Two jazz combos from the Community Music Center — one coached by Scott Foster and one coached by Charlie Gurke — will perform short sets starting at 5pm, with a 2-hour jam session open to all student jazz musicians following at 6:30pm. Celebrate CMC and celebrate jazz and the talented youth drawn to it! Come hear the music and consider the brilliance of these students, and think about what it takes to pursue jazz performance as a career! The Independent Musicians Alliance has ideas and schemes to make that more realistic in the Bay Area. We’ll clue you in if you come. And if you do come, bring a twenty to help us pay the musicians!

Each year, Betty Wong calls in the talents from San Francisco’s Community Music Center to celebrate the breadth of music that catches her ear and keeps her creative juices flowing. Marking the Year of the Dragon, she’ll bring a cavalcade of musicians – students, faculty and friends — to play music from a variety of cultures and traditions around the globe, capping the afternoon as always with a trio of jazz players that are long-time colleagues and friends — saxophonist Ken Rosen, pianist Randy Craig and bassist Richard Saunders. Following the trio, pianist/flutist Steve Shapiro, director of the CMC for 30 years until his retirement several years ago, will join his wife, the bassist Ellen Rosenthal, for a short set. Betty Wong is a bona fide treasure. Read this article to get a bit of a sense of what a power she is! And here are the Wikipedia facts. And…

Larry De La Cruz, alto saxophone Jim Peterson, baritone saxophone Jeremy Steinkoler, drums $20 cover charge; byob Students 25 and under $10 Kids 12 and under free   With its surprising and highly combustible line-up of two saxmen and one drummer, Mo’Fone has thrilled audiences with some of the funkiest jazz—-and jazziest funk-—being played today. Powering its way through inventive high-energy original compositions, Mo’Fone explores the sonic landscape of its unique instrumentation with a relentless adventurousness, creating a huge sound that belies its compact size.The band is celebrating the release of their 4th album, 3 Skidoo, featuring all original compositions by all 3 members. “If Mo’Fone doesn’t blow your socks off, you’re not paying attention.”  “Snaps and crackles like James Brown’s Famous Flames mixed with a New Orleans second line.” Mo’Fone’s improvisations and concept have twice earned them the award for Best Jazz Group in the East Bay Express Readers’…

Henry Hung – trumpet Charlie Gurke – bari sax Dave Gibbons – piano Rob Woodcock – bass Evan Williams – drums $20-30 sliding scale cover charge. Help us pay a fair guaranteed wage to these musicians! Students 22 and under, $10 Watching in the live stream? Donate! Come out to the intimate concert space that is Bird & Beckett to hear an exciting combo celebrating the release of their new recording, executing the compositions of bassist and leader Rob Woodcock. http://robwoodcock.com/ Your cover charge at the show helps us guarantee a fair wage to the musicians that work here. Individual donations from a great many generous members of the Bird & Beckett community are also necessary. If you can and haven’t, please join their number. Bird & Beckett will always be a work in progress… Thanks for being part of the solution with your dollars, ears, intellect and loyalty!

Pat Klobas, bass; Tommy Kesecker, vibes; Terrence Brewer, guitar; David Rokeach, drums. $20 suggested per adult; byob. $10 teens and music students. Kids free. Reservations, call 415-586-3733. The Klobas/Kesecker Ensemble has an exquisite chemistry that makes for a special concert experience, and they arrive at Bird & Beckett with a new cd on the verge of release, their third, called “Blues Elixer.” They promise a delightful mix of original compositions new and old, and a scattering of beautifully conceived arrangements of jazz standards. Regarding their second cd, “Moment’s Notice” it was noted that “the timbre of textures seems unlimited and is applied with artistic savvy. The recording’s title cut, featuring Kesecker on vibes, is done with a new and distinct K/K Ensemble arrangement that cuts across jazz and Brazilian parameters. Kesecker’s vibes, Brewer’s guitar, Klobas’s acoustic bass and Rokeach’s drums are truly an ensemble that stands out as an original…

Kahil El’Zabar percussion, kalimba, voice Corey Wilkes trumpet Alex Harding baritone saxophone THE EHE’S ANNUAL BLACK HISTORY MONTH NATIONAL TOUR WRAPPING UP AT BIRD & BECKETT & CELEBRATING FIFTY YEARS! $30 cover at the door (cash or venmo) byob reservations, call 415-586-3733 As the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble wraps up its annual Black History Month tour, the Ensemble is sporting a new release, out March 8 from Spiritmuse Records, entitled “Open Me: A Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit.” Open Me is a joyous honoring of potent new directions of the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble; it’s a visionary journey into deep roots and future routes, channeling traditions old and new. It mixes El’Zabar’s original compositions with timeless classics by Miles Davis, McCoy Tyner, and Eugene McDaniels. Thus, the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble continues affirming their indelible, half-century presence within the continuum of Great Black Music. February 28th marks the EHE’s sixth date at…

Jam session on the last Sunday of each month from 5 to 7pm! All jazz players welcome. Audience, please donate to help us pay the Vince Lateano Trio to host the jam — Ben Stolorow, piano; Peter Barshay bass, Vince Lateano, drums. Vince Lateano has been an invaluable part of the San Francisco scene since he came to the City in the mid-1960s. He quickly found his place in the local jazz scene, playing, recording and touring with Vince Guaraldi, subbing around town for Johnny Markham when Markham went on the road with Sinatra and other major acts, and working extensively with Cal Tjader, Eddie Duran, Chet Baker, Clare Fisher and a host of others through the years. Later, all through the 1990s ’til it closed as such in 2003, he was the house drummer at Jazz at Pearl’s in North Beach, playing with his own trio several nights a…

Roy Brown brings his organ trio back to Bird & Beckett, with Bobby Cobb on guitar and Rusty Aceves on drums. For the last year and a half, Roy has had a weekly solo piano booking at the Adagio Hotel here in San Francisco, and he’s maintained a quartet since 2007 and an organ trio since 2011. Along the way, Roy has worked with singer Frankye Kellye (a three-month engagement in Shanghai in 2006, and festival engagements in Chiapas and Tabasco, Mexico in 2005), vibraphonist Yancy Taylor, saxophonists Jules Broussard and Charles Unger, and a host of other key Bay Area musicians. This year, he’ll be heard on piano on an album being recorded by the Larry Douglas/Jorge Pineda Alltet (Douglas is a long-time member of Roy’s organ trio). BYOB and a twenty to help us pay the band! Reservations, call the shop at 415-586-3733. Your cover charge at the…

The New York City-based, Korea-born bassist Jeong Lim Yang revisits Bird & Beckett in the company of three of San Francisco’s finest improving musicians — Ben Goldberg on clarinets, Rob Reich on accordion and piano, and Jordan Glenn on drums. $20 cover charge / byob call for reservations: 415-586-3733 Below, you’ll find video from Lim’s recent Bird & Beckett concert, performing music from the pen of Mary Lou Williams! Your cover charge at the show helps us guarantee a fair wage to the musicians that work here. Individual donations from a great many generous members of the Bird & Beckett community are also necessary. If you can and haven’t, please join their number. Bird & Beckett will always be a work in progress… Thanks for being part of the solution with your dollars, ears, intellect and loyalty!

Friday, 2/23/24 – 6-8pm: Tony Johnson’s 230 Jones Street Band – The Return of Glen Deardorff! Along with drummer Tony Johnson, guitarist Glen Deardorff has been with the 230 Jones Street Band since before its founder — the late saxophonist/flutist Chuck Peterson — began calling it the 230 Jones Street Band (or, more accurately, the 230 Jones Street, Local 6 Literary Jazz Band). The band was named for the address of the musicians union local where Chuck and his colleagues were active in the 1960s agitating for good contracts and fair wages & working conditions for the region’s professional musicians. Glen has been on hiatus since last February, so we’re more than pleased to have him back! Joining Tony and Glen tonight in the current iteration of the band are Charlie McCarthy on saxophone and flute, Chuck Bennett on bass and Max Perkoff on piano and trombone (sitting in for…