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!
Kevin Gerzevitz, piano. Ari Munkres, bass. Tim Bulkley, drums. $20/byob. Students/teen – $10. Reservations, call 415-586-3733. Herbie Nichols wrote jazz tunes that are unique and compelling in ways highly appreciated by practitioners of the art, players and composers alike, and by fans, of course. “House Party Starting” is one such tune. Hear it here! And hear Kevin Gerzevitz and his trio bring it to life for you live here at Bird & Beckett! Plus a whole lot more.
Read More
Darren Johnston, trumpet. Bruce Ackley, reeds. Scott Foster, guitar. $20/byob. Students/teens – $10. Kids free. Reservations, call 415-586-3733. Scott steps out! The long-time cornerstone of our Friday jazz in the bookshop since 2002, Scott Foster brings all manner of jazz combos every third Friday, and this time out he’s invited two players whose renown in spontaneous improvisation and abstract compositional strategies have made them much loved on both coasts and abroad. Bruce Ackley is one-fourth of the saxophone quartet Rova, which has traveled the festival circuit for decades drawing inspiration from the likes of John Cage, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Anthony Braxton, Steve Lacy, Charles Ives, Edgard Varése, and Olivier Messiaen. Rova has been on the Bird & Beckett stage twice in the past, and Bruce has taken the stage in a variety of other combinations, as has his Rova partner Larry Ochs. Here’s a link to an Ackley/Foster outing…
Read More
The Cornelius Cardew Choir, Thingamajigs Performance Group and Pet the Tiger Instrument Inventors Collective celebrate the life and work of composer Pauline Oliveros and the release of the new book of text scores inspired by her “deep listening”. Several of the artists have scores published in this volume which will be performed alongside works by Oliveros. Audience participation in the “sonic meditations” is encouraged. $25 suggested donation; byob. No reservations, except for those with mobility issues. 415-586-3733. The performers: The Cardew Choir, founded in Berkeley on May Day 2001, sings at the intersection of inclusive community and experimental music, strongly influenced by Cornelius Cardew and his circle in the 1960’s and ‘70’s in England. We draw inspiration from the experimental music tradition and musicians such as Pauline Oliveros and John Cage. We recognize our music-making as enacting healthy political economy, with respect for individual contributions and high regard for the…
Read More
The Lotus Sutra is an operatic religious script, a poetic text. Epically visionary, yet utterly concrete. The poetry is only one element upon the palette of enlightened consciousness, and the Lotus Sutra teaches that enlightened consciousness is a possibility for all. It may be surprising to think of this as an ancient truth, but the Lotus Sutra is an ancient text. It is the source of many creative connections that can be made with contemporary concerns. Walker Brents III has been musing at Bird & Beckett on diverse topics in poetry, philosophy, mythology and culture on a near monthly basis for two decades. He shows no sign of flagging. These days, post-pandemic, it’s primarily a live stream, found on our facebook page and youtube channel, but you can slip into the shop to listen in person if you like. Just give us a call the afternoon of the “show” –…
Read More
The Vince Lateano Trio plays jazz in the bookshop on the third Sunday of every month. Make it a habit! You never know who’s going to drop in! Drummer Vince Lateano has been a mainstay of the San Francisco jazz scene since the mid-1960s, and also toured in those early years with Woody Herman, Vince Guaraldi and Cal Tjader. His trio with bassist Peter Bashay and pianist Ben Stolorow makes beautiful music at Bird & Beckett on the third Sunday of every month, and on the last Sunday of the month, they’re here hosting one of the City’s great jam sessions. On his third-Sunday trio dates, Vince usually invites a great established player or a new special talent to share the bandstand, and today’s engagement is no exception. Guitarist Tri (pronounced “tree”) Pham will join the fun. Tri Pham is a young and passionate jazz guitarist, composer and educator from…
Read More
The Deep End started out as a rehearsal band of five long-time Bay Area musicians who hoped to make the best of the pandemic, to explore lesser known music that would be more fun, interesting, and challenging than what we often played at the usual gigs. Drawn to innovative composers—classic giants such as Shorter, Dameron, Monk, and Ellington as well as contemporary artists many folks may not know — their repertoire and the arrangements that evolved over weekly sessions have let them dive into the deep end of this music. Hence, The Deep End: Gerald Beckett (flute), Ari Caprow (guitar), Michael Gold (sax), Ken Lenga (bass), Evan Williams (drums). $25 cover charge; byob. Teens and students, $10. Kids welcome, and free. For reservations, call the shop at 415-586-3733 during store hours, Tuesday to Sunday, noon to six.
Read More
Out of Pittsburgh, Ahmad Jamal made the most exquisite piano trio jazz that’s ever been heard. On piano, Charles Chen evokes that music and adds his own sensibilities in unity with drummer Benny Amón and bassist Mikiya Matsuda. Here’s video of the trio’s last Bird & Beckett outing…
Read More
For decades, Eric Shifrin has been wowing the swells and the swindlers, the singers and the swingers, the rowdy and the restless and the resolute barflies in dives, penthouses, lounges and lobbies and swank supper clubs — wherever he plays, that’s where you’ll find the in crowd. Standards, chestnuts, curios. He’s a gruff stylist with superb technique. And Bird & Beckett is his second home. Join us on the second Friday of every month for two sets of piano trio pleasure, tonight with Kurt Ribak on bass and Mark Lee on drums. Staying for a full set or the whole show? $20 per adult is the nice price; byob. $10 for teens and students; kids free. Reservations not necessary, but if you’re coming from a distance, it’s not a bad idea. Call us at 415-586-3733 during business hours, Tuesday to Sunday, noon to six. Or email us at [email protected]
Read More
This concert features a Jugalbandi (duet) presentation of traditional North Indian classical stringed instruments. Bruce Hamm (sarod) is a disciple of the revered maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. He has pursued a serious and continuous study of classical instrumental and vocal music over nearly 4 decades. Bruce accompanied his Guru Ali Akbar Khan onstage on multiple occasions and has performed numerous solo concerts throughout the US and India. Joanna Mack (sitar) initially studied under the guidance of the Pandit Deepak Choudhury in Kolkata. She then attended classes at the Ali Akbar Khan College of Music with Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and now continues her musical studies with sitarist Pandit Partha Chatterjee and her husband Bruce Hamm. They are accompanied on tabla by Ferhan Qureshi, a disciple of the legendary tabla maestro Ustad Tari Khan. $20 cover charge; byob To reserve seats, call the bookshop at 415-586-3733 during business hours, Tuesday…
Read More
It’s all jazz at Bird & Beckett– except when it’s lit’rature, poetry, philosophy, belles lettres– or… ROCKABILLY RAVE-UPS & COUNTRY CROONING! CLASSIC BALLADS OF WINE, WOMEN, SONG AND LONG-HAUL TRUCKING! TODAY FROM 5-7PM!! Mitch Polzac & the Royal Deuces featuring pedal steel master Joe Goldmark! Bring a twenty for the band and your own durned beverage. You won’t be sorry you do, only if you don’t!
Read More
Independent reporter Denise Sullivan brings the SF Lives series to Bird & Beckett for a Sunday morning livestream. This month’s guest is Dee Allen, launching his 10th volume of poetry, The Mansion: Liberated Zones Inside The Controlled Inner City (Gnashing Teeth Publishing).”Named in honour of his first real home in the Bay Area, The Mansion covers Allen’s first five years surviving homelessness in San Francisco by squatting numerous buildings, whether long-abandoned or new ones under construction.” Allen is an African-Italian performance poet based in Oakland, California. Active in creative writing & Spoken Word since the early 1990s, he’s the author of 10 books–Boneyard, Unwritten Law, Stormwater, Skeletal Black, Elohi Unitsi, Rusty Gallows: Passages Against Hate, Plans, Crimson Stain, Discovery and his newest, The Mansion–with 78 anthology appearances under his figurative belt so far. The SFLives Project, a series of candid conversations with San Francisco’s artists, activists and free thinkers, was conceived as a print media column…
Read More
Francis Wong, saxophone. Erika Oba, flute, piccolo, piano, melodica. Chris Trinidad, bass, synth. Carrie Jahde, drums. Helen Palma, vocals. $25 cover charge; byob. For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733. “Zen of Glenn” is a new CD recording of the works of the late composer and activist Glenn Horiuchi (1955-2000), featuring arrangements by longtime Horiuchi collaborator, saxophonist Francis Wong. The goal of the project is to excavate, preserve, and carry forth the profound artistic and cultural legacy that Horiuchi left after his much too soon passing at age 45. Horiuchi is known for embodying his political, cultural, and spiritual experiences during the emergence of Asian American Consciousness into a well documented and lauded body of musical and interdisciplinary work. Trinidad, Oba and Wong, collaborating with the support of Asian Improv aRts and Chris Trinidad Music, have integrated Horiuchi’s writings and compositions into performances several times since initiating the project,…
Read More
Eat at home. Go out late. Stay out late. Enjoy the James Mahone Quartet! It’s the Friday late set at Bird & Beckett! James Mahone, tenor sax. Grant Levin, piano. Sam Bevan, bass. Michael (Mike) Mitchell, drums. Take a piano trio and do it one better! Nothing epitomizes jazz like the tenor saxophone! We love our Charlie Parker and Johnny Hodges on alto, but think Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Lester Young, Sonny Rollins, Hank Mobley, John Coltrane! How about Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz, Lou Donaldson! How about Joe Henderson! James Mahone, saxophone!!! Tenor saxophone! With a rhythm section beyond compare!!! Grab a six pack and c’mon out for some jazz!!! $20 cover charge; cash or venmo, please! Call for a reservation — you can always call for a reservation! 415-586-3733!
Read More
Jazz in its essence! The piano trio is the traditional heart of the art form. If you don’t grasp that yet, you surely will over the course of the evening! Three musical minds, long experienced in developing their ideas, skills and technique, listening to each other, conversing in a common language without words on topics dear to their hearts… ballads, blues and burners… exuberance, lamentation, subtle thought, wistful desire, clever asides, moments of bombast, tenderness and joy… All welcoming you into the extended moment amidst friends old and new.. On the stage, Erick Peralta, piano Aaron Germain, bass Brian Andres, drums $20 cover charge; cash or venmo at the door, please! Just checking it out for a tune? Throw a few bucks in the bucket. byob. Students and teens, $10. Kids free and welcome! Leave the dog home and enjoy a bite and beer at One Waan, La Corneta, Win…
Read More
Mamboleo! From Ruth Asawa School of the Arts: Amaru Duran-Calahorrano – Drums. Santiago Winton – Piano. Sai Ray – Trumpet. Mateo Siguenza – Bass. From Oakland School for the Arts: Vito Marcacci – Trombone. From Berkeley High School: Mario Barragan – Congas. On the first Sunday of most months (subject to the academic calendars of our fine Bay Area colleges, high schools and such), Bird & Beckett plays host to budding jazz musicians performing in combos and participating in a jam session. This month, we’re excited by the return of Mamboleo, a group that wowed our audience a few months back, made up of students drawn from the jazz programs at San Francisco’s Ruth Asawa School of the Arts, the Oakland School for the Arts and the legendary Berkeley High. Bring your checkbook or a wad of cash to help us sustain our commitment to giving young musicians the opportunity…
Read More
Sign Up for Our Weekly Emails!
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.
____________
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!
TAKE OUR SURVEY
To take our SURVEY, click here, and help the BBCLP get to know you better! As Duke Ellington always said, we love you madly...
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
