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653 Chenery Street in San Francisco's Glen Park neighborhood
Open to walk-in trade and browsing Tuesday to Sunday noon to six
phone: 1-415-586-3733 email: [email protected]
Anne Whiteside’s The Moon in Splinters: Searching for Maurice Pertschuk, British Secret Agent in the French Resistance, is a moving and meticulously researched account that brings to light the extraordinary life and tragic death of British Special Operations Executive (SOE) Lieutenant Maurice Pertschuk. On a moonless night in 1942, Pertschuk, a handsome and brilliant 20-year-old officer, rowed ashore on the Côte d’Azur to support the French Resistance. Just three years later, he was executed at Buchenwald concentration camp—only thirteen days before its liberation. Within the camp, Maurice scribbled poems on scraps of paper, later published in 1946 as Leaves of Buchenwald. For decades, silence shrouded his story. Only after the death of her mother did Maurice’s niece, Anne Whiteside, begin to search for the truth. In The Moon in Splinters, she retraces his footsteps through wartime France, uncovers new archival evidence, and speaks with survivors’ families. What emerges is a…
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Alison Luterman reads from her new volume of poetry, Hard Listening (Wildhouse Publishing, 2025), and is joined in conversation about her work by Leslie Absher. Hard Listening focuses on women’s voices raised up in song, poetry, and activism. Spiritual teacher and writer Mirabai Starr has said, “Alison Luterman is one of my favorite poetic voices. The poems in this collection are luminous.” During the pandemic, Alison started taking voice lessons in order to sing with her musician husband. She did not start out with a firm grasp of pitch or a great sense of rhythm, but had a lot of enthusiasm, a wonderful teacher, and a willingness to work hard. Learning to “speak music”—her husband’s primary language—was the key that opened them up to an unexpected depth of intimacy. The process of learning to sing reminded her of all the singers she had idolized from a young age. She began…
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Brazilian choro music from San Francisco. $20/byob. Students $10. Grupo Falso Baiano. Catia Machado, vocals. Zack Pitt-Smith, reeds and cavaquinho. Brian Moran, guitar. Ami Molinelli. percussion. with special guest Kerry Politzer, piano. .
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Friday, October 24th – 8:30pm
LOBE: was that on purpose?
release party & concert
for their debut album
LOBE, a sextet with Stanford roots, now in the diaspora, come together and come to Bird & Beckett to kick off their 10-day, 5-stop California tour in support of their debut album “was that on purpose?” — release date October 21, 2025. Daiki Nakajima, flute/bass. Ethan Buck, alto sax/bass. Sam Silverstein, violin. Nolan Miranda, piano/synth. Mark Rau, guitar/bass. Michael Hayes, drums. Anav Sood, synth/piano.
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Two writers long committed to the struggle and to poetry roll out new work for you.
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A live stream found on the Bird & Beckett YouTube channel and Facebook page. Donations appreciated. Walker Brents III has been giving a monthly talk at Bird & Beckett on a diversity of topics in poetry, philosophy and culture since 1999. This month, Walker considers the poet Gary Snyder, and gives us this to ponder: “The language art of Gary Snyder. Such a continuous and consistent manifestation of an inspired consciousness, given to us over the course of a long life. We are richer for it, and remain intrigued. We go to meet it, at the edge of the light.”
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Diane Frank reads from her new novel, Mermaids and Musicians, wherein a virtuoso violinist falls madly in love with a mermaid, but can he deal with loving a woman who isn’t completely human? And can their love travel through time? The novel begins on Signal Mountain in Tennessee and migrates to the coast of Northern California. As a poet and musician, Diane reveals what it takes to become a musician, what music means to those who play it, and what music gives to the world. “One of the best ways to learn about humans is to listen to their songs.” Every chapter in Mermaids and Musicians sings. With exquisite language, Diane Frank weaves joy and heartbreak, community and loneliness, surrealism and realism into a novel of hope. This delectable book uproots readers from the Appalachian Mountains and transports them to the Pacific coast, following the dreams of various characters, all of them…
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Ben Stolorow, piano. Peter Barshay, bass. Vince Lateano, drums. with guest Erich Ippen, guitar & vocals. $20 cover charge; byob. Students, $10. Kids free. The trio returns for their ongoing 3rd Sundays residency at Bird & Beckett. Leader Vince Lateano has been a cornerstone of the San Francisco jazz scene since he arrived in 1966, gigging and touring assiduously for decades before settling in behind the drum kit as the leader of the house band at Jazz at Pearls, the famous club that was situated in North Beach opposite City Lights on Columbus Avenue just off the corner of Broadway. His jam sessions at Pier 23, the Dog Patch Saloon, the Seven Mile House, Sweeties and Bird & Beckett have been a staple of the local jazz world for decades. Vince’s trio with the great bassist Peter Barshay and the elegant pianist Ben Stolorow has been a feature of…
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Jinx Jones, guitar. Kenan O’Brien, bass. Ken Owen, guitar. cover charge $20; byob. students $10. reservations, call 415-586-3733. Luxurious guitar and exotica. Cool swing and soul with a hot trio. That’s Jinx’s jazz bag! Welcome a true apostle of the many towering gods of the jazz guitar traditions, from Freddie Green to Charlie Christian to Tal Farlow to Wes Montgomery to Barney Kessel to Joe Pass to Kenny Burrell to Grant Green to Emily Remler to Mimi Fox… “Jinx Jones can indeed dazzle, Jones comps while launching melodic lines in a repertoire consisting of standards by Montgomery, Kessel, Lionel Hampton, and Benny Goodman, with his original “Alise” lending a Latin mood. Most impressive is Jones’ arrangement of Miles Davis’ “So What,” mixing percussive rhythm, singe-note passages, and octaves in the modal masterpiece.” Dan Forte, Vintage Guitar Magazine, 2018.
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After 3pm drop in to buy a book or just to commiserate over the failure of our democracy. At 5pm: a reading from Colossus:Current – The Ways and Workings of Water. At 7:30pm: The Jinx Jones Trio plays jazz. ________ At 5pm today, join Sara Biel, Elisa Salasin and Kim Shuck co-editors of Colussus:Current The Ways and Workings of Water the 2025 anthology of Colossus Press along with contributors D.S. Black, Ingrid Keir and Denise Low. This nourishing anthology of gorgeous poems reshapes how we think about water. How one poet recalls the Boxing Day Tsunami, to another’s ideas on the American River, to the myriad ways that water sustains us, the poets gathered here invite us to understand and reimagine how miraculous water truly is. This stellar book is for everyone, everywhere. —Lee Herrick – California Poet Laureate and author of In Praise of Late Wonder: New and Selected…
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Nothing like it this side of Bernal! Or any other side, really. BYOB and a twenty for the trio!
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The Scott Foster Quintet dives into the South African jazz repertoire, playing the music of Allen Kwela, Dudu Pukwana, Johnny Dyani, Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand), Hugh Masekela and their countrymen. $25 cover charge requested, students $10.
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Gus Hurteau, vibraphone. Alan Jones, bass. Miles Turk, drums. $20 cover charge, byob. Students $10. For reservations, call 415-586-3733. Young players on the rise! Catch them while they’re making their mark on the way to vibrant careers in jazz. Here’s video of Gus’s last trio date at Bird & Beckett, in June of this year, with Hannah Mayer on piano and Giulio Cetto on bass: Here’s Miles Turk on drums in pianist Rumi Abe’s quartet at Bird & Beckett on May 24th: Here’s Alan Jones in drummer Sheldon Alexander’s quintet at Bird & Beckett on June 6th:
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Max Bessesen, saxophone. Ethan Philion, bass. Devin Drobka, drums. $20 cover charge; byob. Students, $10. For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733. Love Call has been together since the lock down, when bassist Philion and saxophonist Bessesen coped with their lack of performance opportunities by exploring adventurous new repertoire and free improvisation together. When restrictions were lifted, the duo reunited with longtime-collaborator Devin Drobka and the unit began to collaborate on new music and to perform this material publicly. Love Call has been performing several times a year since 2021, despite the fact that the group members live in different cities (Bessesen in New York, Philion in Chicago and Drobka in Milwaukee). The trio has a distinctive musical approach marked by a congenial sense of trust and a unique, intuitive group language. Their performances feature free improvisation and compositions by each member of the group. Love Call was selected…
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Pam Brandon, bass and vocals. Forrest Allen, fiddle, mandolin and vocals. Iggy, guitar and vocals. $20 cover charge / $10 for students / kids, native peoples & navy sailors of all nations free during the Indigenous Peoples Day weekend.* For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733. All ages. Wheelchair accessible. San Francisco pickers, Trouble Town boils a hot pot of folk, bluegrass, swing, jazz and rock into a rebel blend of music with a big acoustic sound. The band’s musical chemistry and diverse influences have allowed them to pull from a deep musical well to make a special stew all their own. Trouble Town is led by Western Swing Hall of Famer Pam Brandon (AKA Belle, of Belle Monroe and Her Brewglass Boys) on bass and vocals, with Forrest Allen (Dusty Green Bones Band, Deep Thicket Dwellers) on fiddle, mandolin and vocals, and Iggy (Burl Haggard, Boots and 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
