Wendy Burch Steel and Redwood play a unique cross-section of genres incorporating all the good and sweet aspects of folk, old-time, country, bluegrass and blues. Bluegrass icon Laurie Lewis produced, played and sang on Wendy’s debut CD, “Open Wings” in 2012, which has received rave reviews nationally and internationally, airplay and interviews on various radio shows and Americana and Bluegrass publications. Wendy is known for her deft angelic voice and spiritually touching original material. She was nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year for the past two years, with the Northern California Bluegrass Society. Her band members include some of the best Bluegrass and Americana players and singers in California and beyond: Butch Waller, mandolin and vocals, is known locally and nationally for his innovative and tradition-based approach to his instrument. Butch was one of the first to play bluegrass music in Northern California, and founded his own band, High…

The Jazz Philanthropists Union presents… Pianist Grant Levin leads a quartet featuring the flutist Lori Bell, up from San Diego for the date! David Ewell on bass; Hamir Atwal on drums. Bell is an award-winning musician “of admirable depth and broad musical sympathies whose recordings and live performances over the years have set new and higher standards in contemporary jazz and classical music.” (note post-performance: all that and more!) Lori taught Grant’s flutist father while Grant was a tot, and in 2006 she recorded an exquisite CD as a featured artist with the Grant Levin Trio comprising Grant on piano with Hans Halt on bass and Rufus Haeriti on drums (Beezwax Records, 2007). She’ll be back with the same trio as worked with her live tonight, Grant, David and Hamir, insha’Allah, on the first Saturday of December in 2019!

Brett Karner – trumpet Xander Johns – baritone saxophone Jackson Contugno – tenor saxophone Spencer Hoefert – guitar Cris Carrera – bass Robert Chapa – drums Top talent from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s “Roots, Jazz and American Music” program play Brett’s arrangements of some holiday chestnuts and a few numbers by the Ink Spots & the like! 1-hour program — mark your calendar and don’t miss it!

$20 cover charge; $10 for students/musicians/low income. Trumpeter Geechi Taylor is a cornerstone of the Bay Area jazz scene. He’s bringing a slammin’ quartet into Bird & Beckett tonight for your pleasure Geechi Taylor, Trumpet/Vocal Michael Aaberg, Piano Ollie Dudek, Bass Michael Mitchell, Drums.  

Gaea Schell, piano, flute & vocal Dan Neville, vibes David Pinto, bass Carlos Ramirez, congas   As drummer Albert ‘Tootie’ Heath has said, Gaea “plays the heck out of the piano with them small hands.” Read more at http://www.gaeaschell.com/

Josiah Luis Aldrete, a founding member of the Molotov Mouths Outspoken Word Troupe, joins forces with fellow poet Tongo Eisen-Martin, to call the troupe to assembly at Bird & Beckett for an evening of incendiary expression! The Molotov Mouths — 3 women and 4 men from diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds: Chilean-born Ananda Esteva, queer activist Dani Montgomery, performance poet Raw Knowledge, housing rights organizer James Tracy (editor of The Civil Disobedience Handbook), African-American essayist and disabled rights activist Leroy Moore, the late & sorely missed Chicano poet George Tirado and Spanglish storyteller Josiah Luis Aldrete — made their presence well known in Mission District and other venues early this decade, and published an anthology of their work in 2013. Free event; donations to the poets encouraged, accepted and appreciated!

The Cottontails jump, jive & wail through two sets of rollicking jazz, blues and R&B drawing on music from the 1920s through the 1940s. Karina Denike, vocals Michael McIntosh, piano Tom Griesser, tenor saxophone & clarinet Joe Kyle, Jr., bass Randy Lee Odell, drums

The thought of Norman O. Brown.  A gifted teacher, the arc of whose work goes all the way from the crypto-freudian utopianism of the 1960s to the offering of a crucial alternative to the divisive “clash of civilizations” interpretation of contemporary cultural conflict.  A visionary symbolic thinker, and a staunchly compassionate humanist as well.

The Jazz Philanthropists Union presents… at jazz club! when lights are low… The New Squatoolas play good-time jazz drenched in the traditions of New Orleans! Jim Peterson, sax Scott Foster, guitar Joe Kyle, Jr., bass Larry Vann, drums

Talk about your San Francisco jazz… On the fourth Friday of each month, our weekly “jazz in the bookshop” series features The 230 Jones Street, Local 6 Literary Jazz Band — a swinging, bop-oriented quintet that bears a direct line of descent from the trio led by tenor player Chuck Peterson that launched our tradition of weekly Friday evening jazz parties back in October 2002. Since that first date, we’ve never skipped a single Friday, and so it goes! Chuck established and named the 230 Jones Street quintet around 2010, and though he retired up to Santa Rosa a couple of years ago, the quintet continues as a cornerstone of Bird & Beckett’s jazz programming. Chuck’s colleagues who make up the 230 Jones Street band today share a history on the local jazz scene that dates back 60 years or more, to early 1950s and 1960s. Ray Loeckle, tenor sax;…

Jack Hirschman, San Francisco’s 4th poet laureate, between devorah major and Diane di Prima, and one of the most productive poets to have held that position, is one of our favorite people in the world and a magnificent and prolific poet. He’s also unwaveringly committed to and the champion of the masses of individual humans who live, breath, celebrate life and fight for justice, and bear with admirable grace, courage and fierceness, the brunt of society’s economic oppression and societal indifference. Kitty Costello’s immigrant, working-class heritage and upbringing, her thirty years’ work for the San Francisco Public Library, Shaolin kung fu practice and experience as a social justice organizer and healer has brought her far. She is literary trustee for native Alaskan writer Mary TallMountain, created a library archive for the 70-year-old San Francisco Writers Workshop and is writing a history of that group. The publisher Freedom Voices, with whom she has…

November 18th is the birthday of the trumpeter Don Cherry, well known as one of the pioneers in the “Free Jazz” movement alongside Ornette Coleman.  To celebrate, there will be a special performance of Don Cherry’s album “Complete Communion” featuring John Wiitala on bass, Hamir Atwal on drums, Matt Zebley on alto sax, and Henry Hung on trumpet.  There will be a pre-show talk at 7:00pm about Don Cherry and his artistic career. Please join us on this special celebration of Don Cherry’s music on his birthday.    

A folk duo that plays with all the love in the heart, and all the plain ol’ joy and mischieviousness that the genre allows! Bird & Beckett presents this date in the fond memory of Marlene Aron!

Just a few years ago, Stephany Wilkes walked away from tech into the legs of critters like this, shears in hand! She had wondered just why she couldn’t buy locally sourced wool yarn to knit with, and next thing she knew she was diving deep into all things sheep. Shearing was (to her) just the logical next step. She took that step and quite a few more, and has this excellent book to hip you to a constellation of sheep thoughts. She lives in your neighborhood, right here in Glen Park, but travels the west shearing these critters. There’s much more to be gleaned about Stephany’s sheep & wool immersion – check the bio page at her site! stephanywilkes.com Read about Stephany in the current issue of the Glen Park News at this link: http://www.glenparkassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GPN-Fall-2018.pdf And read more here: https://deborahkalbbooks.blogspot.com/2018/10/q-with-stephany-wilkes.html