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!
From Julie Rogers, David’s wife, we received the following message this morning, December 31st: Dear One,  Our Beloved David passed at 3:37 this morning very peacefully with us in our bed holding hands. He was calm after the terrible storm of the last few days and left like a feather floating into the sky.  I want to let you know this, and also that we’re beginning Buddhist practices for him and will be here at home with our families today and for the next few. Please wait before contacting me – I doubt I’ll be answering email for a while, nor phone calls. We may not answer the phone today either, but please know that you are with us in our hearts. Perhaps in a few days…  I’m deeply grateful for your support, love, prayers, good thoughts, and friendship. I love him beyond words, as we all do.  As…
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16 tickets ($20 cash, please) available at the door starting at 5 pm day of show. ~~2 tix per person only, please.~~ Claim a seat, get some dinner and get back here before 7:15! Some standing room will be available starting at 7:15. Limited seating, so please be advised! Born in Oakland in 1955, David Murray came of age as a saxophonist under the profound influence of free jazz masters Albert Ayler and Archie Shepp and proceeded to become a major figure of avant garde jazz beginning in the mid-1970s. He is highly regarded for his rich and diverse compositions, technique and sound, influenced by such greats as Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster and Paul Gonsalves as well as the modern masters. Murray is widely known for his work as a founding member of the World Saxophone Quartet, alongside Oliver Lake, Julius Hemphill and Hamiet Bluiett, which recorded 21 albums between…
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Lyle Link – tenor saxophone. Gaea Schell – piano. David Ewell – bass. Sylvia Cuenca – drums. “Thinking about playing some of my favorite Bobby Hutcherson tunes plus music from a variety of my other favorite composers,” says Sylvia. Born and raised in San Jose, and gigging professionally in San Francisco and environs at the start of her career, Sylvia Cuenca is now a first call drummer on the New York jazz scene, where she’s been based for well over a decade. Â She toured with saxophone legend Joe Henderson for 4 years and with trumpet legend Clark Terry for 17 years. The Joe Henderson quartet toured frequently in European countries Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, England, Switzerland, France, Italy and Germany and venues across the U.S. In a trio setting she performed with Joe Henderson and Charlie Haden in 1989 and with George Mraz in 1994. She performed with the…
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Mean to Me resurrects classic jazz of the 1920s through ’40s filtered through the unique sensibilities of the band, which boasts a proclivity for bop, soul and latin jazz as well. Think Monk sauntering up Tin Pan Alley and turning onto Bourbon Street… Sweet and low down, and always swingin’. Mingus is there… Ahmad Jamal, too… Mean to Me’s core comprises Judy Butterfield, trained as a cabaret singer but with an abiding love for soul music; Ben Slater, a pianist whose interest in exploring the roots of jazz grew from time spent living in New Orleans; and Dave Shaff, a trumpeter drawn to some more modern and funky sounds. All three grew up in San Francisco and have played together on and off for ten years now. They know how to have a good time, and so do their confederates. You’ll have one, too!
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Randy Lee Odell and Bing Nathan will be here! Â You should be, too. Randy will play drums and Bing will play bass, alongside Easifingers Eric Shifrin on the piano… You just need to bring your ears, your enthusiasm and some cash for the performers! The In Crowd ain’t nothin’ without you! With you, it’s the happenin’ thing… every last Thursday of the month to ease the pain of what’s gone by and set the stage for the pleasures to come.
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Clifford Brown III – trumpet Charles Hamilton – trombone, Hal Richards – tenor sax and bass clarinet, Jerry Logas – bari sax, Brad Bivens – guitar, Dave Parker – bass, Greg German – drums.
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Cool little duo – Macy Blackman on piano and Bing Nathan on bass – doing some massively wonderful music by the King & Queen of New Orleans Soul. Macy and his full band just put out a new cd of this material. You’re in for a guided tour of what you’ll hear if you buy the cd — “Shoorah Shoorah” — to take home.
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Walker Brents III gives a talk at Bird & Beckett on the last Sunday of each month… always a fascinating excursion through topics literary, philosophical and otherwise.
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Smith Dobson Quintet plays the music of Charlie Parker, surely the most influential musician in modern jazz history– and the “Bird” in Bird & Beckett. Smith Dobson, sax Erik Jekabson, trumpet Keith Saunders, piano John Wiitala, bass Evan Hughes, drums
Read MorePianist Levin and bassist Cetto have been developing a rich collaboration over the past several months, growing deeper with each outing. Grant’s twice-monthly duo dates — every second and fourth Saturday afternoon — offer the pianist an opportunity for intimate conversation with colleagues on the bandstand that never fails to lavishly reward the attention of the Bird & Beckett audience.
Read MoreTalk about your San Francisco jazz… On the fourth Friday of each month, our weekly jazz in the bookshop series features The 230 Jones Street, Local 6 Literary Jazz Band — professional musicians whose history on the local jazz scene dates back 60 years, to the very early 1950s. Ray Loeckle and Jerry Logas on saxes Glen Deardorff on guitar Dean Reilly on bass Tony Johnson on drums
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Judith Ayn Bernhard and Aung Taik read from their work, followed by an open mic. Jerry Ferraz carries the day as m.c., as he has since the beginning– which may have been in 12th century Provence.
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In tribute to some of the giants of the saxophone, Michael Zilber performs all original music from his new cd, “Originals for the ORIGINALS,” written in homage to John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Dave Liebman, Michael Brecker, Sonny Rollins, Paul Desmond and Joe Henderson. Hailed by jazz critics including Andrew Gilbert and Bill Milkowski as superb, Zilber’s 11th release as a leader features New York jazz greats Dave Kikoski on piano, James Genus on bass, and Clarence Penn on drums, and has been widely described as his best and most personal recording.. For this Bird & Beckett performance, Michael is joined by Matt Clark on piano; Peter Barshay on bass and Jason Lewis on drums. You couldn’t ask for better!
Read More70 years on… Having met Neal Cassady in December 1946 in NYC, Jack Kerouac says so long to Neal on March 4, 1947, and Neal returns in a tear to Denver. By March 7, Neal has written a letter to Jack from Denver, the “Great Sex Letter,” astonishing and thrilling Jack with its energy & drive… It is also in March 1947, in Denver, that Neal meets Carolyn Robinson, who would be the enduring love of his life, and the linchpin in the relationship between Neal and Jack, and in a very real sense the anchor between Neal’s desire for constant movement and for deep connection and stability. It is Carolyn who becomes the motive for Neal’s move to San Francisco where she has gone. They take up residence on Russian Hill, where Jack joins them, and then move down to San Jose, his base from that point on, raising…
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Poet Arturo Mantecón presents a reading from the work of three late 20th century Spanish language poets/writers — Francisco Ferrer LerÃn, Leopoldo MarÃa Panero and Mario Santiago Papasquiaro.  Mantecón is joined on the program by Gilberto Rodriguez, who will declaim poems of Panero, and by musicians Dylan Morgan and Arturo Balderrama. Mantecón’s translations include poems of Ferrer LerÃn as well as poetry and prose of the mad Spanish poeta maldito, Leopoldo MarÃa Panero (Like an Eye in the Hand of a Beggar, Editions Michel Eyquem, 2013). He is currently translating work of the Mexican infrarrealista poet Mario Santiago Papasquiaro. Mantecón was born in Laredo, Texas and raised in Detroit, Michigan. His poetry has appeared in La Ventana Abierta, Poetry Now and various anthologies. A collection of his short stories, Memories, Cuentos VerÃdicos, y Otras Outright Lies, was published by En Casa in 2014.  Mantecón’s notes with regard to today’s program follow:…
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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," 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.
Click on "donate" in the navigation bar above. Better yet, make a check out to the “Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project” and drop it off or mail it to:
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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We're immensely appreciative of Jazz in the Neighborhood for having stepped in as our temporary fiscal sponsor for a few months, while we straightened out some paperwork to get nonprofit status restored to the BBCLP. We're happy to say that's been done, and all past, present, and future donations made directly to the BBCLP are fully tax-deductible!
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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
