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!
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.
Read MoreFriday 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…
Read MoreTonight, 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.
Read MoreNeeli 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…
Read More“ “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:Â https://www.news-leader.com/story/life/faith/2016/12/31/rock-n-roll-priest-harry-schlitt-connected-kids/95962534/
Read MoreJerry Ferraz, m.c. Open mic starts at about 8 pm.
Read MoreIn 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…
Read MoreDale 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
Read MoreCOPUS (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…
Read MoreDavid Boyce, reeds Scott Foster, guitar Noah Schencker, bass Cairo McCockran, drums A slammin’ quartet! All fun! All jazz!
Read MoreJam session every 2nd Monday! 7:30 to 9:30 pm Free Hosted by the first-year students in the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s brand new Roots, Jazz & American Music (“RJAM”) undergraduate program. College & high school students welcome. Free
Read MoreFrancis Vanek, saxophone; Grant Levin, piano; Chris Amberger, bass;Â Rodney Ruckus, drums. This quartet reflects a web of personal and musical connections that is both immediate (Chris and Grant started working with Ruckus just a few short months ago) and long-term (Chris and Francis go way back). In the solid midrange, Chris (a veteran player who was present at the birth of free jazz in Oakland in 1967/68, toured with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in the U.S. and Europe in 1976 and then toured the U.S. and Canada with pianist George Shearing) was instrumental in recognizing Grant’s potential while Grant was still a college student in Reno and did a lot to facilitate Grant’s entry into the San Francisco jazz scene a decade ago. Since then, it’s been jazz history in the making! A little more on Chris Amberger, from a profile in Northside magazine a few years back: After…
Read MoreMarch 9th – 9 pm $20 cover charge. San Francisco’s Preeminent Jazz Vocalist ~~ Denise Perrier ~~ In residence at Bird & Beckett through May! Grant Levin, piano, Ollie Dudek, bass, Greg Wyser-Pratt, drums. Mark your calendar now for April 13 and May 18
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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.
We continue to present a full slate of programming of live music and poetry readings, and produce a literary journal and poetry chapbooks, and we seek and welcome your continued financial support by way of donations through our fiscal sponsor, Jazz in the Neighborhood.
Click on "donate" in the navigation bar above. Better yet, send or drop off a check made out to our fiscal sponsor, Jazz in the Neighborhood, with BBCLP in the memo line. Our mailing address is:
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.
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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