Bird & Beckett presents The John Calloway Jazz Quartet John Calloway, flute Murray Low, piano David Flores, drums Alex Farrell, bass The quartet, led by JC, the Jazz Commissioner himself, will play latin & straight ahead tunes, jazz standards and originals, celebrating the release of John’s astonishingly powerful new cd, Asere Ko, recorded in Havana and San Francisco with top Cuban and Bay Area musicians including pianists Oscar Hernandez and Mark Levine, percussionists Jesus Diaz and Edgardo Cambon,  vocalist Destani Wolf, and a dozen more! Quoth El Killer de la Salsa: Uno de los músicos mas respetados y virtuosos de los últimos tiempos en el mundo del Jazz y la música Afrocubana es sin duda alguna John Calloway, musico magnifico, Multi – Instrumentista la Flauta y la percusión son la parte esencial de este majestuoso trabajo que presenta en este 2016 titulado “Asere Ko” es fiel a su profundo amor…

The very heart of Bird & Beckett’s music programming is this seasoned group of jazz professionals including the wonderful, gracious and charming vocalist Dorothy Lefkovits. We opened the store in 1999, hosted the occasional jazz concert on weekend afternoons, and then in October 2002 began to present jazz every single Friday evening, with saxophonist Chuck Peterson at the helm. Along came Dorothy with her own group (the late Henry Irvin on guitar, Bishu Chatterjee on bass and the late Jimmy Ryan on drums) for some Sunday afternoon shows, and eventually a full merger of talents was accomplished.  Now, we present Chuck’s band with Dorothy on vocals the fourth Friday of every month. No better way to ease out of the work week and into the weekend then to enjoy a few hours in their company.

8 to 10 pm. No cover. Thursday, September 29. Every Thursday night, it’s time for B&B’s canyon moonlight series… Amerarcana from soul to surf, rock to rockabilly, country to crooning, cast iron or otherwise… no one does it better than your own local musicians, and nowhere do they do it better than they do it at Bird & Beckett.

Moonshine Maybelline makes its debut Bird & Beckett appearance Thursday, September 22nd, playing their own gorgeous brand of glamorous honky tonk. Like a siren from the shore, this band will lure you in with spellbinding ballads, mesmerize you with moody soundscapes, and crash your broken heart into their country-rock. Sparks flew and Moonshine Maybelline was born when Catherine Foreman added her songs and her vocals to the guitar and bass of twang-rockers Bob Spector and Ted O’Connell, long adored locally for the country rave-ups of their band, The GoldDiggers.  Moonshine Maybelline’s lineup was solidified with the addition of Ian Taylor Sutton on pedal steel and drummer Steve Pearson. Introduced to the world with a live performance on college radio leader KALX, they earned a spot on KALX’s “Best of 2014” list and scored a SXSW showcase opening for hometown favorite Chuck Prophet. The band continues to shine on the local scene…

Our current run started Thursday, the 8th, with HowellDevine. the fabulous delta blues trio, in our weekly canyon moonlight Americana series (blues, soul, country, rockabilly) series and continued Friday, the 9th with our weekly jazz in the bookshop party featuring Voz do Brasil, the fabulous Club Deluxe Sunday night house band that showcases vocalist Liza Silva… and on it goes! Saturday, September 10th, two shows:  Grant Levin Duo (4-6 pm) and the Noel Jewkes Quartet (7:30-10 pm). An astonishingly talented young pianist and a legendary, much adored elder of the tenor saxophone take the stage as leaders in turn. Jazz as it’s played in San Francisco in 2016! Proof positive of its vital relevance and sheer joy. In the evening (7:30-10 pm), Noel’s quartet date features Grant on piano along with bassist Greg D’Augelli and drummer Jeff Minnieweather. Greg is Grant’s duo partner earlier in the afternoon (4-6 pm).  Grant plays his duo…

Michael Parsons is back! For a minute at least. And Bird & Beckett’s got him! Pianist Michael Parsons got our “jazz club” series rolling back in July 2014, then went and fell in love, moved to Paris, and married the lovely Siham! A French work visa followed, and time rolls on as Michael makes the rounds of the Paris jazz spots… ’til the day Michael & Siham move back to San Francisco for good. Michael and Siham are in town on holiday, and Michael  is gigging in all the old haunts while they’re here. (The two are also showcasing their rock trio — “Of the Goldmine” — while they’re in town: get over to Noise – Balboa at 35th – Sunday afternoon to witness that!) At Bird & Beckett, Michael’s quartet tonight will feature Danny Brown on tenor sax; Ricardo Diaz on bass; and Andre Sumelius on drums. Andre, Finnish by…

Soul September! Vocalist Derek Evans is featured with Todd Swenson’s “This Side Up.” Willie Riser, bass; Larry Vann, drums.

The art of the trio… Grant Levin, piano Joe McKinley, bass Rick Rivera, drums

Al Molina, trumpet and flugelhorn; Al Bent, trombone; Tod Dickow, sax; Larry Chinn, piano; Fred Randolph, bass; Vince Lateano, drums. Al Molina is a San Francisco native, born in 1935 to a musical family, who first made his mark on the local jazz scene in the early 1960s. His first appearance on record was in the 1966 Crestview Records release “Jazz from San Francisco,” and in 1983 he was named Best Jazz Trumpet in San Francisco by the Bay Area Jazz Society. Along the way, he has released three records as a leader, most recently “Amigos Todos” in 2003. He has toured internationally twice and appeared at the Monterey, Russian River and San Jose Jazz Festivals. Al’s sextet has been together for a number of years, and performs monthly at the Seven Mile House on Bayshore at Geneva, where Al practically created what has come to be regarded one of…

In the early 1950s, Don Prell was deep in the scene where a whole school & industry of “west coast jazz” was being created. He spent copious amounts of time playing and hanging at venues like Howard Rumsey’s Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach and the Haig in downtown L.A., just two of many clubs where the musicians cooked up tunes with intricate harmonies and rhythms in a cool mode that drew eager listeners to the music — though hard bop was equally entrenched in the set lists. At the Lighthouse, twelve-hour Sunday sessions that ran 2 pm to 2 am packed the place and put the club on the map, and the house band went through several iterations, first with major players from LA’s Central Avenue scene including Teddy Edwards, Hampton Hawes and Sonny Criss, black jazzmen eventually harassed out of town by the local authorities. White musicians were more easily…

Desperate and dazed by the agony of sleepless nights and endless days of ill-conceived parenthood,           caught in a trap, I can’t walk out, because I’ve got two children, baby… three gorgeous women with sparkling shades hiding tired eyes           too tired for my life, I’m too tired for my life, life’s going to kill me… sit perched on the wall of a neighborhood sandpit… Floppy bags of toys, diapers and sippy cups spill unnoticed at their feet, the children unseen, unheard, just screaming! screaming! somewhere behind some plastic playstructure… They recognize themselves in each other, trade weary stories, and form, first, a bond… and then…  a band! And miraculously there, in the night, gleams the neon of your favorite dive… El Rio… and Los Train Wreck waiting to TAKE THEM THERE!   To glam… to glory… to their own eponymous cocktail! Where they sing for…