.   Rod Roland is a poet and  artist living in…

A classic piano quartet, led by the most remarkable pianist we know. And that’s saying a lot in a region boasting dozens of fantastic jazz pianists.  The volcanic creativity and technique of Grant Levin has been thrilling San Francisco jazz fans for the past decade and shows no signs of abating!  Lyle Link, saxophone Grant Levin, piano Aaron Cohn, bass Rick Rivera, drums $20 suggested; sliding scale available.  

$20 cover tonight; sliding scale available. The Jazz Philanthropists Union presents… Invisible Guy Ben Goldberg, clarinet Michael Coleman, piano Hamir Atwal, drums The return to Bird & Beckett of a sublimely intelligent and intuitive trio “in strict pursuit of beautiful melody.” Michael Coleman says: “Melody is the knife that cuts through to truth. Then there is the importance of breath, and personal expression.” Reviewing a 2014 concert, Howard Reich of the Chicago Tribune said the group is “an unusually focused ensemble inventing a musical syntax for itself.” $20 cover charge. $10 for students / musicians / low income

Geechi Taylor, trumpet; David Boyce and James Mahone, reeds; Grant Levin, piano; Scott Foster, guitar; David Ewell, bass; Cairo McCockran, drums. Now, if that ain’t something… well, then, we just don’t know! But we think we know. That’s something! Happy anniversary to us! Bring dough for the musicians! Big dough if you’ve got it! $20 would be appropriate if  you’ve got it. More or less is ok. Remember, we have seven musicians on the bandstand who make their living this way, or at least as much of their living as is possible. But there’s no set cover… as has always been the case for our weekly Friday 5:30 shows, now in their 18th year, with never a missed Friday in all those years. We owe the neighborhood big time for helping us keep this going; we owe Chuck Peterson for getting it started; and we owe the musicians and poets…

Michael Boughn worked in the Teamsters for nearly 10 years before returning to university to earn a PhD in 1986 after studying with poets John Clarke and Robert Creeley. He is the author of ten books of poetry, including Iterations of the Diagonal, Dislocations in Crystal, 22 Skidoo / SubTractions, and Great Canadian Poems for the Aged Vol. 1 Illus. Ed. Cosmographia – a post-Lucretian faux micro-epic was short listed for the Canadian Governor General’s Award for Poetry in 2011, prompting a reviewer in the Globe and Mail to describe him as “an obscure veteran poet with a history of being overlooked.” With Victor Coleman he edited Robert Duncan’s The H.D. Book for the University of California Press. He has also published books for young adults, including the Maple Award nominated Into the World of the Dead,a mystery novel, Business As Usual, a descriptive bibliography of the American poet, H.D., and numerous essays on film, writing, architecture and music.…

Store closed today! You’re invited to join us to accept the City’s commendation!    

Joe Goldmark, pedal steel guitar Mitch Polzak, lead guitar and vocals Hank Maninger, bass guitar and vocals Kenny Owen, drums $10-20 suggested donation. Just the thing to cap off Mothers Day… the Seducers take Bird & Beckett down an entirely different highway, offering up classic, outlaw and honky tonk country music. It’s an all-star band led by pedal steel master Joe Goldmark, with Mitch Polzak, the heart-throb mayor of Port Costa on lead guitar and vocals, the wry and brilliant Hank Maninger on bass guitar and vocals, and Zen poet Kenny Owen on drums.

Aaron Hammerman and Dave Eagle are the Deep Basement Shakers, delivering primal, joint-rockin’, steady-rollin’ barrelhouse blues n’ boogie from the deep musical traditions of places like St. Louis, Texas, Chicago and New Orleans. Instrumental stuff from the 20’s, 30’s through to the early days of R&B, Jimmy Yancey to Clarence Lofton, Professor Longhair to Cow Cow Davenport & Meade Lux Lewis, Maxwell Street to Frenchman Street, they dig into the ancient styles of the new century… the 20th century, that is… “But this ain’t no history museum where you can’t touch the glass,” say the Shakers… Aaron Hammerman, piano, kazoo and vocals Dave Eagle, washboard, suitcase, spoons, bones, bells & whistles $10 suggested donation

The Jazz Philanthropists Union presents… jazz club! when lights are low. $20 cover charge tonight (sliding scale available to those with limited means) Tonight, we present two major creative talents working together with improvisational brilliance on material brought to the table by each. Their album “Collect My Thoughts” was recorded 25 years ago, in 1994, and released in 1995, and they’ve collaborated frequently in the intervening years. Both are highly regarded musicians with international careers and reputations that have been cemented over many years of work at the highest level. Both have graced our stage in various contexts numerous times, for which we are extremely grateful. Regarding their collaboration, Phillip writes: “Scott and I began working together not long after I returned to the Bay Area in 1993. We composed a few things and explored compositions by other composers, but the music really began to flow when we began to…

Ask at the store for details, directions & the inside dope! Your host Jerry Ferraz turns 69 today… born May 11, 1950 in San Francisco. He was on the first poetry reading Bird & Beckett ever hosted, back in 1999, on a bill with Dan Richman and Justin Demangles. And he’s been the impresario of our twice-monthly poetry series for 18 years. Stop in the shop and we’ll give  you the address and directions to his place nearby, just across the Bernal Cut — on Mission Street near Highland. The party starts at 1pm, and goes ’til it’s done… but if you’ve got a little energy left in the early evening, you may well want to float back to the bookshop for our 7:30 “jazz club” date with the Scott Amendola/Phillip Greenlief Duo. At the party, the food and wine are on Jerry; we’ll spring for the beer and soda…

Sylvia Cuenca has recruited magnificent players to join her in a quartet tonight, the late show on the first night of our eleven-day 20th anniversary celebration! Andrew Speight, saxophone Ben Stolorow, piano Doug Miller,bass Sylvia Cuenca,drums Sylvia is a fabulous drummer, well traveled. She hails originally from San Jose — though she’s established her career from her base in New York, including four years in the Joe Henderson Quartet, eleven years in trumpeter Clark Terry’s band, and much much more. She’s well known and highly regarded on both coasts and internationally. Sylvia played her first professional gig while still in her teens, hired for the job by the great San Francisco guitarist Eddie Duran — the one guy we know who played with Charlie Parker… That gig (Sylvia’s with Eddie, not Eddie’s with Bird) was at Pearl’s Jazz Joint, when Pearl’s was a basement club in the Great Eastern Restaurant…