Go Small! cd release party The Scott Foster Trio recorded live at Bird & Beckett! Cory Wright, clarinet Scott Foster, guitar Dan Seamans, bass read an interview with Scott at this link! Scott has been a featured guitarist at Bird & Beckett since our “jazz in the bookshop” series began nearly 15 years ago. For a long time, he was here weekly, though in more recent years, it’s been the third Friday of each month. Throughout, he’s been Bird & Beckett’s favorite guitarist, bar none! Each time he brings a band to the stand, it’s freshly conceived for the occasion, and always a delight. Tonight, the trio will do a set, then they’ll open up the second set and invite friends and colleagues to share the bandstand in celebration of all the jazz that emanates week after week from the bookshop. This cd retains all the charm of our weekly…

Featured trombonist Mike Rinta, arranger and performer with the Grammy winning Pacific Mambo Orchestra, has toured the United States, Canada, Europe, Africa, and Asia with Sly & The Family Stone, Jimmie Vaughan, Howard Tate, John Lee Hooker Jr. and many others. In addition he has performed or recorded with many greats such as Herbie Hancock, Fred Wesley, Arturo Sandoval, Taj Mahal, Buddy Guy, Elvin Bishop, Santana, Sammy Hagar, Jerry Garcia, Irma Thomas, Shiela E., Steve Cropper, Elvis Costello and countless others. He’s in fine company tonight, particularly with seasoned pianist Keith Saunders on hand.

formerly with Elvin Bishop   LARRY VANN ~ Vocalist, Drummer  ~ “Groove Merchant” is the title appointed to this San Francisco Bay Area legend.  Authentic “root music”, music the soul can reach out and touch, the essential substance of his artistic source, is the foundation of this superbly seasoned artist’s own music branding, which fuses the essence of soul-stirring blues, sweet, mellow jazz and genuine soul, R&B and funk.   Mr. Vann has performed with many great artists such as THE WHISPERS, ELVIN BISHOP, CHARLES BROWN, MARTHA REEVES, THE MARVALETTES, CURTIS MAYFIELD AND THE IMPRESSIONS, CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE, BRIAN AUGER and many others and also with his own band for over 30 years. His work with the popular San Francisco Bay Area blues group, RON THOMPSON & THE RESISTORS contributed to the band earning two Bay Area Music Awards (BAMMY). He has also been honored with the Blues Society’s West Coast Hall of Fame,…

Two crucial poets with their roots in the vibrant social and political activism of 1970s San Francisco read their work. Both have pursued vital careers in poetry and allied arts in the decades that have followed.

Catharine Clune, violin Greg Stephens, trombone Joshua Brody, piano Zoli Di Bartolo, vocal “The group plays with the vivacity and enthusiasm as if they were backing the master himself. Elegant, but with a wink, this San Francisco quartet offers lively Argentinean tango music with grace and fun.” — Outsight Tango No. 9 explores tango music in all its myriad manifestations — traditional dance music, vocal ballads, tango nuevo, and more recent compositions — bringing an idiosyncratic twist to each. The trio of instruments — violin, piano, and trombone — may seem a far cry from the more traditional orquesta tipica, but the group’s ingenious arrangements capture a much larger sound, while the unorthodox brass instrument adds a new dimension to the mix. The group rebuilds old warhorses like “La Cumparsita” and “El Choclo”, and also digs deep into the more obscure nooks and crannies of the tango repertoire to unearth…

Three well-traveled jazz players join forces on the Bird & Beckett stage tonight! Matt Renzi Peter Barshay Hamir Atwal

  Born at an early age in Manchester England, Paul Griffith’s “at times comic, at times tragic” original songs have been characterized as “Briti-Cana: Americana with a British flavor.” Initially inspired by the high energy country covers of British boogie bands and later pub rock’s good-time-Charleys, Paul learned guitar and some stage craft from the guitar-loving boyfriends of his big sister, right before punk rock’s scorched-earth-year-zero ideology ripped a hole in British pop culture. Multiple musical endeavors inevitably followed; JB Sweat and The Perspirations, The Cheekie Pigs, Beergut 100, The Dickheads, Rough Vessel, The Suspects, Pat etcetera. Paul also served time in the folk singer and bluegrass trenches between even shorter lived musical experiments hopefully lost to the mists of time. From Bristol England to Bangkok Thailand, from Burmese border towns to Saigon, Paul considers himself lucky to have made music in exotic sounding (at least) locations, eventually finding kindred…

Jim Peterson, sax Scott Foster, guitar Joe Kyle, Jr., bass Larry Vann, drums Come on out to Bird & Beckett! New Squatoolas Celebrate the Musical Spirit of New Orleans!

Walker Talks! The last Sunday of each month, Walker Brents III edifies the Bird & Beckett audience with a wide ranging talk, always illuminating, always surprising…  

Dr. Mwanza Furaha & Chocolate Medicine  An “Art Is Health” Band  featuring Mwanza Furaha, vocals; Michael McQuilkin, piano; Pierre Archain, bass; Marty Garner, drums;   jazz & soul, to take you where you need to be… good times to make you feel good!   catch a little bit of Mwanza and the band at this link: Chocolate Medicine

Charles Curtis Blackwell’s poetry is suffused with soul, drenched with blues, sparked by jazz. His painting and drawing is likewise deep and personal. He’s one of a handful of poets we know whose articulations of joy, pain and insight always jump from the page, and from his mouth when he reads his work before an audience, We expect that we’ll have a good audience for him tonight. Ronald Sauer’s cosmopolitanism, his intellectual ardor, his engagement with the arts, make him an extravagantly deep poet as well. A frequent translator of the French decadent and surrealist poets of the late 19th through mid-20th centuries, today he will concentrate on translations from the Italian of contemporary North Beach painter and poet Lucia Gonella. Jerry Ferraz, a philosopher as much as a poet, referees the whole wrestling match, including the open mic that follows the featured readers. We should note that we have…