Bird & Beckett started in business in May of 1999… and in October of 2002, 13+ years ago, we started presenting live jazz every single Friday evening after work. We’re still doing it, and more… but every so often the necktie gets a little tight — you all know how it is… So, on Friday, October 30th, 2015 we called on the founders of our jazz programming — Chuck Peterson, Don Prell, Scott Foster and Dorothy Lefkovitz — to entertain you while you reached into your wallets to throw a little money our way so we could throw it to the banks! For a post-event wrap-up, read on beneath the picture below!  The view from Halloween: The benefit we had last night with Dorothy, Chuck, Don & Scott, plus Rick Elmore and Omar Aran, was a terrific success.  $1,256 was contributed to the nonprofit, and the bookstore raised another $3,982. (Coincidentally,…

Please attend an informational meeting at Bird & Beckett with Amy Farah Weiss of the Saint Francis Homelessness Challenge She will address: •  what can be done to achieve secure sleep, hygienic toileting and services for San Francisco’s unhoused neighbors •  the innovations already being put into play •  the public policies that can make a difference. 7,000 people live on the streets in this wealthy city. A recent survey found that among its respondents: 80% were living with untreated psychological disabilities 70% were people living with physical disabilities. 60% became houseless after displacement from long-time homes and neighborhoods 60% were women ages 24-40 30% were people of color 30% were men 10% were trans and non-gender-conforming Become better informed. Add your imagination and energies to the effort. Lend your influence on the behalf of our unhoused neighbors. Follow the Saint Francis Homelessness Challenge on facebook at this link.  

Gerard Sarnat reads from Melting the Ice King, his fourth collection of poems; over 75 of these poems have been published in various magazines. His first was Homeless Chronicles: From Abraham to Burning Man (2010). He has been a professor at Stanford Medical School and has built and staffed clinics for the marginalized and homeless. For more info, see gerardsarnat.com. Keith Ekiss is a lecturer in Creative Writing at Stanford University, was a Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford from 2005 to 2007 and has had residencies at the Bread Loaf and Squaw Valley Writers’ Conferences, Santa Fe Art Institute, Millay Colony for the Arts and the Petrified Forest National Park. His poems and translations have appeared in numerous journals, and his creative nonfiction has been anthologized in Permanent Vacation: Living and Working in Our National Parks (Bona Fide Books, 2011). He is the translator of Eunice Odio’s The Fire’s…

  The GG Amos Band with Greg Sankovich on keyboards and Randy Odell on drums takes the stage this Sunday in our Canyon Moonlight series… Guitarist / Vocalist GG Amos is an artist in the West Coast Blues tradition, raised in Sacramento and now based in San Francisco. She’s honed her craft as a songwriter and entertainer utilizing the soul, jazz, funk and latin elements that make west coast blues what it is. For the past 26 years GG has earned a reputation as a riveting performer with a distinctive, expressive guitar style and an emotionally charged fluid voice…always emphasizing soulful communication with her audience. Her guitar influences include Carlos Santana, Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson, Magic Sam, Kenny Burrell and Pat Metheny. As a vocalist, her influences have been many but says she learned more about expression, timing and phrasing from the great Louis Armstrong than any other singer. GG’s original…

Smith Dobson breaks out the vibes for tonight’s date with Jack Tone Riordan on guitar, Miles Wick on bass and Evan Hughes on drums. Originals and Milt Jackson/Modern Jazz Quartet material will carry the day! Always a good band with Smith at the helm!  

Reed player Jerry Logas, guitarist Tom Lander and drummer Vinnie Rodriguez join bassist Don Prell for two sets of bebop-drenched music. Prell’s career in jazz began in Los Angeles in the 1950s. He subbed for Oscar Pettiford, took girlfriends away from Woody Herman, recorded and performed for several years in a quartet with Bud Shank, Claude Williamson and Chuck Flores, touring Europe and South Africa with the quartet and June Christie, played with Peggy Lee at the Sands — lugging his bass all along the way. He also did time in a foxhole on the border between North & South Korea, lost his cabaret card in New York City, married a Playboy bunny, took a legit gig with the Utah Symphony and another, which lasted 30 years, with the San Francisco Symphony. Now, you can hear him Tuesday nights down at the Bayview Boat Club (sign in as his guest–…

        This Sunday, Misisipi Mike Wolf & Friends perform his 2009 debut album live, for you.   Mike says, “The Cold Hard Facts of Mike” was my redemption song, and it came about very unexpectedly. After a couple of very dark years of personal turmoil I had found myself suddenly with a clear head and a new lease on life. Suddenly songs were coming to me in whole cloth out of the blue. I had no way to document the tunes but, the way I remember it, I was speaking on the phone to my dear old friend Maurice Tani and he offered to record demos of a couple of the new tunes on his home recording machine. Long story short, I quickly made my way to his house, grabbed his acoustic guitar, and sang the song “I’ll Be Back” into his microphone. That was that. A couple of…

Every Saturday night, Bird & Beckett undergoes the full transformation from bookshop to jazz boîte… that’s French to you… a jazz club like no other in the City that still knows how. If you haven’t been, you may scoff– but once you’ve experienced live jazz at Bird & Beckett, you’ll know it’s true. An exquisite acoustic space, a friendly vibe you won’t soon forget and the Bay Area’s finest jazz players. $10 at the door gets you in on Saturday nights, and it’s the wisest use of a ten spot you’ll make this week. The 4th Saturday of every month, Bird & Beckett is the province of drummer Vinnie Rodriguez. Tonight, Vinnie has once again put together an exciting quartet, as he’s been doing monthly for us this past year since taking over for the late saxophonist Terrance Tony in March of 2015. It’s been a wonderful run, and on it…