Peter Sherburn-Zimmer was raised in Southie, in Boston, a slum kid. No one famous came from there, he had to admit to Gordon Cairney, lounging on a couch in Cairney’s Grolier Book Shop. Traveled an arc through mathematics to literature, sociology, philosophy and more to no bachelor’s degree ’til much later, at his wife’s urging, then a peripatetic life of teaching gigs in the humanities at all levels, a master’s, a Ph.D. in poetry and criticism at SUNY Rochester; San Francisco in ’67 and later, from ’93 to present. Three kids: a detailer in architecture, a fierce activist, a bartender turned liquor distributor driver trying to make a living… a poet who doesn’t write about his experience but whose experience can’t help but inform his poetry. A treasure for sure, and a sweet human being we’re pleased to know. Alexis Spencer-Byers is traveling into town for the reading. Raised in…

The GG Amos Trio with Greg Sankovich on keyboards and Randy Odell on drums are featured this week in a new Sunday night series we’re calling Canyon Moonlight Music, 7:30-10 pm each week. 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…

Special sneak preview of SFMusic Day 15’s Field Report:  Asian American Jazz Anthony Brown’s Ensemble featuring Genny Lim performing “1945: A Year of Infamy” plus a set by the Brown, Izu & Jordan Trio Today’s sneak preview performance at Bird & Beckett will include an opening set by the Anthony Brown-Mark Izu-Lewis Jordan Trio (original members of the 1980s progressive jazz quartet, UNITED FRONT) followed by Anthony Brown’s Ensemble featuring Genny Lim performing a distillation for quintet of “1945: A Year of Infamy” The full Asian American Orchestra performance of “1945: A Year of Infamy” will headline SFMusic Day 15 at Herbst Theater on Sunday 10/25 at 8 pm The Brown-Izu-Jordan Trio will be featured at 5:15 pm. http://www.sffcm.org/sfmusic-day/   1945: A Year of Infamy commemorates the 70th anniversary of the atomic devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the beginning of humankind’s ability to annihilate itself from the face of the earth. Dr. Anthony…

Pianist Duane Muziki Roberson’s distinct style and creative individuality have placed him among the most respected musicians in the Bay Area. It has 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’s music and playing will move you at the very depths of your being.” Tonight at Bird & Beckett, Muziki will lead a quartet featuring Dr. James Bailey, saxophone; Pierre Archain, bass; and Alcide Marshall, drums.

Tonight, Scott has David Boyce on sax, Adam Gay on bass and Dan Foltz on drums to accompany him on an excursion through music associated with and composed by Joe Henderson, a tenor sax titan whose intelligence and soulfulness was evident in so many classic recordings and legendary performances.

Elizabeth Block, Katia Noyes, Liz Harvey & Alison Owings join forces in a reading/performance of “unimaginable spaces, far off places, and audience participation interations.” The Gamut! – a Litquake event Thursday, October 15th, 7-9pm, Bird & Beckett hosts Elizabeth Block, Katia Noyes, Liz Harvey and Alison Owings in a Litquake reading they’re calling “The Gamut” – promising “a performance of unimaginable spaces, far off places, and audience participation iterations.” Litquake is simply beyond definition — a quintessential San Francisco phenomenon started in 1999, the same year as Bird & Beckett. Katia lives in the neighborhood, and Elizabeth probably lives pretty darn close since we see her in here a lot. Come have some fun with four award-winning writers! Litquake’s all over town, and it’s going to shake up Glen Park for sure!

The Seducers return to Bird & Beckett this coming Sunday, joined on the bandstand with their regular guitarist Mitch Polzak, who couldn’t be here last month when the band made its Bird & Beckett debut in our Riptide Sunday night “Canyon Moonlight Music” series.  He’s the mayor of Port Costa as well as the hottest rockabilly guitar picker & singer on the coast!  Ace pedal steel player Joe Goldmark, self-deprecatingly referring to himself as “all hat and no cattle,” leads the band, which features golden-throated Eddie Kendrick on bass and solid rockin’ Kenny Owen on drums. Classic country music for a moonlit October night hard by Glen Canyon, where the coyotes howl and the cats fear for their lives.   7:30-10 pm. Suggested donation – $10. Kenny Owen will be back, by the way, reading Kerouac on Misisipi Mike’s date at the end of the month (Oct. 25). It’s October…

Safa Shokrai – bass Timothy Orr – drums Rent Romus - alto saxophones/flutes Heikki Koskinen - e-trumpet/flutes Joshua Marshall – tenor saxophone Rent Romus’ Life’s Blood Ensemble presents music from their forthcoming recording entitled “Haven.” Albert Ayler once said  that “music is healing force of the universe”, and through this music, Life’s Blood Ensemble explores that which we all seek deep within ourselves. “Haven” is a place where we can be safe, find refuge, and express our true selves without borders or judgement.  A place where deep inside we wish to be protected from the harsh environment both from within and without. READ MORE ON RENT’S FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/events/1884098908482179/

If it’s the second Sunday of the month, it’s time for Bird & Beckett’s Surf-a-billy Swing Time Dance Party– and don’t you know it starts at noon!  So get up, swill your coffee, and jet on down to the shop!  This time out we’ve got guitar god Jinx Jones on the stage with a likely bleary eyed Joe Kyle Jr. coming off a late night gig to slap that bass and the indomitable Kenny Owen ready to pound out the savage bongo beat you know you want to hear!  

jazz club! when lights are low… Grant Levin leads the date every 2nd Saturday night in our weekly “jazz club” series.  A brilliant pianist, Grant assembles terrific ensembles for his time on the Bird & Beckett bandstand, and tonight is no exception.  On saxophone, Howard Wiley will be making his first appearance at Bird & Beckett.  Born in Berkeley and raised in Hercules, he’s been among the most sought after players in the Bay Area since first making waves on the scene in the early 1990s… playing Koncepts Cultural Gallery at age 12 and Yoshi’s at 14.   Read more on Howard here.  Chris Amberger is on bass with Grant in a couple of sets as a duo from 4-6 pm, and then returns to the stage in the quartet, with Mark Lee on drums, when we turn the lights down at 7:30…  

Papa Joe Cohen can’t make it this Friday! There’s his brand new baby girl and other family matters… but bassist Adam Gay will handle the honors, putting together some top notch players to entertain you mightily, don’t you worry. He’s got sax player Lyle Link, pianist Keith Saunders and drummer Omar Aran on the bandstand with him, and a passel of fine tunes to play. A finer quartet, you couldn’t ask for!

Bassist Bishu Chatterjee, vocalist Vivek Anand, saxophonist Aaron Bennett and drummer Rusty Aceves explore a territory where zen-influenced jazz and Indian classical music interact.  

Finnish trumpet player Heikki Koskinen leads this ensemble, featuring Kati Pienimäki Schenker, vocals; Steve Heckman, saxes, flutes & clarinet; Rent Romus, saxes & flutes & kantele; and Noah Schenker, bass.  Heikki performs on piano, e-trumpet, tenor recorder & kantele. A poll winning jazz trumpet player in the 1970s in his native Finland, Koskinen came to the U.S. to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston and has had a long San Francisco tenure, composing, recording, teaching and collaborating on the bandstand with the likes of Hadley Caliman, Mark Levine, Joe Bonner, Benny Green, Larry Hancock and Michael Spiro.

Smith Dobson, highly regarded for his talents on tenor sax, vibes and drums, is picking up the alto for this date — the horn on which Charlie Parker made revolutionary jazz advances through the 1940s and 1950s. Charlie Parker, known as Bird, is the namesake of this little store, so you should know that we’re among the legions of people who revere the work he and a number of brilliant associates did in creating and developing the music we know as bop. We’re anxious to hear Smith and his associates grapple with Bird’s Scrapple from the Apple and all the rest of it.  Join us for two very fine sets of music. Your $10 cover charge helps us pay the musicians — a crucial task in these scary economic times. Along with you, we’re doing what we can to keep the culture healthy. Smith has assembled a fine band tonight, a…