Spindlermühle ((Czechoslovakia), 1930s So clear that night and still, only the sound of the horse’s hooves on packed snow and the sleigh’s bells broke the silence, our breaths mingled with the horse’s steam as we huddled under a heavy blanket my parents and I alert to the brightness of moon-lit sky, so young, so long ago. — Eveline Kanes   Hunger From beside the house where grandmother was born my daughter picked a wild rose, then pressed it in a guidebook before it could dry and crumble. The abandoned house has crumbled into the pasture, like grandmother crumbled into arthritic, melancholy ruin while she tended, like a turf fire, the memory of Cork. We traveled in a car over a road meant for goats to find our cousins—the children and grandchildren of the ones who stayed through the hunger years. Their welcome is warm, their smiles both shy and sly,…

 Graham Bruce writes and arranges for this seven-piece jazz juggernaut, with a book of original music thick as a brick! Mad Duran, alto, soprano, flute Dave Schrader, tenor, soprano Ruth Ahlers, bari Steve Weaver, trombone Dan Neville, vibraphone Graham Bruce, bass Andy Dillard, drums

The Jazz Commissioner is on the job! Latin jazz specialist John Calloway brings in a quartet that’s representative of the Bay Area’s best and brightest — Marco Diaz on piano, Alex Farrell on bass and Adam Coopersmith on drums. Latin, straight-ahead, bebop and beyond! John’s most recent album, “Asere Ko,” was recorded in Cuba and the Bay Area with top musicians in both locales. Pick up a copy of the cd at Bird & Beckett, or go to Bandcamp to buy the download there. John holds a Doctorate in Multicultural Education from USF, is the music supervisor for the SFUSD and is on faculty at SFSU in the School of Music and the College of Ethnic Studies. Dr. Calloway has been recognized by the Jazz Journalists Association with the Jazz Hero Award in 2012, and by the California Music Educators Association with the Ernest R. Yee Illuminating Culture Award in…

Tony Litwak and his merry band of sharpshooters capture 50 years of San Francisco joy, culture and temperate weather in just 6 minutes! Watch your neighborhood bookstore become a full-on movie star! Baddest Greek Chorus Ever! Best Cowboy Time Traveler! Best Count to Three! Best Hysterical Paean to Why Nobody Ever Wants to Leave San Francisco Despite the 9 Dollar Avocado Toast! Why do we all hang on by our fingernails? That’s a good question. A very good question. Chronos Cowboy A 48 Hour Film Project Tony Litwak, Writer/Director Blatant Violation Productions, 2017 View it on youtube: Chronos Cowboy  

In these tumultuous times, we need Tin Cup Serenade’s tragic songs of hope more than ever. Rolf Wilkinson writes the tunes, by and large, sings them and plays guitar, Larry Leight plays trombone and Safa Shokrai plays bass. Nashville Music News glowingly reviewed their most recent album, using the phrase “exuberant melancholy” and that pretty well describes the tone of it.  They quote Rolf, who says “Every song on the album has a bit of pathos and a bit of sunshine. There’s no sadness without happiness, no comedy without tragedy. I like the complexity that results from conflicting emotion.”  The songs, says NMN. evoke a Tin Pan Alley melange of New Orleans Jazz, Calypso, Swing, Mariachi, ragtime, early Country, and traditional Cuban Music. Check the band’s website at this link, and listen in on a few cuts.  

Alan Watts, born near London in 1915, was drawn to Buddhism at a young age, and published his first book in 1936 at age 21, The Spirit of Zen: A Way of Life, Work and Art in the Far East. Though he later came to view that book as somewhat naive and superficial, it marked the start of a significant career as a philosopher, religious thinker and public intellectual. Moving to New York in 1938, he pursued Christian and Buddhist philosophies side by side, and made a particularly strong impression with the 1950 publication of The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for An Age of Anxiety. In 1951, Watts moved to California. His radio broadcasts on KPFA beginning in 1953 along with public lectures and numerous books were hugely influential in philosophical and religious circles and in the popular counterculture that blossomed in the Bay Area through the sixties and…

Jeff Hamilton plays piano! A trio with Clint Baker on trumpet and Robert Young on reeds. There are at least two drummers named Jeff Hamilton in the world of exquisite music… the big band (Clayton/Hamilton) drummer and this one. And don’t we love this one! I mean, just take a look at that album cover adjacent! As for the album itself, it hardly ever leaves my cd changer these days!! With luck, you heard this Jeff Hamilton on drums, his stock in trade, with pianist Ray Skjelbred and His Cubs at Bird & Beckett on July 6th. Come September 23rd for a taste of Jeff’s taste when he’s at the keyboard. Brilliant! One charming and funny guy! One brilliant musician!!  

Listen to this track, and come down to the show! “Take the Crowell Train” – written for saxophonist and Bay Area educator Ken Crowell. It burns! Greg Abate, a multi-instrumentalist and an alto player in the tradition of Phil Woods, is a road warrior, says Simon Rowe, director of the SF Conservatory of Music’s new Roots, Jazz and American Music program. He performs all over Europe as well as in Canada and Japan, and is typically on the road 150-225 days a year. In July, Greg toured for three weeks in England and Italy, performing 18 dates in concert halls, churches, jazz societies, schools and festivals. In August and the first few weeks of September, he’s doing 20 dates in Quebec and along the Eastern Seaboard from Maine to Connecticut and inland to West Virginia. Then it’s our turn, as Greg flies way out west to play Bird & Beckett on…

Michael? First time Jerry booked him, I mentioned it to a couple regulars. Michael Koch!? Now I know what they mean. You’ll like this reading, so come out…. open mic follows. Jerry Ferraz runs the whole shebang. Ronald Sauer, nb surrealist, pinch hits for Robert Anbian tonight. Welcome to Birdnbeckettlandia!

Soul singer Derek Evans, with wicked Todd Swenson on guitar, Willie Riser on bass and Larry Vann on drums! Yeah, you bet! You don’t want to miss this.

  Grant Levin, piano. Chris Amberger, bass. Jeff Minnieweather, drums. . . . 2, 3, 4 Count it off with Grant Levin! Duos, trios, quartets… every 2nd, 3rd and 4th Sunday of the month  

Celebrating the first two seasons of titles from the independent publisher, Magra Books (magrabooks.com). Gillian Conoley will read from her just published chapbook, Preparing One’s Consciousness for the Avatar, along with Martha Ronk reading from her 2016 title, Unfamiliar Familiar; Art Beck from his new translation, Martial, Epigrams; Dennis Phillips from his Desert Sequence chapbook; and Neeli Cherkovski from his forthcoming Magra chapbook, Odes for Ezra Weston Pound. Part of the presentation will also be a memorial tribute to Ray DiPalma (1943-2016), whose For a Curved Surface is one of Magra’s initial offerings. Based in Los Angeles and Tuscany, Magra Books is a series of chapbooks, printed in editions of 300 copies, featuring unique works by important writers. Each volume, typically 32 pages in length, presents writers who are up to the all-encompassing challenge of producing work that strives to make “news that stays news.” Writers who are passionate about…