Featured saxophonist Noel Jewkes was born in Utah in 1940 and migrated to San Francisco as an adult to become one of the most revered local masters of the jazz saxophone, but only after playing for years, from the age of 12, in the family swing orchestra headed by his mother and father. The Jewkes Orchestra traveled widely in the region, delivering a swinging and danceable beat to audiences of hip Indians, farmers and city slickers in rural assembly halls, lakeside resorts and downtown hotels. Talented beyond measure on piano and trumpet as well as the various reeds, Noel is well known to young cognoscenti as one of the veteran musicians featured with Lavay Smith and the Red Hot Skillet Lickers, but his renown stretches far beyond that. His affinity with Lester Young’s cool and John Coltrane’s fire belies the associations some have from hearing him in bop aggregations and…

Bird & Beckett presents a first-class quintet for sure, comprising seasoned players Charlie McCarthy on tenor sax and flute, Joe Cohen on alto sax, Mike Greensill on piano, John Clark on bass and Jack Dorsey on drums, all first-call musicians and long-time fixtures on the Bay Area jazz scene. Greensill provides originals as well as lovely arrangements of chestnuts from the Great American Songbook, and McCarthy, a superb arranger who has done work for everything from quartets to orchestras, also writes intricate and sophisticated charts for the group. Greensill, born and raised in England, graduated from Leeds College of Music in 1972, then toured Europe and the Far East, settled in Hong Kong for four years, and arrived in San Francisco in 1977. A consummate accompanist as well as solo and ensemble player, he has an international reputation for his long association as accompanist and music director for his wife,…

  The Jazz Philanthropists Union presents… Matt Renzi, reeds Jeffrey Burr, guitar John Wiitala, bass Jon Arkin, drums Multi-reedist Matt Renzi has been performing professionally for the past 20 years at international jazz festivals and music venues worldwide. For the past decade, he has been recognized multiple times by jazz organizations in Italy, Spain, Belgium, India and Israel as well as in the United States for his advanced concepts in spontaneous group composition and collective improvisation with The Matt Renzi Trio. Matt holds a Bachelor’s in Music (Performance) from the Berklee College of Music and Master’s in Arts (Classical Composition) from San Francisco State University. Some of his teachers include Joe Henderson and South Indian Vocalist R.A. Ramamani. He can be heard on a variety of recordings including the award winning “Lines and Ballads” (Fresh Sound Records) as well as his latest release entitled “Lunch Special” (Three P’s Records) which…

Here’s who folks heard at Bird & Beckett the weekend of 10/13 to 10/15… Don Alberts, piano Scott Amendola, drums Peter Barshay, bass Jimmy Biala, drums Wil Blades, organ David Boyce, tenor sax Ian Carey, trumpet Aaron Cohn, bass Tod Dickow, tenor sax Karl Evangelista, guitar Ollen Erich Hunt, double bass and electric bass Darren Johnston, trumpet Lewis Jordan, saxes and poetry Grant Levin, piano Ron Marabuto, drums Rodney Ruckus, drums Marcus Stephens, tenor sax Ok, so maybe you only count 17? Ian played twice. 17 musicians. 17 reasons why! There were also 2 poets Sunday afternoon, and on Monday night 2 featured poets and another 8 on the open mic… And here are the 19 musicians who played Thursday to Sunday, 10/19 to 10/22: Jon Arkin, drums (10/21) Riley Bandy, sax (10/20) Jeffrey Burr, guitar (10/21) John Clark, bass (10/22) Joe Cohen, sax (10/22) Aaron Cohn, bass (10/20) Jack…

Tonight, the Scott Foster Quartet featuring Riley Bandy, saxophone;  Scott Foster, guitar;  Aaron Cohn, bass;  Russ Gold, drums. jazz in the bookshop every Friday evening since October 2002. 15 years and counting!

Get in with the In Crowd… Eric Shifrin, piano and vocals Paul Smith, bass Mark Lee, drums Three musicians with decades on the local music scene…

Jerry Ferraz does his Trump poem, completed, and Steve does what he does best! Bring your poems for the open mic. Best little poetry scene in the west! Well, all those wonderful other little poetry scenes not withstanding! Hey, how about that Kim Shuck, poet laureate of the open mic?!?

Tonight, the Grant Levin Trio Grant Levin, piano Aaron Cohn, bass Rodney Ruckus, drums. $15 cover charge

Lewis Jordan: saxophones, poet David Boyce: saxophones Ian Carey: trumpet Karl Evangelista: electric guitar Ollen Erich Hunt: bass Jimmy Biala: drums/percussion The new CD from Music at Large, this is where i came in, gathers together these fine musicians, and this date will be the kickoff for a series of CD release celebrations. Bird & Beckett is proud to find that this is where it’s happening!

“Carolyn Miller is a lyric poet of redeeming grace and intense clarity. Her poems are grounded in a sense of the marvelous, as if viewing life through a jewel, transforming the dark world of memory and desire into a luminous presence. She is a master of distilled moments. The mood of the poems in Route 66 and Its Sorrows is both elegiac and celebratory. She returns us to what is nurturing in our lives and in the world: ‘everywhere / cicadas and crickets are rasping out their brief sentient lives, / and off in the woods a whip-poor-will keeps calling / that each moment is sweeter and more precious / than any you will ever taste again.’ I read her poems with admiration and deep pleasure.” —Joseph Stroud Carolyn Miller grew up in the Missouri Ozarks. Today she lives in San Francisco, where she writes, paints, and works as a free-lance copy…

The Jazz Philanthropists Union presents… Darren Johnston, trumpet Marcus Stephens, tenor sax Wil Blades, organ Scott Amendola, drums $15-20 sliding scale; Students $10 This evening will mark the first performance of a new organ-driven quartet assembled by trumpeter/composer Darren Johnston, featuring the long-time power duo of Wil Blades and Scott Amendola, plus the deeply creative voice of saxophonist Marcus Stephens. The group will play a mix of originals from within the group, a selection of Thelonious Monk compositions, and a few other surprising covers, spanning deep grooves, swinging blues and more.

Ian Carey, trumpet Tod Dickow , tenor sax Don Alberts, piano John Donnelly, bass Ron Marabuto, drums

Second Mondays, Bird & Beckett hosts a jam session for the inaugural class of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s brand new jazz BMUS (Bachelor of Music) degree program. The first date, in September, was a phenomenal delight. And so it goes! Get in here and get in on it! This is the present and future of jazz! 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 six or eight weeks ago.  They’re on a four-year track towards a jazz bachelor’s degree that will ground them in the African roots of the music and take them through its full development and flowering as America’s most truly original musical genre. The RJAM program is directed by new Glen Park neighbor Simon Rowe. Simon is a jazz pianist who hails from Australia, spent…