Bassist Aaron Germain and drummer Alcide Marshall join Kenny Hawkins (flute, sax) and Duane Muziki Roberson (piano) for two sets of top-flight jazz. Muziki Roberson’s distinct style and creative individuality have placed him among the most respected musicians in the Bay Area. It’s been said that “Muziki’s music and playing will move you at the very depths of your being.” His breathtaking compositions are always characterized by the hippest of rhythms and the deepest elements of swing. Muziki arrived in the Bay Area in 1968 after 4 years in the Army, 22 years old with the firm idea that he wanted to be a musician, having met and become close to drummers Michael Carvin and George Suronovich in Viet Nam. George, who passed away some years ago, played with the rock group “Love.” Michael and Muziki remain friends, have played together and plan to do so again at some point. Both of…

Scott Foster invites one of the giants of the jazz guitar to join him on stage at Bird & Beckett– a double barrelled guitar laden rhythm section that don’t need no stinkin’ horns. Especially when you’ve got the master, Vince Lateano on drums and the sublime Sam Bevan on bass! It’s gonna start big and get bigger. Be here.

Joe Goldmark is the pedal steel guitar king of San Francisco, and his band the Seducers just won’t quit. Mitch Polzak, the guitar wizard Mayor of Port Costa, and honey-voiced Eddie Kendrick on electric bass share the vocal honors, with solid rockin’ Kenny Owen making it all flow. Every second Saturday, you’ll find the Seducers wheedling their way into your simple hearts. Why resist? See you when the moon is high and the coyotes howl and the cats in the canyon fear for their lives. 7:30-10 pm, $10 helps us pay the band.

Lewis Jordan…plays a mean sax, sweet and mellow, sharp and staccato, richly complex, as the mood demands.  Jordan is a triple threat– a virtuoso on alto saxophone, a deft and ingratiating comic actor and a poetically humorous writer. — Robert Hurwitt Music at Large is Lewis’ vehicle for jazz expression.  Much can be learned about the man and the artist from his website at www.lewisjordan.com. His collaborators on the bandstand this afternoon, John Carlos Perea (electric bass, Native American flute, vocal) and Jimmy Biala (traps & percussion), are well-traveled and well-respected Bay Area artists of the first rank, active and supremely talented participants in a multicultural fabric of musicians and artists that have been producing art of the highest magnitude across the region for decades. This performance of Music at Large will be a deep and electrifying, and joyful, afternoon of music at Bird & Beckett — the kind of experience the…

Come early, from 4 to 6 pm, to hear Grant play two sets of duo work with bassist Charles Thomas.  A sublime way to spend a rainy afternoon… Then grab a bite and come back at 7:30 pm for the quartet session featuring Jonathan Bautista on tenor sax, the great Jazz Messenger Chris Amberger on bass and a stellar drummer from Sacramento, Jeff Minnieweather.  Two sets of top flight small combo jazz to take you through the evening! jazz club! every Saturday night at Bird & Beckett… when lights are low…

Liza Silva, vocal Ray Loeckle, sax Ray Scott, guitar Alex Baum, bass Michaelle Goerlitz, drums For well more than a decade we’d imagine, this band has held forth with the marvelous vocalist Liza Silva as the Club Deluxe’s Sunday night bossa nova band– with its roots in the Never on Sunday band that was the homebase of owner Jay Johnson’s forays into the vocal realm of the bossa nova and songbook of Sinatra and his ilk. Still to this day you can catch them at the Club Deluxe, at the storied intersection of Haight and Ashbury, Sunday nights after 10 pm or so, often with Paul Smith, Bob Blankenship and other stalwart musicians. We’re more than pleased to host them this Friday night at Bird & Beckett! Thanks Dennis Hearne for the photo here: Born in Sao Paulo, Liza Silva performs the traditional music of the Brazilian repertoire and presents…

J.B. Frame is a frequent reader in the Monday night open mic, a sometimes wry and always observant, perceptive and considered voice in poetry. We’re pleased to present him in a full-length reading tonight. James Queen is a former high school English teacher, and a lover of art, plants, and tender moments. His poetry generously explores the topics of love, loss, travel, and handsome men. Jim has a new collection of poems to present, and what’s more, many will remember him as a genial and kind presence behind the register for a few years back in the late 1990’s at Glen Park Books on Diamond Street; he remains a Glen Park resident to this day. His book is available at the store. Our twice-monthly poetry series (1st & 3rd Mondays) is hosted by peripatetic bard and troubadour Jerry Ferraz, a Eureka valley native who proves the adage that if you…

Eric Shifrin and Ralph Carney are the E and the R in EaR Candy– so that must make Joe Kyle, Jr. and Randy Odell the a… Regardless, they have a fabulous time, delving into an eccentric book of music, mostly obscure old jazz tunes and the occasional high lonesome ballad. Shifrin is a consummate saloon pianist, rolling out standards and rarities with alacrity, never at a loss for a tune and each tune embellished with perfect good cheer or heartfelt and wry… no matter the state of things out in the streets, boardrooms and political caucuses, it’s deep in his soul. Carney has a resume longer than your arm, a jazz man from another probably mythical era, well known for his association with Tom Waits who says, “Ralph’s great… He’s guided by some other source of information. He’s like a broken toy that works better than before it was broken.”And…

Bassist John Clark and drummer Mark Lee mesh to perfection with one of the West Coast’s finest jazz pianists, Mike Greensill.  And up front, the sublimely talented and well traveled saxophonist Charlie McCarthy. Consummate professionalism and improvisation for your Sunday afternoon in Glen Park. Greensill is known on both coasts, major cities dotting the continent and the boites of Europe for his talents, often as accompanist for the fine singer Wesla Whitfield and other vocalists. Today, he’s the center of a superb instrumental quartet, a jazz gem of the first water.  

Every year this time, round about the Chinese New Year, the force of nature that is Betty Anne Siu Junn Wong rounds up some fine talents associated with San Francisco’s beloved teaching institution, the Community Music Center, for a wide ranging program that might include Chinese classical music, klezmer, western classical music from Debussy to Schoenberg, and, of course, small combo jazz. It’s the jazz cats who finish it out each time, this time a combo including reed players Ken Rosen and Joe DeAndreis, pianist Randy Clark and bassist Richard Saunders. With luck, CMC Director Emeritus Steve Shapiro, a close neighbor and solid supporter of Bird & Beckett, will sit in on piano for a tune or two. Certainly he’ll play a couple of tunes with Ellen Rosenthal on bass! Betty Wong, a long-time faculty member at CMC, is particularly known for her Phoenix Spring Ensemble, exploring indigenous and Original…

……………………….. Tonight, the Quartet will focus on jazz originals by Duke Ellington, Thelonius Monk, Billy Strayhorn and Bud Powell, as well as timely classics from the Great American Songbook such towering composers as Cole Porter and Harold Arlen. The leader on the date, saxophonist Smith Dobson, has this to say about his sidemen: — Kai Lyons, at just age 21, is on a mercurial rise to the top echelon Bay Area jazz guitarists. It won’t be long before his name is synonymous with jazz in these parts! — Miles Wick is another young jazz talent. A Sonoma native, Wick studied with Bay Area jazz legends including George Marsh. His talents aren’t exclusive to playing jazz bass. He is also a gifted singer/songwriter. — James Gallagher has steadily proven himself to be one of the foremost bebop drummers on the local scene. He has a deep passion and knowledge of classic jazz and it…

Katharine Harer brings along bassist Ollie Dudek to celebrate the publication of her new poetry collection, Jazz and Other Hot Subjects.

Misisipi Mike & friends spin out a trove of classic songs by giants including Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, Johnny Cash and many many more. Kyle Patrick O’Brien on fiddle and vocals, Mike Anderson on bass, Ken Owen on drums. Mike Wolf, once a punk rocker out of Pass Christian, Mississippi, figured some years ago that the most radical thing he could do would be to turn country singer. He hosts the show on the last Sunday of the month in our “Canyon Moonlight” series.  The rest of the month he’s one of the busiest gigging musicians in town, a crack songwriter and a terrific graphic artist (witness the 14 show posters he did for our surf-a-billy swingtime concert series and the hundreds of others he’s done for friends and colleagues). With luck, tonight we’ll get Mike to sing a few of his hits… like “Daddy Drank His Vodka (Like His…

The Fred Randolph Trio Fred Randolph basses Ian Mcardle piano Isaac Schwartz drums Originals and re-imagined standards by the members of the trio plus music from Fred’s acclaimed new release “Song Without Singing.” “An exquisite project from bassist Fred Randolph whose talents as a composer and arranger are what truly makes Song Without Singing an engaging musical experience.” –Edward Blanco, All About Jazz

Juan de Yepes y Álvarez, 16th Century Spanish mystic and Catholic saint — St. John of the Cross — mystic seer, rigorous thinker, masterpiece-maker of the Andalucian renaissance, eraser of sectarian illusions. Walker Brents III provides a personal reflection on a universal thinker.