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 Akira Tana Trio, with Ben Stolorow, piano and Robb Fisher, bass host a jam session for student players welcome from throughout the Bay Area. The jam is preceded by a jazz combo out of San Francisco’s Urban School. Phenomenally talented youth well schooled and ready to forge their own future of jazz!
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Jim Campilongo, guitar Sam Reider, accordion & piano Giulio Xavier Cetto, bass Scott Amendola, drums $20 cover charge; byob. Spaghetti is a quartet formed by the rising star accordionist/pianist Sam Reider (a local prodigy gone global with his genre-busting, bluegrass-adjacent band, The Human Hands) and the renowned veteran guitarist Jim Campilongo (Jim Campilongo & the Ten Gallon Cats and a zillion projects since), featuring drummer Scott Amendola (TJ Kirk et seq) and bassist Giulio Xavier Cetto, the Jazz Thug. Original compositions by Campilongo and Reider collide with tunes by Duke Ellington, Astor Piazzolla, Hank Williams and beyond.
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David Boyce, reeds; PC Muñoz, percussion. $15 cover charge; byob. Red Fast Luck is a Bay Area-based improvising duo consisting of multi-reed sorcerer David Boyce (aka Black Edgar) and electro-acoustic percussionist PC Muñoz. Their EP, “Live in San Francisco”, is one of the featured albums on the San Francisco Public Library’s new curated streaming service, Bay Beats. Their first studio album, “Everything You Do Controls the World”, is out now (2024) on bandcamp; download it here. A new one-off single, “Three-Run Homer”, is also on bandcamp and on all streaming services. David Boyce/Black Edgar Originally from NYC, David Boyce graduated from Cornell University and taught elementary/junior high school in the Bronx. After his plans to move into the city became thwarted due to gentrification and high rents, he moved out to San Francisco just in time for the Loma Prieta earthquake. In 1991 he co-founded the iconic AfroFuturist jazz trio…
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Smith Dobson, drums; Eric Markowitz, bass; Graham Messer, piano. $20 suggested cover charge. $10 for students and teens. kids 12 and under free. byob. A powerhouse trio massing the energy of two bandstand veterans and a young player fast emerging as a fiery voice on piano, proving that bebop lives.
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“In this Boomer memoir, Driving Miss Daisy meets One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. With lilting eloquence, Summer Brenner captures the tumultuous fifties and sixties of a genteel Jewish family in Atlanta, with the South’s oppressive segregation and anti-Semitism. The family drama is fraught: the brother is a schizophrenic, the mother a Gucci-clad Medusa, and the father a suicide. After extensive travels, Brenner frees herself in the Bay Area to become ‘more beatnik than debutante.’” –James Nolan. Dust (Spuyten Duyvil, 2024) is the latest of the many books published by Summer Brenner since her 1990 short story collection The Dancers and the Dance (Coffee House Press). Along the way, she has brought out a book of novellas, The Missing Lover, (Spuyten Duyvil, 2022) with collages by Lewis Warsh; a pair of noir crime novels and four youth social justice novels; as well as a half dozen volumes of poetry. Her…
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Drummer Akira Tana is filling in for Vince Lateano tonight; Vince has a scheduling conflict. Ben Stolorow will be here on piano, together with Peter Barshay on bass. A great opportunity to learn from three seasoned professionals, and a great opportunity for audiences to discover talents they may not even have heard of yet. $20 suggested cover charge for adults. $10 for students. Free to musicians playing in the jam session. byob.
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Jonah Cabral, alto saxophone & leader; Will Berg, tenor saxophone; Armen Krakirian, trumpet; Charles Chen, piano; Alex Farrell, bass; Kirk Duplantis, drums.$20-30 sliding scale cover charge; byob. Jonah Cabral is one of the rising saxophonists in the jazz scene today. He has played throughout the world including South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and extensively in the United States. He has shared the stage with musicians such Carl Alan, Nicholas Bearde, Tiffany Austin, Vince Lateano, Akira Tana and many others. In 2021 Jonah released his first album as a co-leader in dedication to the great Bud Powell and in 2022 he released his solo album recorded live in Tilburg, the Netherlands.
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Eli Knowles – drums; Quinn Gerard – bass; Brett Carson – piano; Rent Romus – saxophone. $20 cover charge; byob. A titan of the San Francisco avant garde scene, both as a saxophonist and with his record label, Edgetone, Rent Romus has just recently established the Spirit Quintet, with a chemistry that’s given him a massive infusion of positive energy. Rent has long led the Lords of Outland, a free improvisation unit; the Life’s Blood Ensemble, a composition-based contemporary group; and the Otherworld Ensemble, a Finnish/American collective exploring new perspectives in heritage and traditional folk. Over the years, he has recorded well over 50 albums, exploring a wide variety of musical settings which have included beat poet founder ruth weiss, and creative music pioneers Chico Freeman, John Tchicai, and Vinny Golia, Teppo Hauta-aho, Heikki Koskinen, Thollem McDonas, Stefan Pasborg, Marcos Fernandez, and Ernesto Diaz-Infante to name a few. He is…
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Bob Kenmotsu, tenor sax; Ben Stolorow, piano; Eric Markowitz, bass; Tony Johnson, drums. $20 suggested donation; kids free; students $10. Tony Johnson has a monthly fourth Fridays residency at Bird & Beckett, leading his quartet in the odd numbered months and the 230 Jones Street band in the even numbered months. The players are all seasoned veterans of the San Francisco jazz scene, drawing on a deep well of material and thousands of hours sharing the bandstand over many years.
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Bassist Adam Gay has been a key player at Bird & Beckett for decades, though he moved to Brooklyn in 2019. In New York, he’s been playing with friends such as pianists Jinjoo Yoo and James Austin, guitarist Ki Hong Jang, Saxophonist Chris Byars, and drummer Keith Balla amongst others. Adam travels to San Francisco for gigs a couple times a year, and we’re more than pleased to find a spot in our calendar for him. Thursday the 23rd from 8-10pm, Adam will lead a quartet date here with long-time colleagues Bob Kenmotsu on tenor sax and Tim Bulkley on drums, as well as a pianist who’s been making big waves on the San Francisco scene, Graham Messer. They’ll play compositions by Hank Jones, Oscar Pettiford and Gigi Gryce, and some American song book standards as well. $20 cover charge; byob. Here’s video of Adam with his quintet performing at…
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Wednesday, May 22nd – 7pm
Author event with William Gee Wong
journalist and memoirist
Sons of Chinatown
Author William Gee Wong reads from and discusses his book, Sons of Chinatown: A memoir rooted in China and America, a dual memoir of his and his father’s parallel experiences in America. The author’s father entered the U.S. legally as the “son of a native,” despite having partially false papers, and he himself was born and raised in Oakland’s Chinatown. Wong received his B.A. at the University of California at Berkeley and M.S. at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. His print journalism career was spent at The Wall Street Journal (1970-1979) and The Oakland Tribune (1979-1996). He also worked for The San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco News Call Bulletin, and has written for the San Francisco Examiner, East West: the Chinese American Journal, and Asian Week, among other publications. In the mid-1960s, he served in the Peace Corps in the Philippines. From 1995-1996, he was a…
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A very big week wraps up Sunday 5/19/24 at Bird & Beckett with the monthly, third-Sundays 5-7pm residency of the Vince Lateano Trio (Ben Stolorow, piano; Peter Barshay, bass; Vince Lateano, drums) — with special guest John Calloway on flute and small percussion. Adults $20 cover; music students and teens, $10 cover. Help us pay a guaranteed “fair” wage to the trio, and a respectful guarantee to their guest, Dr. John Calloway! This current run of shows started back on Wednesday the 15th like this… — A night of Spanish poetry with Jonathan Richman and David Alvarez Wednesday 5/15 at 7:30pm, $20 cover; students 23 and under, $10 suggested. — A talk by Walker Brents III on Edgar Allan Poe Thursday evening 5/16 at 7:30pm, $15. — Guitarist Scott Foster‘s monthly third-Fridays “jazz happy hour” residency, 5/17, 6-8pm, this time out with drummer Tom Hassett mapping the territory…
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Tiffany Austin, vocals; Adam Shulman, piano; Kevin Goldberg, bass; Mark Lee, drums. $20 cover charge; byob. Born and raised in South Los Angeles, Austin grew up in a house filled with music. Her parents listened to soul and pop masters like Donny Hathaway and Stevie Wonder, while her Louisiana Creole grandmother introduced her to jazz. “She really taught me what soul was about,” Austin says. “She had a great sense of herself, and didn’t let anyone make her feel less than herself. When I sing the blues or jazz, I draw on that Grandmama place.” Her older brother John Austin IV was also a profound influence. A celebrated emcee and rapper, he’s best known as Ras Kass. “He got signed to a record label at 17,” she recalls. “I watched him pursue his music, for better or worse, He never had a day job, and sustained himself from music. I’d…
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Sunday 5/12, 5-7pm: The Seducers! Joe Goldmark, pedal steel guitar; Mitch Polzac, lead guitar and vocals; Hank Maninger, bass guitar and vocals; Kenny Owen, drums. BYOB and a twenty for the band. Kids free. On the second Sunday of each month, you’ll hear Americana music at Bird & Beckett, and in the odd numbered months, that means it’s time for the Seducers! Indisputably America’s favorite honky tonk band. and Sunday at 7:30pm, guitarist Jan Jakut, solo… THAT’S HOW IT ENDS, THIS WEEKEND. SURE ENOUGH… How did it all start???? How did we get here? like this… Friday 5/10, 6-8pm: Eric & the In Crowd The Composers Series. This month, the focus is on the music of Richard Rodgers. The In Crowd is: ~~Eric Shifrin, piano and vocals; ~~Chuck Bennett, bass; ~~Mark Lee, drums. The Jazz Happy Hour, 22 years running! Every Friday save two since 2008! $20 suggested donation…
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Bird & Beckett makes way for the next generation on the first Sunday of each month! On the first Sunday of each month, you’ll hear what youth well schooled in jazz can do. The musicianship on display is always amazing, delightful and fills us with confidence in the future of the culture. This time out, the jazz program at Ruth Asawa School of the Arts will field two combos, and drummer Akira Tana will lead the jam session to follow, with the able assistance of pianist Parker Grant and Heshima Mark Williams on bass — three first-call musicians of the highest caliber, all well attuned to the tradition by which those finding their way in jazz learn the intricacies of playing in the moment with others they have often just met, speaking a common language and developing a conversation that has depth, joy and profundity that’s inclusive of the audience.…
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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
