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!
Phil Hill, vocal and guitar; Sam Cady, piano; Bill Langlois, bass; Mark Lee, drums. The Phil Hill Trio was already soaring before they added drummer Mark Lee, making the trio a quartet and allowing the whole enterprise to fly higher, faster and ever more gracefully. Phil plays a sweet and evocative guitar and sings with understated elan, delivering for the wistful, the lovelorn and the hopelessly romantic lovely standards from the Great American Songbook like Pennies from Heaven, On the Sunny Side of the Street, Don’t Get Around Much Anymore, Route 66, The Girl from Ipanema, On a Slowboat to China, Stardust, Ain’t Misbehavin’ and many more.  Sam Cady’s piano sets the frame and embellishes the picture flawlessly, and bassist Bill Langlois gives it soul that takes you right into Nat Cole’s 1940s world.
Read MoreChristopher Bernard will read from his new novel, Voyage to a Phantom City, described as a spine-tingling adventure across the Sahara and a heart-breaking romance, provoking haunting memories of war and a long-lost America after the tragedy of September 11th. The novel is a spiritual quest into the heart of darkness that discovers the supremely redemptive power of love. Christopher’s previous books include the novel A Spy in the Ruins, the short-story collections Dangerous Stories for Boys and In the American Night, and The Rose Shipwreck: Poems and Photographs. He is co-editor of “Caveat Lector” and a regular contributor to “Synchronized Chaos.” He writes fiction, poetry, essays, plays, and criticism. His poetry can be found online at “The Bog of St. Philinte.” He lives in San Francisco. Clara Hsu will read a set of translations of the poems by Xu Zhimo, accompanied by David Wong on the guqin (Chinese 7-stringed zither).…
Read More“Lori Carsillo is a vocal musician of relaxed, cool self-assurance and her voice is special for its unfiltered feelings and melodic warmth.†– Herb Wong, jazz historian, producer, Black Hawk Records & Palo Alto Records founder A noted presence on the Bay Area jazz scene, Lori Carsillo (an Italian name, pronounced: “car-SILL-ohâ€), is a vocalist of subtlety and sophistication. The nuance of her phrasing is constantly fresh and compelling. Her repertoire, a mix of well-known favorites and forgotten gems, draws praise from listeners as well as fellow musicians, as does her innate musical sense and down-to-earth nature. She sings with an unaffected, unpretentious style, never overreaching, and always at ease.  Read more on Lori’s website at this link–her resume is deep. She has performed at top Bay Area venues including Yoshi’s, Bimbo’s 365 Club, the San Jose Jazz Festival, and all along the West Coast from San Diego to Vancouver. In…
Read MorePianist Grant Levin and his long-time jazz collaborator, bassist Chris Amberger converse in jazz over two generous sets of music. Arriving in Oakland in his early teens, in the early 1960s, Chris Amberger was schooled in music by some of the great jazz and blues figures of the era, including pianist George Duke, drummer Smiley Winters and guitarist T. Bone Walker. He was a participant in the birth of Oakland’s free jazz movement in the late 1960s, and then headed for Boston’s Berklee School of Music where he studied with vibes player Gary Burton and gigged on the avant garde scene there with Rahsaan Roland Kirk as well as with solid Blue Note era players like Kenny Dorham and Donald Byrd. From there, he went on tour with the latin/funk band Bombolé in North Africa and Europe, with Cal Tjader and Rosemary Clooney in Latin America, with George Shearing in…
Read MoreLive jazz every Friday night at Bird & Beckett, from 5:30 to 8:00 pm This week: Â Chuck Peterson leads his quintet through two sets of standards and bebop, with singer Dorothy Lefkovits lending her characteristic charm and grace to the occasion. Chuck Peterson & Howie Dudune, reeds Glen Deardorff, guitar Dean Reilly, bass Tony Johnson, drums “jazz in the bookshop” is Bird & Beckett’s long-running end-of-the-week neighborhood jazz party. Â Never a missed Friday since 2002!
Read MoreNothing really is known to us of these poets, not having inquired into the wily machinations of m.c. Jerry Ferraz, whom we trust implicitly. Yet we remain sanguine that all will be well and, well, delightful. Or better. Do come. An open mic follows! Post event note: Jerry didn’t fail us. Two excellent poets indeed!
Read MoreCelebrate the life of Lurilla Harris! Lurilla was a marvel of a woman, a tenacious survivor despite a stroke some years ago, who made the rounds constantly, forging ahead with her walker, transported hither and yon constantly by the city’s service buses for the disabled to get to concerts, films, community meetings, political hearings, you name it. If it was interesting and if it was free, Lurilla availed herself of it. If it was politically important she made the time to go and make her voice heard and her opinion considered. She was smart as a whip, and a wiseacre of the first order. She had flamboyant tastes in clothing and sunglasses. She knew what she liked and she knew what she was entitled to, and she made sure she wasn’t denied her due. Her ego was strong, and she had the smarts to justify her good opinion of herself.…
Read MoreTwo fiction writers, Laurie Taylor and Richard Michael Levine, share the stage at Bird & Beckett this Sunday afternoon. On remote Spanish island near the African coast, a Mexican American entomologist, Epiphany Jerome, is looking for a rare beetle. Instead she finds a body on an empty beach with a knife sticking out from its back.  Laurie Taylor’s Said the Fly is a forensic murder mystery that Kirkus Review called “dazzlingâ€Â and “smartly written†in their *starred* review. It was selected as one of their May “Kirkus Indie Books of the Month.†Writer and biologist Laurie Taylor moved to Glen Park in 2014, after more than a decade of living in Europe and the Middle East. Richard Michael Levine‘s short story collection, The Man Who Gave Away His Organs: Tales of Love and Obsession at Midlife, was published by Capra Press in 2015. He was a magazine writer and editor for many years, publishing feature articles and…
Read MoreTim Lin, saxophone; Seiji Yamashita, piano; Trevor Murphy, bass; Lewis Sweatt, drums. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Tim Lin is a rising jazz star whose progressive sound draws from his synthesis of the jazz tradition. Upon his discovery of John Coltrane’s masterpiece “A Love Supreme”, Tim was drawn into the wonders of the jazz idiom. During his junior year in high school, Tim was mentored by bay area saxophonist and educator Dann Zinn. Guided by Zinn’s inspirational teaching, Tim found his passion and calling to play jazz at the highest level possible. Upon acceptance to University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, Tim received a scholarship to study with the world-renowned jazz recording artist Bob Sheppard. During his college years in Los Angeles, Tim was a member of the award winning USC Thornton Jazz Orchestra directed by Bob Mintzer in addition to the USC Honors…
Read MoreGuitarist Scott Foster brings in a group on the 3rd Friday of each month. He first started playing Bird & Beckett in the fall of 2002. Ever since, it’s been all good. He’s sure seems to be our favorite musician, our favorite jazz musician, our favorite jazz guitarist, our favorite band leader. Come hear what he has to offer you this week. Cory Wright, on clarinet, has put in time in New York and Los Angeles jazz and creative music circles, and has played with Yusef Latif and Anthony Braxton along the way. Dan Seamans, on bass, brings decades of associations with some of the most adventurous musicians we’ve known. You’ve probably heard him here with the Lost Trio in the company of Philip Greenlief and Tom Hassett.
Read MoreDynamic young players making their mark on the Bay Area jazz & club scene, vocalist Helen Loo, reed player Dan Magay and guitarist Justin Rock (subbing for Karma Beats core member Luke Vesely) offer up a unique, versatile and soulful sound combined with an expansive, genre-bending repertoire. Karma Beats delves deep into music from Brazil, Africa, and rock and jazz as well. They apply their magic to tunes associated with likes of The Beatles, Bob Marley, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Billie Holiday. Karma Beat believes to their collective soul that music should reflect a multi-cultural and universal appeal that knows no borders. Click here to check their trailer on youtube.
Read MoreJoin Margery Snyder and friends of Whitman McGowan to celebrate his masterwork, UNCOMMON KNOWLEDGE (Viridiana, 2015), collected performance texts 1985 – 2012, published one year ago, just a few months before he died in October 2015. As his CDs revealed his gift for fruitful collaboration with musicians & other artists, so this book shows off the interplay between Whitman’s words & the amazing images created by his scratchboard illustrator & Espresso Bar compadre Bruce Litz. It’s a beautiful book, with many of Whitman’s best-remembered rants, songs & monologues—and even if you know his stuff, you’re sure to discover a few new or forgotten gems. We’ll be reading (or chanting) some of Whitman’s best pieces, listening to his recordings & generally letting the memories of Whitman’s unique presence & performance bounce around the bookstore. Please join us! Read the SF Chronicle article by Steve Rubenstein on Whitman after he passed away.  Rubenstein writes, “Whitman…
Read MoreEvery second Saturday, we’re blessed with a pair of performances by pianist Grant Levin — first a duo outing in the late afternoon, and then after a dinner break, a quartet with some of the finest players the bay area has to offer. Â In this instance, the duo pairs up Grant with the wonderful bassist Joe McKinley then the quartet features Noel Jewkes, tenor sax royalty in these parts, along with Joe on bass and young Malachi Whitson on bass.
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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
