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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]
The posts that follow show you what’s come and gone. Search the videos on our youtube channel or facebook page to find evidence of what you remember, or what you missed! Then, make sure you catch the next thing that catches your fancy. The live streams are great, but live music in a room with folks you know or ought to get to know, that’s irreplaceable…
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Here’s a little backstory, to get us to where we now stand… in re: the Fridays, anyway… Read on! And thanks for being part of the Bird & Beckett story in the present day. /s/Eric Whittington, proprietor, since 1999 Once upon a time, in the late spring of 1999, Bird & Beckett opened its doors down on Diamond Street where Manzoni now serves exquisite Northern Italian cuisine to the ravenous epicures who’ve found their way to Glen Park. We took on the nicely appointed 1,000 square foot space from the four-year-old Glen Park Books, and paid our rent to Manhal Jweinat, still to this day the crepemaster behind the counter of his kitty-corner coffee house, Higher Grounds, which he opens in the early morning before jamming across the street to handle his love child, Manzoni through the dinner hours. Amazing fella, and still a good friend, that Manhal! Within…
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Ben Stolorow, piano. Peter Barshay, bass. Vince Lateano, drums. Special guest Kai Lyons, guitar. $20 per person donation encouraged; byob. Students, $5-$10. Kids free. Guitarist Kai Lyons is a uniquely talented guitarist and a musicologist much admired by his peers and friends, adaptable to any congenial bandstand assembly like the one on hand this afternoon at Bird & Beckett. Though well schooled in the San Francisco public school system, in the constellation of opportunities revolving around the San Francisco Community Music Center, San Francisco Carnaval and many another of the wonderful regional music hubs in these parts, at William Paterson University in New Jersey and at San Francisco State University back home, Kai’s knowledge of the music has benefited most from his wide travels and immersion in the traditions of Africa, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America and South America. He has a deep understanding of bebop and the…
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Tay naja nitajtaketzki achtu tik Nawat / Mis primeras palabras en nahuat / My First Words in Nahuat is San Francisco Mission District poet and childrens’ book writer Jorge Argueta’s latest and very personal book, adding to nearly two dozen earlier works for children and readers of poetry. Jorge grew up in Santo Domingo de Guzmán El Salvador, where his grandmother, an indigenous healer, told him stories from his indigenous heritage and their belief in a human-nature connection, instilling in him great respect for the environment and appreciation for oral tradition. He spent time in the city helping his parents run a small restaurant as well as in the countryside, helping his grandparents tend to their farm, but left El Salvador when he was 19 years old due to the ongoing Salvadoran Civil War, and arrived in San Francisco in the 1980s. His work reflects the Latino experience and heritage;…
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Tim Price, alto sax Tod Dickow/Charlie McCarthy, tenor sax* Bob Brumbeloe, guitar Jim Kerwin, bass Curt Moore, drums * Charlie McCarthy subbing tonight; Tod is rehabbing from surgery to repair some nerves in his right forearm, and may be able to play on a few tunes. $25 cover charge / byob Students $10 For a reservation, call the bookshop at 415-586-3733 An all-star band of jazz players renders a batch of compositions from the unique musical mind of pianist Lenny Tristano, with arrangements by the leader, alto player Tim Price. Lennie Tristano studied for bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music in Chicago before moving to New York City in 1946. He played with leading bebop musicians and formed his own small bands, which soon displayed some of his early interests – contrapuntal interaction of instruments, harmonic flexibility and rhythmic complexity. His quintet in 1949 recorded the first free group improvisations.…
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Macy Blackman, piano and vocals. Bing Nathan, bass. Larry Vann, drums and vocals. $20 cover charge / byob. Students $10. For a reservation, call the bookshop at 415-586-3733. Tonight, piano professor Macy Blackman and the Groove Merchant, Larry Vann inject a goodly dose of vocals into two sets of Motown, R&B, soul and blues, with Bing Nathan holding down the bass line. Born in 1948 about 30 miles downriver from Philadelphia, in Wilmington, Delaware, Macy’s grandfather started him on piano in 1951. Growing up, he spent his summers five hours south of Wilmington at the foot of the Chesapeake Bay in Newport News, Virginia, so he ingested both southern R&B and country music and the early rock & roll and R&B of Philly. The first thing he remembers trying to play was Philadelphia’s nascent rocker Bill Haley’s “Crazy Man Crazy.” In 1959, Macy met other precocious Delaware pre-teens also starting…
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Mulla Nasruddin was not afraid to look foolish if it meant he could teach us something. Mulla Nasruddin—so smart he’s dumb, and so dumb he’s smart. The wise fool, juggling the concepts of the possible and the impossible. Just when you think he does or doesn’t mean it, he makes or doesn’t make it mean even more. Sometimes with a smile on his face, sometimes with a very serious expression indeed. They say he really lived, seven centuries ago, in western or central Turkey. He and Rumi would have been approximate contemporaries. Trouble is, there are Mulla Nasruddin stories from the 8th century on. Our boy gets around, often riding his donkey backwards, even as his face is turned toward us, kindly providing guidance. Even when he says nothing, he makes nothing speak through him. For example, his tomb has a locked gate before it, yet there is no fence around…
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Panthéa Flutes brings you an evening of quintets, quartets, trios, duos, and solos. Enjoy classic repertoire, from Bach, Bernstein, Debussy, and Muczynski, as well as contemporary pieces from Amano, Beeftink, Green, Sakai, and more. Tessa Moore – C flute + alto flute. Josie Clements – C flute + piccolo flute. Sha Jin – C flute – piccolo flute. Lucy Kaye – C flute – piccolo flute. Gabby Benuto – C flute & bass flute. $25 cover charge; cash at the door, please. byob. Student $10; kids free
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Ricardo Peixoto and Carlos Oliveira, Brazilian guitarists, perform in duo Saturday night at Bird & Beckett. $20 cover charge (cash at the door, please); byob. Students $10. For a reservation, call the bookshop at 415-586-3733. Reserved seats are held until the music starts. Born in Rio de Janeiro, guitarist, composer and arranger Ricardo Peixoto came to the U.S. by way of a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music, and later settled in the Bay Area. An inspired improviser with a keen compositional sense, Ricardo’s eloquent style evokes images far beyond his Brazilian territory. In addition to his most recent recording ‘Scary Beautiful’, Peixoto’s long-standing partnership with vocalist/composer Claudia Villela has produced the acclaimed CD ‘Inverse Universe’. Peixoto has recorded and performed with, among others, Flora Purim and Airto, Claudia Villela, Bud Shank, Dom Um Romão, Claudio Roditi, Toots Thielemans and Dori Caymmi. Read more here. Guitarist, composer, arranger, and…
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Sheldon Brown, saxes and flute. Matt Clark, piano. Fred Randolph, bass. Brian Fishler, drums. $20 cover charge (cash at the door, please); byob. Students: $10. Composer, bandleader & bassist Fred Randolph brings a quartet comprising top talent for two sets of jazz classics and originals. Enjoy the late show vibe this Friday, and every Friday in April — with the Macy Blackman Trio on April 17th, George Cotsirilos guitar solo and guitar/bass duo with Robb Fisher on April 24th, and Ramya Shankar Human Experience on April 31st. In May, we move to a single 7:30pm show each Friday. So get your Friday late shows while they last!
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We’re celebrating our 24-year old Friday happy hour tradition at Bird & Beckett this month, starting with tonight’s Eric & the In Crowd date. It’s fitting that it’s all about the letter “F”! Finito! After this one, Eric & the In Crowd’s Second-Fridays residency will start at 7:30pm! Prefer the late afternoon vibe? Find it here at 5pm every Sunday with a variety of jazz and Americana residencies, jam sessions, and one off shows. Tonight, April 10th, the show runs from 6pm to 8pm as per usual (heretofore), with Eric & the In Crowd playing two sets of jazz from stride to bop and bossa. Byob and a twenty for the trio! Eric Shifrin, piano Heath Proskin, bass Mark Lee, drums Don’t miss your chance to celebrate 24 years of Friday Happy Hours with us, with Eric & the In Crowd on April 8th. and do please come out…
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On the occasion of a trip by Jerry Martien down to Monterey to present his book Waveshock: Ed Ricketts, The Voyage of the Grampus, and Our Biopoetic Future, long-time friends Hilton Obenzinger, driving up from Palo Alto, and Stephen Vincent, hosting on his San Francisco home turf, converge on the bookshop to read poems and compare notes with reference to their common 1960s/70s Bolinas and bioregional history and their present pursuits. Jerry Martien has lived on the northern California coast for nearly half a century, supporting his writing habit as a book clerk, doorman, poet in the schools, carpenter, and Humboldt State writing instructor. He has published several collections of poetry, including chapbooks and broadsides from Jerry Reddan’s Tangram Press, as well as Shell Game (Mercury House) and The Price of a Life (self-published), both histories of money and exchange in North America and northwest California. He is also the…
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Prepare yourself for a magnificent union of Rosy Zhang, North York Concert Orchestra principal cello, with the jazz titans comprising drummer Myron Cohen’s Billy Higgins Legacy Band. $30 cover charge / byob; students $10. Cash at the door, please! Call ahead for a reservation (415) 586-3733, but keep in mind — we’re busy selling books during the day and setting up for our shows; reservation requests left on our voicemail on the day of the show might not register with us, so just come and squeeze in! You won’t regret it. Myron brings a quintet featuring Rosy to Bird & Beckett tonight, with the majestic talent of veteran saxophonist Richard Howell and the young fire of saxophonist Alex So and bassist Yoav Konig to feed Rosy’s hunger for inspired jazz improvisation. She’s up to the task, of this we’re certain. It will be an amazing night of music. The jazz…
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Trumpet player Jeremy Kemmerer brings a jazz quintet from UC Berkeley for a set, followed by our monthly first-Sundays jam session especially open to young and young-at-heart jazz musicians still learning the ropes of this hoary tradition! Jeremy Kemmerer, trumpet. Sam Malekzadeh, tenor saxophone. Chris Cook, piano. Benny Goldenberg, bass. Lucas Quan, drums. No charge to play in the jam session, of course! There are no drinks or food to buy here, so bring your own and save some dough! We don’t generally encourage food in the shop, but we make an exception for the jam sessions, and will provide a compost can, a landfill can, and a recycle can! Adults–the students can help you to figure out what goes in which can! Please don’t make us paw through your garbage after you leave! And after that little scolding… let us emphasize that we revel in jazz, jazz musicians, jazz…
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Sunnylyn Thibodeaux’s Lucky Charms: New and Selected Poems, 2000–2025 is fresh out from City Lights Books this spring, No. 26 in its Spotlight Series, edited by Garrett Caples. Her previous books include The World Exactly (Cuneiform, 2020), Universal Fall Precautions (Spuyten Duyvil, 2017), As Water Sounds (Bootstrap, 2014) and Palm to Pine (Bootstrap, 2011). She is also the author of over a dozen small books, including 20/20 Yielding (Blue Press), 88 Haiku for Lorca (Push Press), Against What Light (Ypolita), Room Service Calls (Lew Gallery Editions) and What’s Going On (Bird & Beckett) and for decades now she’s coedited with Micah Ballard the output of Auguste Press and Lew Gallery Editions. In 1999, Sunnylyn moved from Louisiana to the San Francisco Bay Area to attend New College of California, studying with poets including David Meltzer and Joanne Kyger. She once characterized herself as a New Orleans poet stranded in San Francisco,…
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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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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
