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!

Sunday, March 25th – 7:30-10:00 pm
Billy Higgins Legacy Band
your donation at the show helps us pay these fine musicians!

Sandi Poindexter, violin; David Udolf, piano; Ron Belcher, bass; Myron Cohen, drums.   “Billy Higgins used to say you have to get inside the music…listen,use your ears, and play from your heart, as you have people’s feelings in your hands… Also make the other musicians on the bandstand feel good so they can get their sound across… be supportive and uplifting… above all the drummer must swing plenty! …leave some space, and don’t play too many notes.” –Myron Cohen

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Sunday, March 25th – 4:30-6:30 pm
The Grant Levin Trio, featuring
David Ewell and Jeff Minnieweather
$10-15 suggested donation; students $5

Grant Levin, piano David Ewell, bass Jeff Minnieweather, drums Grant Levin has been one of the top jazz pianists in the Bay Area since arriving on the scene. His talent seems to have no limitations. We’ve been pleased to present him dozens of times at Bird & Beckett. His playing never fails to thrill the audience, and he never fails to put together a terrific group of collaborating musicians for the date.

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Sunday, March 25th – 2:30-4 pm
Walker Talks!

Walker Brents III plumbs the poetic psyche of Gary Snyder.

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Saturday, March 24th– 7:30-10:00 pm
Ian Carey’s Takoyaki Four
jazz club! when lights are low…
Every Saturday night!
$20 cover charge tonight; students $5
 

Four giants of San Francisco jazz, setting the standard: Ian Carey, trumpet; James Mahone, saxophone; Adam Shulman, piano; Vijay Anderson, drums.   Supported by Jazz in the Neighborhood’s Guaranteed Fair Wage Fund.  

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Friday, March 23rd – 9:00 pm
Sandor y su Mecanica featuring pianist Eduardo Corzo
$20 cover charge; students $5

Friday at the Late Show! Tonight, it’s a trio version of Sandor y su Mecanica! Pianist Eduardo Corzo from Havana, Cuba joins bassist David Pinto from Lima, Peru & the Nicaraguan/American drummer Sandor Moss from the Richmond District! About Eduardo Corzo: Born in “el Vedado”, neighborhood of Havana, Cuba, Corzo began his musical study with his father, Gregrio Corzo, a violinist of the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra. Later, he embarked upon an independent study of guitar and piano, until he decided to complete a formal education at Ignacio Cervantes Conservatorio where he graduated as clarinetist. At 21, Corzo had the opportunity to compose and arrange music for Cuban television, an endeavor which allowed him to later complete further theatrical and cinematic works. He also served as musical director of the Conjunto Nacional de Espectaculos, under the talent of cuban humorist Alejandro Garcia (Virulo), and toured to Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela. While…

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Friday, March 23rd – 5:30-8:00 pm
230 Jones Street Jazz Band
jazz in the bookshop
every Friday since October 2002
$10-20 suggested donation; students $5

Tonight, bassist Al Obidinski sits in for 230 Jones Street regular Dean Reilly, with Ray Loeckle and Jerry Logas on reeds, Glen Deardorff on guitar and Tony Johnson on drums.

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Thursday, March 22nd – 7:30 pm
Poet Neeli Cherkovski reads from his new collection
Elegy for My Beat Generation

Neeli Cherkovski, born Neeli Cherry in San Bernardino California in 1945. was an integral part of the mid-1960s Los Angeles poetry scene, edited a literary magazine there with Charles Bukowski called “Laugh Literary and Man the Humping Guns” and came up to San Francisco in the early 1970s. Throughout those years and ever since, he has consorted with Surrealist, Beat, post-Beat and Baby Beat icons and poets to whom no categories apply, including Diane di Prima, Phillip Lamantia, Bob Kaufman, Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Jack Hirschman, ruth weiss, Michael McClure, Gary Snyder, Joanne Kyger, John Wieners, Harold Norse, Allen Ginsburg and many, many others from Steve Richmond and Sharon Doubiago in his L.A. days to countless younger poets today. Neeli is the author of more than a dozen poetry collections over a fifty-year career from his first, Don’t Make a Move (Tecumseh Press, 1974) to Animal (Pantograph Press, 1996) to From the…

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Thursday, March 22nd – 5:30-6:30 pm
Book event: Rock & Roll Priest Harry Schlitt
presents his memoirI’ll Never Tell

“ “Father Harry,” Msgr. Harry G. Schlitt, got his start in the rock & roll side of the Catholic Church (or maybe created it) in the 1970s in Springfield, Missouri. He’ll tell a sliver of the tale and sign books at Bird & Beckett March 22nd from 5:30-6:30 pm. Read up on Father Schlitt’s Springfield days and his subsequent career here: https://www.news-leader.com/story/life/faith/2016/12/31/rock-n-roll-priest-harry-schlitt-connected-kids/95962534/

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POETS! every 1st & 3rd Monday
Monday, March 19th – 7-9 pm
Featured poets Tamsin Smith & Cara Vida
An open mic follows, Jerry Ferraz, m.c.
 

Jerry Ferraz, m.c. Open mic starts at about 8 pm.

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Sunday, March 18th – 7:30-9:30 pm
Nashville Honeymoon
canyon moonlight series —
occasional Thursday and Sunday nights

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Sunday, March 18th – 4:30-6:30 pm
Jinx Jones Jazz Trio
which way west? Sunday concert series

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Sunday, March 18th – 2:00-3:30 pm
Susan Dambroff reads from
Conversations with Trees

In Conversations with Trees, Susan Dambroff examines the dualities hidden deep within the human heart and how those dualities are in dialogue with one another. These are tender poems which stand as witness to the passions of both pain and beauty. The poet wants us to see clearly and love deeply—even though we might “…watch smoke rise/talk about how a heart/can speak into the air.” Ultimately, she concludes “…insisting on love’s bravery/we go on.” –Lois Roma-Deeley, author of four poetry collections; winner of the Jacapone da Todi Book Prize for her book The Short List of Certainties   Grounded in detail, yet expansively philosophical, these poems riffle shuffle, leafing cards of time, family, memory and nature so “even the past can be rearranged.” Fall into a dreamlike trance with equal parts clarity and slippage. A merging with earth: “if you lean against a tree/and breathe it/into your back/it brings your two lives/together.” These poems pull the bobbin…

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Saturday, March 17th– 7:30 -10:00 pm
Sandor y su Mecanica, feat. Fito Reinoso
jazz club! when lights are low…
$20 cover charge; students $5
 

Dale timba pa que suena! Sandor y su Mecanica Fito Reinoso, tres & lead vocals Sandy Perez, congas Juan Ceballos. magic flute Gabriel Navia, bass Sandor Moss, drumset  

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Friday, March 16th – 9:00 pm
COPUS, a poets and composers salon
$10 cover charge

COPUS (Creation Of Peace Under Stars), comprising Royal Kent (poet/spoken word artist), Wendy Loomis (composer/pianist) , Melissa Finder (singer), Ann Souren (singer), Patrick Mahon (bassist) and Levon Washington ( drummer), convenes another in its long line of poets and composers salons. COPUS, which began in the late 1980s, presents powerful lyrics intertwined with beautiful melodies for the conscious listener. Formed by poet/spoken word artist Royal Kent (who opened major reggae concerts for Peter Tosh, Toots & the Maytals, and The Wailers) and composer/pianist Wendy Loomis (4-time winner of the ASCAP composition award), COPUS now also includes sung vocals, percussion, and bass. “COPUS is a musical group with some of the most talented musicians that I have yet come across…The jazz styles are very complex and the music that is created is absolutely masterful.” (Michael Allison, MusicDish.com). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7_gU77XEcM ROYAL KENT’s love of poetry goes back several decades. Originally inspired by the…

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Friday, March 16th – 5:30-8:00 pm
The Scott Foster Quartet celebrates Pisces birthdays!
jazz in the bookshop
every Friday since October 2002
$10 suggested donation

David Boyce, reeds Scott Foster, guitar Noah Schencker, bass Cairo McCockran, drums A slammin’ quartet! All fun! All jazz!

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Fair Play Initiative

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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