Bassist Don Prell entered the business in the mid-1950s as a member of The Bud Shank Quartet, recording two albums with Shank – “The Bud Shank Quartet featuring Claude Williamson” (1956) and “Bud Shank on Tenor” (1957). Don has anchored our Friday night jazz in the bookshop series, just as often taking it aloft, since it began in October 2002. We’ve never missed a Friday in all those years – even when we had to move the shop from Diamond Street up to Chenery. And on at least two occasions, we wouldn’t have been able to keep the tradition unbroken but for Don– the Christmas day he played solo on the sidewalk… and long before that, there was the Friday he was the only player who showed up for the gig, so he kept us completely happy with a couple sets of solo bass. Regardless, the music is always a joy. Don’s…

Straight-ahead and spiritually adventurous jazz from trumpeter Earle Davis, whose approach and commitment to the art have been shaped by decades of experience in the jazz trenches on both coasts. Jake Barrett, piano, and Danny Castro, bass, join Earle for this afternoon’s date. With a shared history on the bandstand prior to today’s date, Danny and Jake will begin the afternoon’s program as a duo..

Walker Brents III will from time to time over the next several months address Native American myths & symbols in a series of talks. Today: John Neihardt and Black Elk.  The mysterious journey of each one’s daimon, questing in the mythic west, culminating in the prophetic beauty of Black Elk Speaks. Neihardt is an influential presence, a fierce post-transcendentalist with a voracious appetite for an adventurous truth.

Two new books of particular interest to San Franciscans are presented by their authors. J.K. Dineen presents his new book, High Spirits: The Legacy Bars of San Francisco Community, heritage, architecture—oh yes, and stiff pours: these are the hallmarks of San Francisco’s Legacy Bars. High Spirits leads readers on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood pub crawl in search of the city’s most remarkable nightspots. Atmospheric photographs accompany descriptions of each bar’s colorful history, unique architectural features, idiosyncratic owners, and quirky clientele. As we dip into one barroom after another, we see that these establishments function as unofficial cultural centers, offering kinship and continuity amid an ever-changing city; indeed, all of the bars shown are at least forty years old and sites of significant historic or cultural value as deemed by San Francisco Heritage. Whether we are following in the footsteps of Beat writers in North Beach’s Vesuvio Café, tossing peanut shells on the…

Joe Henderson, out of Lima, Ohio, born in 1937, learned the rudiments of the jazz trade at Wayne State University in Detroit, alongside Yusef Lateef, Barry Harris and Donald Byrd.  In and out of the military in the very early 1960s, he landed in New York and quickly made his mark, gaining the notice of Kenny Dorham and Dexter Gordon, and recording prolifically for Blue Note Records — featured on Lee Morgan’s “Sidewinder” album and providing a signature sax solo on Horace Silver’s Song for My Father.  Henderson’s career was long and influential, and he lived for years in San Francisco until his untimely death in 2001. Drummer and leader Vinnie Rodriguez has invited three top Bay Area jazzmen, sax player Scott Barnhill, pianist Keith Saunders and bassist John Wiitala to build two sets of jazz from the Joe Henderson songbook.  

Sad to say, Jimmy Ryan passed away Wednesday morning, July 8, 2015. Jimmy was long known to Bird & Beckett regulars as the featured drummer in our long-running Friday series of neighborhood jazz parties. On Jimmy’s scheduled August 14th date, from 5:30-8:00 pm, his band will reconvene to pay tribute to this wonderful man and vital jazz musician. Vocalist Dorothy Lefkovits, who introduced Jimmy to the store way back in 2002, will be on hand on the 14th to sing with the musicians who were at the core of Jimmy’s “Bird & Beckett BeBop Band,” which had a long run in our Friday night jazz series.  Trombonist Stu Pilorz and sax player Joe Cohen are on the front line, with a rhythm section comprising pianist Don Alberts, bassist Bishu Chatterjee and drummer Ron Marabuto sitting in for the man himself.  Also on hand will be bassist Aaron Cohn and likely…

Guitarist Howard Alden returns to Bird & Beckett for a trio date with bassist Peter Barshay and drummer Vince Lateano.  $20 suggested donation.

Maurice Tani is a remarkable songwriter, with a deft touch that pulls all the angst of life right to the surface of his songs.  In bassist Mike Anderson, he has an assured and resonant foil on which to build his delivery of redemption songs and wise, funny and wryly bitter observations. San Francisco-born and bred, Maurice early on developed an ear for the Bakersfield sound of Buck Owens, Merle Haggard and their ilk. In his early 20s, Maurice left for central Texas to work the hardcore country, blues and rock circuit between Austin and Dallas, playing five sets a night, seven nights a week for months at a time, eventually making his way to New York City as the punk rock scene of CBGBs and Max’s Kansas City was exploding. By 1977, he was back in San Francisco and joined The Phantom Movers, Roy Loney’s hugely lauded rockabilly band, recording four…