Colleagues across generations. Masters of jazz! Pianist Grant Levin and reed player Noel Jewkes have a developed a deep mutual admiration and a collaborative relationship on the bandstand that always produces beautiful music. David Ewell on bass and Jeff Minnieweather on drums provide all the finesse and foundation that could be desired on such an occasion.

Karina Denike, vocals Michael McIntosh, piano Tom Griesser, sax Ari Munkres, bass Randy Odell, drums The Cottontails romp through vintage classics of the jazz age, swing era hits and 50s R&B without a care. They’ve played at jazz clubs, dance halls, cabarets and art events, at venues including SF City Hall, California Academy of Sciences, Bimbo’s 365 Club, Palace of Fine Arts, Amoeba Records, SF Legion of Honor, Yoshi’s SF/Oakland, San Francisco Maritime Museum, Cell Space, Great American Music Hall, and clubs, concert series and jazz festivals in Northern California, New York City, Tokyo, England, and Germany, and hold down a 3rd Friday slot at the Club Deluxe. No better way to spend a Sunday afternoon in the afterglow of your Thanksgiving holiday. BYOB. The State echoes the sentiment that God helps the child that’s got his own.

Walker Brents III addresses Herman Hesse’s novel, The Glass Bead Game

NEW SQUATOOLAS! New Squatoolas Celebrate the Musical Spirit of New Orleans! Jim Peterson, sax Scott Foster, guitar Joe Kyle, Jr., bass Larry Vann, drums Music inspired by New Orleans jazz, funk and soul pioneers — The Meters, Smokey Johnson, Fats Domino, The Nevilles, The Wild Tchoupitoulas and ‘Fess.  Come on out to Bird & Beckett!  

Ray Loeckle (tenor saxophone); Brad Buethe (guitar), Dean Reilly (bass) and Tony Johnson (drums) carry on the tradition that began with Chuck Peterson’s weekly Friday trio date that started it all back in late 2002. This band showcases the music we love best– straight ahead, bebop-based, swinging jazz. It’s a lively time in the neighborhood every Friday evening — in the venue that many a jazz player has declared the best place to play in town.  That tribute is in no small way due to the audience that comes to enjoy the music and the convivial vibe.  Come enjoy the music and the company. All ages are welcome, and there’s no cover charge. But if you can spare the dough, ten dollars or whatever you will for the band is much appreciated.

Barbara Paschke has been involved in translation for over thirty years, both as a translator and editor. Her publications include Riverbed of Memory (by Daisy Zamora), Clamor of Innocence, and Volcán (City Lights Books), Clandestine Poems (Curbstone Press) and short stories and poetry in the literary travel companions to Costa Rica, Cuba, and Spain (Whereabouts Press), New World, New Words (Two Lines Press), First World Ha Ha Ha (City Lights), Literary Amazonia, and The Empire for 1 Poem. She has also contributed translations to a number of literary journals. She was an important contributor and consultant to Red Poppy’s multilingual anthology of Latin American Poetry in Resistance. Currently, she is a board member of the Center for the Art of Translation, where she coordinates the annual Northern California Translation Award. Her other passion is music; she has been and continues to be part of several choral groups in the Bay Area. David Volpendesta at this link reads his “Psalm to Federico Garcia Lorca” A tear in the eye of a puppet…

Why are these musicians smiling? Maybe it’s because your cover charge tonight, plus what we, as charter members of the Jazz Philanthropists Union, put in, plus a wage subsidy from the Guaranteed Fair Wage Fund (created by Jazz in the Neighborhood) will combine to pay a decent guarantee (“a fair wage”) to the musicians who make up… The Grant Levin Trio Saturday, November 19th Grant Levin is an extraordinary jazz pianist, nearing the end of a seven-month residency at Bird & Beckett! Only five dates left on his schedule before the end of the year! Don’t miss this trio date with “Jazz Messenger” Chris Amberger, bass, and the vital young drummer Rodney Ruckus. For this Grant Levin Trio date, Jazz in the Neighborhood’s Guaranteed Fair Wage Fund, in collaboration with Bird & Beckett and the Jazz Philanthropists Union, will be supplementing your generous contributions at the door to make sure the…

Journey to the world of Portuguese Fado as interpreted by Ramana Vieira. Born in San Leandro, CA to Portuguese immigrants, Viera was raised on a diet of traditional Fado music that has made its way into the very core of her being. With inspiration from Amália Rodrigues to Shakira and Dulce Pontes, Vieira and her ensemble play both classics and their own original music. Fado, the most widely recognized genre of Portuguese music, dates back to 19th century.  The word Fado literally means destiny or fate. Musically, Fado is characterized by poetic lyrics related to the darker elements of love, loss, redemption, and occasionally humor–as heard on Viera’s original composition “A Fadista” from her album Fado da Vida. Vieira’s parents immigrated to the United States from Portugal, where her grandfather was a well-known musician and composer from Madeira Island. Vieira grew up listening to American pop, alongside Portuguese folk music and Fado.  “During my childhood, I sang with my mother to…

The Young Mesopotamians, an arts cooperative, invite you to attend a poetry salon at Bird & Beckett this Sunday afternoon in Glen Park to read your own work in return for the feedback from your fellow brave poets. The aim of today’s gathering is to encourage readings of works which may not have been read in public before, especially readings by those who might not have read in public before. Artists are encouraged to read, songwriters to try their lyrics out on us… the language you might choose is not restricted to English. The rhythm of the vernacular is global. Says Maysa Ib, who has brought the Young Mesopotanians together for the occasion, “We are all works in progress and do not worry about perfection — this is a salon of poetic support and I hope it will be a lot of fun as well as a learning experience for…

Jim Grantham, saxophone stylist, bandleader and composer, plays tenor and soprano saxes and flute. His music springs from the tradition of melodic lyricism associated with such composers and instrumentalists as Lester Young, Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz, Miles Davis and Wayne Shorter, and he has performed with many fine musicians including Bobby McFerrin, George Cables, Eddie Moore, Mark Isham, Ed Kelly, Noel Jewkes and Vince Wallace, among many others. He has recorded with Jessica Williams and Eddie Henderson as well as vocalist Maye Cavallaro. For this date at Bird & Beckett, Jim’s quartet — which will comprise top San Francisco Bay Area veteran musicians Keith Saunders on piano, Jeff Neighbor on bass and David Rokeach on drums — plays contemporary jazz in a wide variety of styles and moods, featuring numerous original compositions as well as jazz standards from John Coltrane, Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, Michael Brecker,…

Carolyne Wright’s new book is entitled This Dream the World: New & Selected Poems (Lost Horse Press, 2017).  Her ground-breaking anthology, Raising Lilly Ledbetter: Women Poets Occupy the Workspace (Lost Horse Press, 2015), received ten Pushcart Prize nominations and was a finalist in the Foreword Review’s Book of the Year Awards. She has nine earlier poetry volumes, five books of poetry in translation from Spanish and Bengali, and a collection of essays; and has received Fulbright, NEA, 4Culture, and Seattle Arts Commission, fellowships. After returning to her native Seattle in 2005, Wright has taught for Richard Hugo House; for the Whidbey Writers Workshop MFA Program; and for Antioch University Los Angeles MFA Program. She has been regaining fluency in Brazilian Portuguese in preparation for a return visit to Bahia on an Instituto Sacatar residency fellowship in 2018. Andrena Zawinski, born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA, is a veteran teacher of writing from early childhood through college and a…

Bird & Beckett hosts a monthly jam session with the inaugural class of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s brand new jazz BMUS (Bachelor of Music) degree program. The session is open to high school and college students who want to take the stage. This is the present and future of jazz! Come down to Bird & Beckett on the second Monday of each month to hear these great young musicians, already demonstrating fantastic talent through their high school years, as they continue to discover, develop & fully realize their abilities and the joys the music offers! The SFCM’s program is called “Roots, Jazz & American Music”https://sfcm.edu/newsroom/beginning-rjam-sfcm and its first group of thirteen young students, drawn from all over the country, just arrived in town three months ago and are already turning heads in town.  They’re on a four-year track towards a jazz bachelor’s degree that will ground them in…

The art of the duo… The last two months of the Grant Levin residency at Bird & Beckett that started in June are underway! In November, we continue it with a duo on the 2nd Tuesday, a trio on the 3rd, a quartet on the 4th. Tonight it’s bassist Joe McKinley making the music with Grant. Joe has been making beautiful music with Grant since they first met on the bandstand. You’ll hear two sets of hugely satisfying music from masters of the art. $10 cover charge for the care and feeding of the musicians. December will break the pattern, as we present two trio dates, on 12/10 and 12/17; Grant will be traveling come the fourth Sunday. In January, it’ll be a new ballgame. Watch our calendar. It’ll be well worth the effort.

Dave Tidball (clarinet, bass clarinet) Jim Dukey (clarinet, bass clarinet) Dick Mathias (clarinet, bass clarinet) Charlie Keagle (clarinet) Here we go again! With this concert, the Albatross Clarinet Quartet will no doubt present an array of new music, plenty of it conceived and arranged very recently indeed. They’re known to go off on tangents, very productively. Bebop to polytonal funk, musical commentary on classical pieces from the late 19th century  and some “free” improvisation. Everything is written by members of the quartet. Except what they steal to put to their good uses.