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!

Monday, April 9th – 7:30 pm
RJAM JAM SESSION! (Monthly every 2nd Monday)
Students from the SFCM Roots, Jazz & American Music Program
host young Bay Area talent

Last chance this school year to catch the RJAM Jam! Students from local colleges and high schools hosted by the freshman class at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s brand new “Roots, Jazz & American Music” undergraduate degree program! They’ll be dispersing for the summer right after finals in May, but will come back in the fall — along with a brand new crop of brilliant young student musicians honing their skills for a career in jazz!

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Sunday, April 8th – 7:30-10:00 pm
Take a Wacky Walk with the Seducers
Classic, Outlaw & Honky Tonk Country Music
$10 suggested donation

Two sets of high octane honky tonk from a supergroup that’s happy to call Bird & Beckett home every second Sunday. Joe Goldmark, pedal steel guitar Mitch Polzak, lead guitar and vocals Hank Maninger, bass guitar and vocals Kenny Owen, drums

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Sunday, April 8th – 4:30-6:30 pm
Dima with the Al Molina Quartet
$10-15 suggested donation; students $5

The Chet Baker Project Revisited featuring Al Molina on trumpet & Dima on vocals Larry Chinn, piano; Ron Belcher, bass; Jim Zimmerman, drums Covering music associated with Chet Baker from his beginnings in the early 1950s to his death in 1988, this ensemble showcases through music and lyric an etching of the feeling and the aura of the times Post WWII – Korean War when romance and melancholia filled the air. Trumpeter Al Molina and Dima blend their two voices presenting a répertoire and style paying tribute to Chet Baker and his musical works. This quintet date is supported by Jazz in the Neighborhood’s Guaranteed Fair Wage Fund. $10-20 donation at the door requested; no tip jar!  

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Sunday, April 8th – 2:00 pm
Joseph Maviglia – mostly words without music, and some with
essayist, poet, singer/songwriter

Canadian poet, guitarist and songwriter Joseph Maviglia’s visit to Bird & Beckett has been four years in the making! His collection, Critics Who Know Jack (Urban Myths, Media and Rock and Roll) was published in Guernica Editions’ “Essential Essays” series in 2014 when the conversation started. Now, he’ll read a bit from the book, do a few songs and undoubtedly regale us with some choice anecdotes. The book is brimful of essays, memoirs and critiques on subjects ranging from TV programming, film and literature to rock journalism, with commentary on the interpretation of artistic expression across conventional and social media. From Feng-Shui to conspiracy theory, Maviglia debunks the rise of faddishness and new age trends that undervalue primary sources in music, literature, theatre, film, and urban living. Songs mean something sometimes. And sometimes they don’t. Sometimes people just want to dance and sometimes people want to burn down palaces.  …

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Saturday, April 7th – 3:00-5:00 pm
Three on a Match: Kim Addonizio, Peter Cherches, Paul Fericano
Klipschutz hosts
 

Three on a Match: The New, Improved Reading Series!         This round with Kim Addonizio, Paul Fericano and Peter Cherches Need a break from the insanity and anxiety of our times? Come join us at Bird & Beckett for an afternoon of reason, rascality and resistance. Join Bay Area favorites Kim Addonizio and Paul Fericano & Brooklyn native Peter Cherches as they serve up words spun like cotton candy on sticks of dynamite. Hosted by San Francisco’s own, the inimitable klipschutz. Come one, come all!

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Friday, April 6th – 8:30 pm
Sony Holland Duo
The Late Show!
$15 cover charge
 

Sony Holland, in duo with guitarist and songwriter Jerry Holland, sings jazz standards, classic bossa novas, modern folk and originals from a collection of  songs she’s been compiling for years, delivering the material with vulnerability, confidence and cool passion, showcasing her love for great songwriters and their work. Released in 2017, Sony’s cd “Soft POWER” presents her considerable talents and chemistry with partner Jerry Holland, supported beautifully by bassist Dan Feiszli and drummer David Rokeach working in a home studio in El Cerrito to build uncluttered tracks around the duo’s intimate arrangements.  

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Friday, April 6th – 5:30-8:00 pm
Oop Bop Sh’Bam 
jazz in the bookshop
every Friday since October 2002
$10-20 suggested donation; students $5

  Al Molina, trumpet and flugelhorn Jerry Logas, flute and reeds Jeffrey Burr, guitar Dean Reilly, bass Vince Lateano, drums    

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POETS! every 1st & 3rd Monday
Monday, April 2nd – 7-9 pm
Poets Xxavier Edward Carter, Sun English, Jr.
and Tongo Eisen-Martin. 
Open mic follows
 

 Xxavier Edward Carter is an artist and writer from Dallas, Texas. His written work is heavily influenced by the poetry of Amiri Baraka, the artistic works of Young Hae Chang Heavy Industries, and a love for the plays of Shakespeare. In middle school you could catch him reading Aristotle’s Metaphysics one day, Anna Deavere Smith the next, and Bret Easton Ellis the next all with the same intensity. An early exposure to an eclectic array of music imparted a dynamic lyricism into Xxavier’s poetry. With this also came a consciousness of the diversity of realities people experience across the world and an interest in how people express themselves. Xxavier has shown artwork in England, Japan, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, and South Korea. Moving forward, Xxavier looks to find collaborators to translate his work into other languages while creating more audio, video, and performance works. Sun English, Jr. is a QTPOC (they/them),…

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New series: Alternative Acts: Seeking Truth Above #F
Music on the “out” side – first show April Fool’s Day
Sunday, April 1st – 4:30-6:30 pm
Ouroboros
$10-15 suggested donation; students $5
 

The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project and the Jazz Philanthropists Union, with financial support from the Zellerbach Family Foundation, present Alternative Acts: Seeking Truth Above #F a series of six concerts beginning April Fools Day and concluding May 20th   April Fools Day: Ourboros Sheldon Brown, bass clarinet, tenor saxophone and clarinet Clark Coolidge, drums Andrew Joron, theremin Joseph Noble, flute, alto flute, alto saxophone and soprano saxophone   The “Alternative Acts” series is devoted to improvised and other avant garde musical approaches by locally based artists: — April Fool’s Day, Ouroboros Sheldon Brown and Joseph Noble, reeds; Andrew Joron, theremin; Clark Coolidge, drums — April 18th, Dalachinsky:Cherkovski:Coolidge 3 poets, with a musician or two tba –  April 20th,  Drummer Scott Amendola’s 3-in-1 with Raffi Garabedian, saxophone and Zach Ostroff, bass — April 21st, animals and giraffes Phillip Greenlief, saxphones and Bb clarinet Claudia La Rocco, text and voice Danishta Rivero, voice…

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Saturday, March 31st– 7:30-10:00 pm
Erik Jekabson Quartet
jazz club! when lights are low…
Every Saturday night!
$20 cover charge tonight; students $5

Erik Jekabson, trumpet Dave Ellis, saxophones John Wiitala, bass Evan Hughes, drums Another fabulous night at jazz club! when lights are low… $20 cover charge tonight. Thanks for supporting the music!

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Friday, March 30th – 9:00 pm
The Lost Trio
$15 cover charge; students $5
 

Phillip Greenlief, reeds Dan Seamans, bass Tom Hassett, drums two decades redefining the jazz standard  

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Friday, March 30th – 5:30-8:00 pm
Dave Parker Sextet
jazz in the bookshop
every Friday since October 2002
$10-20 suggested donation; students $5

Clifford Brown III, trumpet; Charles Hamilton, trombone;  Hal Richards, tenor sax and bass clarinet;  Jerry Logas, baritone sax; Dave Parker, bass; Dillon Vado, drums;  with guest lyricist Scribe Sayar.

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Thursday, March 29th – 7-9pm
Treyf Pesach
Hilton Obenzinger
with Don Alberts, Chris Amberger and Noel Jewkes
A Reading, A Party & Some Jazz

Blasphemy is holy—and exciting, outrageous literature in Hilton Obenzinger’s new book Treyf Pesach (Unkosher Passover). Join Hilton, and jazz musicians Don Alberts, Chris Amberger and Noel Jewkes, at Bird & Beckett on Thursday. March 29th for an evening of poetry and treyf that’s un-kosher for Passover or any other time! Novelist Paul Auster declares that this collection of poems “strikes with all the force of an exploding bomb—because it speaks the truth.” Treyf Pesach presents radical departures from traditional rituals, formats and conventions: alternative Passover Seders, Yom Kippur liturgy, Thanksgiving prayers, psalms and other poems in the form of proclamations, resolutions, jazz improvisations, incantations, rants, orations, comic monologues, oil spills, life spills, songs, visions, undocumented documents, borders, suns, farewells, minutes of meetings, talk-stories. In this book the symbolic plate is arrayed with treyf (un-kosher food) and the story of the Exodus with untypical meanings, whiskey instead of wine, recounting the continual slavery of wars and…

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Wednesday, March 28th – 7:00-9:00 pm
A talk by Cuban composer Camilo Moreira Coro

A fine guitarist who has shifted his focus to education and composition, Camilo Moreiro Coro is a summa cum laude graduate of the Cuba’s top performing arts school University of the Arts (ISA) where he was recognized by the faculty as the best student-teacher of his graduating class. Since 2010, he’s been teaching harmony, composition, computer music and ensemble practice at the country’s top conservatory for secondary students, the National School of Music (ENA). He also directs the school’s jazz band which was recently invited to perform at Jazz at Lincoln Center in April of 2016. This year (2017), Camilo has taken on the important task of reviving and directing ISA’s Jazz Band. This is easily the most important jazz education initiative in the country.

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Tuesday, March 27 – 7 pm
Meet Amy Farah Weiss, Mayoral Candidate!

Amy Farah Weiss will come to Bird & Beckett on Tuesday, the 27th, to discuss her mayoral campaign and to specifically address how ranked choice voting can assure that a progressive candidate takes the Mayor’s office in the upcoming June election. She’ll also talk about a tool she has developed to evaluate the performance of the new mayor, whoever it might be, in achieving goals important to the electorate, a “Mayor Outcomes Tracker.” Bring your questions and concerns, to engage with a candidate whose progressive values and solutions-focused ideas really have the potential to reshape San Francisco in the years to come.

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SUPPORT BIRD & BECKETT - DONATE TODAY!

Your donation to the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project helps us pay for a multitude of operating expenses necessary to present, promote and preserve local music, poetry, and more.

Help us keep the arts alive and thriving!

The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project was created in 2007 "to present, document and archive the creative work of significant living writers and musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area, for a neighborhood audience and future generations." We've been doing that very thing for more than a decade and a half, continuing the work we began when the store was established in 1999.

Due to lapses in tax filings during and post-pandemic, the BBCLP's status as a registered nonprofit was suspended at the beginning of April 2024 while we reapply, which is expected to take about six months. Donations made after April 1st will not be tax-deductible until nonprofit status is restored.

However, we continue to present a full slate of programming live music and poetry, and producing literary chapbooks, and we seek and welcome your continued financial support in the interim. If a tax-deduction is not a major reason for your support to date, we hope you'll continue to ride with us while we navigate these next several months.

Click on "donate" in the navigation bar above, drop off a check at the bookshop, or drop one in the mail to:

Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project
653 Chenery Street
San Francisco, CA 94131

Call us at (415) 586-3733 to find out how else you might lend your support.

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 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 [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

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