Bird & Beckett is honored to host a talk by Nobel laureate W. E. Moerner, and hope he’ll feel among family here.  All invited.  $4-10 sliding scale donation requested. An American Chemical Society talk. Click here to reserve a seat. Stanford Professor William E. Moerner was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2014 for his work in super-resolution fluorescence microscopy. The three winners of the 2014 prize – Moerner, Eric Betzig of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Stefan Hell of the Max Planck Institute – pioneered techniques that capture optical images on the nanometer scale. Moerner established himself early in the field of super-resolution spectroscopy at the start of his career in another research institution in the Santa Clara Valley ACS area – the IBM Almaden Research Center. In 1989, he and his IBM group reported measuring the light absorption of a single molecule. His group at Stanford…

 Natalie Cressman, a San Francisco native raised in a most eclectic musical household, has diversified and expanded her musical universe constantly throughout her young career, and early on found a strikingly original and mature voice, whether on trombone or in her singing and songwriting. She has spent much of the last six years touring the jam band circuit with Trey Anastasio, while also performing with jazz luminaries Nicholas Payton, Wycliffe Gordon and Peter Apfelbaum. Mike Bono began his musical career at the age of five, and auditioned for Berklee College of Music at age 18, receiving the school’s first Presidential Scholarship ever awarded to a guitarist. While at Berklee, he formed the Mike Bono Group, which released its debut record, “From Where You Are,” in 2013. He has toured internationally as leader and sideman, and has performed with such artists as Erykah Badu, Aloe Blacc, Chris Cheek, Julian Lage and Dayna Stephens.…

Oluyemi Thomas – Bass Clarinet, Saxophone, Percussion Ijeoma Thomas – Voice/Poet, Percussion Donald Robinson – Drums  Oluyemi Thomas was born in Detroit, Michigan. He studied at Washtenaw College in Ann Arbor, Michigan where he received an Associate of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. While attending Washtenaw College, he also studied music and the spiritual and physical nature of sound & silence. Great love and respect for the Arts is regarded as a gem to his parents who passed this on to him and his sisters and brothers. In his childhood years his mother & father often listened to the masters Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Dinah Washington and Billie Holiday. As a creative musician, performer, recording artist teacher and engineer, Mr. Thomas seeks to express his abiding love for the hidden power of Art. Oluyemi’s primary focus is to touch the inner core of individuals, be it in a forum, radio,…

Catch Groove Merchant Larry Vann as he whips up his special combination of jazz, blues, soul and funk Thursday from 8 to 10 p.m. Yes, he’s performed with Elvis Bishop, Curtis Mayfield and Charlie Musselwhite, but Thursday he’ll be joined by the incomparable Michael Warren on bass and tuneful Tim Landis on guitar.

  Three musicians exploring the subtleties that make jazz a music of the now and the future. Saxophonist Sheldon Brown has had an outsized influence on vast expanses of jazz.   With six-string bassist Michael Wilcox and drummer Alan Hall, this trio has been active for more than two decades. The trio continues in the tradition of Sonny Rollins, one of the earliest proponents of the tenor/bass/drums format. As a trio, they will explore a wide variety of music that has interested them over the years—from Brazilian choro, Bulgarian music, and the music of Herbie Nichols to pieces adapted from the classical repertoire by composers like Brahms, Faure and Machaut. Also featured will be music by bassist-composers such as Gary Peacock, Miroslav Vitous, Jaco Pastorius, and Sam Jones.

The Jazz Philanthropists Union presents… Vince Lateano Quartet Dick Whittington – piano Jeffrey Burr – guitar John Wiitala – bass Vince Lateano – drums Vince has been a cornerstone drummer of the San Francisco jazz edifice for decades, a swingin’ cat from the go. Pianist Dick Whittington has a history in Bay Area jazz that reaches back decades, who merits and receives boundless respect as a pianist, and who gets extra points for his tenure presenting music at the Maybeck Recital Hall on Berkeley’s North Side in the late 1980s and early ’90s. Jeffrey Burr and John Wiitala must not go unpraised, but how to demonstrate their great contribution to jazz as it is played here in the present day!? You’ll just have to come hear! jazz club! when lights are low … • $15 cover charge tonight

Grant Levin has an uncanny comfort and focus at the piano, and evidently loves the interaction with his partners on the stand. These duo dates happen every 2nd and 4th Saturday afternoon, with a bassist or drummer, typically. Two sets of close interchange. Myron Cohen has worked in a duo with Grant many times. He’s a swinging and joyous drummer with deep roots in the music and a profound respect for the legacy of jazz.

Bebop, jazz & poetry! Don Alberts Renaissance Band Ian Carey, trumpet • Charlie McCathy, tenor sax Don Alberts, piano • Larry Epstein, bass • Ron Marabuto, drums Plus poet Jeff Kaliss – poetry by Don Alberts & Jeff Kaliss Don Alberts is a bop cat from the earliest ’60s still wailing five and a half decades on. A lyrical romanticist, too, playing with all the lush eloquence of Duke Ellington and Bill Evans. Check his bio at http://donalberts.com/bio.html Come hear him live with a fine band at Bird & Beckett! Need a preview? You can hear some spectacular short clips on his site at this link: http://donalberts.com/music.html  

Chris Amberger has appeared frequently on the Bird & Beckett stage, and we’re fortunate indeed that today he leads a quartet here for the first time — and one that can’t fail to play with great joy and intensity, characteristics that Chris has manifested here time and again.. Chris learned his trade as a youth in Oakland in the late 1960s in the company of now legendary players as free jazz was exploding.  Subsequently, he was hired by Art Blakey and traveled widely with  Blakey’s famous Jazz Messengers. In the decades since, he’s never slowed down! For this date, he’s invited long-time colleague, saxophonist Francis Vanek to front the quartet, and young drummer Lewis Sweatt to lay down the beat, handle the time and more… Pianist Grant Levin has been closely associated with Chris for a decade or more; they’ve often been heard together at Bird & Beckett, always in sympathetic…

 Inside Bird And Beckett Story by Stephen Jackson, Hoodline, July 30, 2016 If you’re in Glen Park and looking to expand your cultural horizons, your safest bet is to head over to Bird and Beckett Books and Records. The name, derived from Charlie Parker and Samuel Beckett, says it all: the cozy shop specializes in both books and records. But it also hosts 25 to 30 events each month, ranging from live music to readings to stand-up comedy. Eric Whittington opened Bird and Beckett in 1999 on Diamond Street; in 2008, he moved right around the corner to his current Chenery Street location. He speaks highly of his landlord, and feels very comfortable in his month-to-month situation. “The same family has owned the property since the 1880s, and has long believed in renting their two commercial properties—this and the preschool next door—to businesses that will benefit the community,” he told us.…

Check out Joel Sackett’s article and photographs in Wingspan magazine– the inflight magazine of All Nippon Airlines.   Book your ticket and you’ll find it in the pocket of the seat back in front of you. Or click here! Bird & Beckett leads off the list of “Hot Spots & Cool Groups” and a pic of Grant Levin’s quartet date at Bird & Beckett a few months back (Walter Savage on bass, Malachi Whitson on drums & Jonathan Bautista on sax) finishes off the six-page article by photographer Joel Sackett, who was ushered through town recently by his long-time SFAI buddy Dennis Hearne, North Beach photographer extraordinaire! Though the pix below are from various venues, virtually every one includes musicians who play often at the shop, from Ulf Bjorkbom, to HowellDevine, Danny Brown & Joe Kyle, Jr., to Lavay Smith & Noel Jewkes, to Jeffrey Burr & Ned Boynton… Page after…