Oop Bop Sh’Bam embarks on another three-month “first Fridays” run starting March 1st! A fabulous band of jazz veterans! Al Molina, trumpet and flugelhorn Jerry Logas, clarinet, tenor sax, baritone sax, flute & vocals Larry Chinn, piano Dean Reilly, bass Vince Lateano, drums  

Celebrate City College of San Francisco’s Forum literary magazine this Tuesday at a reading/party with the editor, staff and contributors! Thinking of submitting a piece of writing or art? Now’s the time! The deadline is Wednesday, the day after this party in the bookshop. So get your work done early in the week, ’cause you’ll want to come on Tuesday to hang with those that make it happen & to enjoy some magnificent talent! Free City!

Charlie McCarthy, sax; Larry Dunlap, piano; Ruth Davies, bass; Jim Zimmerman, drums. One of the great pleasures of jazz is to spend a few hours in the company of the pianist Larry Dunlap. Larry played early on in Portland with jazz greats Leroy Vinnegar and Ralph Towner, and has been based in San Francisco since the 1970s. In the late 70s, he met and later married singer Bobbe Norris with whom he’s had a life-long performing career, and around 1980 he began a musical relationship with Cleo Laine and John Dankworth that endured for two decades and included recording at Carnegie Hall. He’s also worked with Ernestine Anderson, Larry Coryell, Art Farmer, James Moody, Gerry Mulligan, Rebecca Parris, Mark Murphy & Amandio Cabral. The four musicians on today’s date have had a long and fruitful association. Jim Zimmerman and Larry have been playing music together since the 1970s, most notably the three decades they…

Escaping the chaos and emotional stagnation of the aftermath of the first world war, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke at last found the hermitage he sought in a small village in Switzerland. There, in February of 1922, he endured a visitation of such creative intensity it has become a legend unto itself. Not one but two masterworks arrived, seemingly out of nowhere, in a storm of poetic vision. This afternoon, Walker Brents III will offer a glimpse into Rilke’s inner world, through a remembrance of this time and a consideration of two great poem-cycles: the Duino Elegies and the Sonnets to Orpheus, that were its fruits. At Cháteau de Muzot. Rilke with the young violin virtuoso, Alma Moodie and the conductor Werner Reinhardt. In a letter to Nanny Wunderly-Volkart, about Moodie, he writes: “What a sound, what richness, what determination. That and the Sonnets to Orpheus, those were two strings…

This is a Guaranteed Fair Wage Fund date. Many thanks are due to Jazz in the Neighborhood, and to you for your support of JitN and the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project. On the fourth Friday of each month, we feature the 230 Jones Street, Local 6 Literary Jazz Band, whose roots are in tenor player Chuck Peterson’s band. Chuck’s band became a permanent fixture at Bird & Beckett in 2002; he retired and removed to Santa Rosa just a couple of years ago. Chuck’s colleagues for decades, the musicians in 230 Jones Street share individual histories on the local scene dating back 60+ years. Ray Loeckle on tenor sax, Jerry Logas on baritone sax, clarinet, flute and vocals, Glen Deardorff on guitar, Dean Reilly on bass and Tony Johnson on drums can proudly stake their claim to a fair wage; they came on the scene at a time when…

Lourdes Figueroa was born in California during a trip her parents made from Mexico to the USA when they worked in the campo tilling the soil for tomatoes. Lourdes is a proud 2009 and 2011 VONA alum. Her work has been published in the SF Poet’s 11 2008 & 2010 and in Generations. She received her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of San Francisco. Her first chapbook, yolotl, was published by Spooky Actions Books. Jeremy Michael Vasquez is an artist, author, activist, and educator in San Francisco. He uses his expression of art to facilitate healing workshops for youth in the Bay Area. As a spoken word and musical artist, he has performed at many community events and correctional facilities. Serving as a keynote speaker at conferences, colleges and universities, and public high schools nationwide, Jeremy has used his pain as a platform. With his 2017 book, Unshackled,…

Grant Levin, piano; Giulio Xavier, bass; Hamir Atwal, drums. A classic piano trio, led by the most remarkable pianist we know. And that’s saying a lot in a region boasting dozens of fantastic jazz pianists.    

The Jazz Philanthropists Union presents… Drummer John Cavalier leads a quintet showcasing fellow students in the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s “Roots, Jazz & American Music” undergraduate program. They’ll play two sets of jazz standards, bebop and original compositions. Jackson Cotugno, saxophones Skyler Nolan, saxophones Michael Potter, piano Spencer Hoefert, guitar Cris Carrera, bass John Cavalier, drums All six musicians on the bandstand tonight are first- and second-year students in the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s “Roots, Jazz & American Music” undergraduate program, now in its second year. You’ll be amazed at what these talented youths are capable of. Amazed and well pleased! The musicians in the SFCM’s RJAM program have been drawn from all over the country to take part in the SFCM’s first foray into jazz education, after 100 years of focus on classical music. The RJAM program is directed by recent Glen Park resident Simon Rowe and…