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!
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…
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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!
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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–…
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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…
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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…
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Special guest tonight– Frank Hayde, author of a new biography, Stan Levey: Jazz Heavyweight, about the seminal bebop drummer, will give a short presentation at the break (about 7 pm). From 5:30 to 8:00 pm, two sets of swinging bop and straight-ahead jazz by The Chuck Peterson Quintet with vocalist Dorothy Lefkovits. San Francisco’s long-running Friday after-work jazz party – now in its 13th year – never a missed Friday since 2002! Stan Levey is one of the most influential drummers in the history of modern jazz. During his extraordinary career, the self-taught Levey played alongside a who’s who of twentieth century jazz artists: Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Coleman Hawkins, Art Tatum, Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon, Lester Young, Thelonius Monk, Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, Ella Fitzgerald . . . the remarkable list goes on and on, and includes dozens of the most distinguished names in…
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Stick around during the break between sets, when writer Frank Hayde will tell you a tale or two of seminal bebop drummer Stan Levey, a guy who was on the bandstand in 1942 with Dizzy Gillespie at the tender age of 16, with Diz & Bird, Al Haig and Curly Russell a few short years later on 52nd Street, with the Kenton orchestra in the early 1950s and then with the west coast Lighthouse All Stars of Howard Rumsey into the cool late 50s of Hermosa Beach!
Read MoreBird & Beckett showcases featured poets and follows them with an open mic every 1st and 3rd Monday, from 7 to 9 pm. Tonight, Steve Arntson & Deborah Fruchey are the featured readers. Jerry Ferraz, a long-standing fixture on the San Francisco poetry scene, has booked and hosted our twice monthly series and for well over a decade.
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You’ve heard him close out the Glen Park Festival many years running… and for a good stretch now at Bird & Beckett on the third Saturday night of each month, 7:30-10 pm. It’s like a party in your living room! Jinx is a legendary guitarist, and most definitely the king of rockabilly in these parts, whether in the guise of jazzabilly, surfabilly, psychabilly… And keep in mind that for us in Glen Park, April will be King Jinx’s month for sure, when he’ll wear the triple crown — featured twice at B&B (on the 3rd and 17th) and again at the Glen Park Festival on April 24th!  Visit http://glenparkfestival.com/entertainment.shtml
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Dave Rocha has built his reputation on the San Francisco jazz scene for his work on trumpet and flugelhorn since coming to prominence in the past 20 years; likewise, he’s done significant work and built followings in New York, Los Angeles and Seattle. His list of bandstand associations with great players is long and solid. For this gig, Dave is bringing in a stellar trio with Bob Brumbeloe on guitar and Chuck Bennett on bass. Having played with each other on numerous gigs, they’re sensitive to each other’s styles, making for great energy and spontaneous creativity in their musical interactions. The combination of trumpet, guitar and bass makes for a unique combination and balance of instrumental tones from the three instruments, and the absence of drums creates a singular and wonderfully open space in which to solo. The trio will perform a wide range of tunes for the Bird &…
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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…
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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.
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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.
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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…
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SUPPORT BIRD & BECKETT - DONATE TODAY!
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
