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. May 5th Dark Metals David Boyce, saxophones/EFX David Ewell, bass Cairo McCockran, drums $20 cover charge; $5 for students The “Alternative Acts” series is devoted to improvised and other avant garde musical approaches by locally based artists beginning on April Fool’s Day with Ouroboros (Sheldon Brown and Joseph Noble, reeds; Andrew Joron, theremin; Clark Coolidge, drums). The series continues on April 18th with a program featuring the poets Steve Dalachinsky, Neeli Cherkovski and Clark Coolidge with pianist Walter Earl; followed on April 20th by Scott Amendola’s 3-in-1 with Raffi Garabedian, saxophone and Zach Ostroff, bass; on April 21st, animals and giraffes with Phillip Greenlief, saxphones and Bb clarinet; Claudia La Rocco, text and voice; Danishta Rivero, voice and electronics…

Come hear from your current District 8 Supervisor, Jeff Sheehy! He’s running for re-election this June to the seat he was appointed to in January 2017. The winner of this June’s election will face re-election again in November to a full four-year term on the Board. Jeff will address the audience directly starting at 1 pm for about 20 minutes, followed by 40 minutes of Q&A and informal discussion. District 8 residents, we encourage you to take this opportunity to get to know Jeff a little better at this important juncture.

We give you over to the artists to fill you in: “The Actual Trio’s eponymous 2015 album, [guitarist John] Schott’s third for John Zorn’s boutique label, features his long-working band, Actual Trio:  bassist Dan Seamans (New Klezmer Trio, Lost Trio) and drummer John Hanes (Henry Kaiser, Victor Krummenacher). The disc was produced by Hans Wendl, whose production credits include Don Byron, Charlie Haden, Ravi Shankar and Bill Frisell, and was recorded at Berkeley’s legendary Fantasy Studios. *Marrying deep pockets of groove and joyful swing to wayward harmonies and spontaneous excursions, Actual Trio is that rare bird: a high-minded and concentrated modern jazz record that is engaging and accessible. Marking the band’s album debut, Actual Trio is a perfect demonstration of the group’s undeniable chemistry, spare and lean playing, and fabulous telepathic improvising evident from the first notes of ‘ERIA’ that opens the disc. Displaying an extraordinary technical command, Schott uses the…

Lots of fun with this band! And great music, from swing to bop and straight ahead to the now! Youngster Jeffrey Burr plays guitar in the company of four jazz vets — drummer Vince Lateano, trumpter Al Molina, saxophonist Jerry Logas and bassist Dean Reilly. Dean’s the grand old man of the bunch — was playing at all the North Beach and other major jazz spots in San Francisco in the early 1950s with  the likes of Vince Guaraldi, Cal Tjader, Eddie Duran… Al Molina, a San Francisco native from a musical family, has been a fixture locally since the mid-1950s, working with George Cables, Jessica Williams, Eddie Marshall, Eddie Henderson and many more… Vince (Lateano) hit SF in the mid-1960s and fell in with Guaraldi, Tjader (he was in Tjader’s band in the late 1970s and early 1980s), traveled with Woody Herman and was the house drummer at Pearl’s in North…

A road warrior, says SFCM’s Simon Rowe! Greg Abate has been crisscrossing the country and crossing the Atlantic to Europe constantly for years, playing hundreds of gigs on the road and at home in Rhode Island every year. He’s a hard bop fiend and a lyrical voice on ballads. He’ll be performing at Bird & Beckett with a top-notch rhythm section featuring some of our favorite local players — Grant Levin on piano; David Ewell on bass; and Mike Mitchell on drums. Click here to visit Greg’s website for more info including video and audio.

    Grant Levin, piano. Aaron Cohn, bass. Mitchell Wilcox, drums.   The art of the trio, exemplified by the work of three sympathetic and immensely talented musicians.

Walker Brents III tells stories from a variety of traditions, by turns amusing, enlightening and enigmatic. Get out of the crush of the Glen Park Festival for a captivating time in the bookshop.

Vocalist Jesse Foster with Greg Sankovich, piano Paul Eastburn, bass Mark Lee, drums Jesse Foster calls up a world of sounds with his instrument that blends nicely with his percussion playing. You’d have to say that his instrument is his body channeled through his voice, and we would aver that he plays it superbly. His bandmates on this date have all the verve, talent and skill required for the occasion. You’re in for a uniquely enjoyable show by a San Francisco treasure! $20 cover charge; students $5.  

One of SF’s very top ranked saxophone players with a super-solid rhythm section. Jazz as it is played in San Francisco in 2018!! Joe Cohen, tenor sax Jeremy Lieber, piano Ollie Dudek, bass Jack Dorsey, drums

This is the band that Chuck Peterson started, though Chuck is now retired up to Santa Rosa. With luck, he’ll rejoin the band on the fourth Friday in May when we celebrate 16 years of Friday evening jazz in the bookshop! Chuck’s legacy to us is this band — the 230 Jones Street, Local 6 Literary Jazz Band — featuring Ray Loeckle and  Jerry Logas on reeds; Glen Deardorff on guitar; Dean Reilly on bass and Tony Johnson on drums!

San Francisco writers, predominantly writers of color, have some things to say in this volume about the state of things. Timely and crucial work by “ordinary people,” many of whom are already known as important voices in the struggles that are going on around us as of this historical moment. Editor Shizue Seigel established a workshop “Write Now” a decade ago that has brought out the voices of an impressive legion of clear thinking and engaged citizens of this city that has always held so much promise, and is coveted by capitalistic forces that despite their best efforts can’t stifle our aspirations, accomplishments and promise.  

Jacqueline Berger’s fourth book, The Day You Miss Your Exit, was published by Broadstone Books in February. Her previous books include The Gift That Arrives Broken, winner of the 2010 Autumn House Poetry Prize, and Things That Burn, selected by Mark Strand as the 2004 winner of the Agha Shahid Ali Prize. Her poetry has been featured on Garrison Keillor’s Writers Almanac and has been published in numerous anthologies and journals, including The Iowa Review, American Poetry: The Next Generation, On The Verge, Old Dominion Review, Rhino, River Styx, and Nimrod. She directs the Master of Arts in English program at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont and lives in San Francisco. Thomas Centolella has published four books of poetry: Terra Firma, Lights & Mysteries, Views from along the Middle Way, and Almost Human. His poetry has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, American Poetry Review, Parthenon West Review, Ploughshares,…

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 21st animals and giraffes Phillip Greenlief, saxphones and Bb clarinet Claudia La Rocco, text and voice Danishta Rivero, voice and electronics John Shiruba, electric and acoustic guitars and preparations read more on Phillip Greenlief here: https://www.bayimproviser.com/artist/117/phillip-greenlief   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:Earl 3 poets and 1 pianist –  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…