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!
Kim Shuck’s B&B-sponsored online poetry series has been going strong, on Zoom and Google Meet, for several years now and attracts a broad community of poets. 2nd Mondays, Kim hosts two featured readers and conducts the open mic that follows. 4th Mondays, it’s all open mic. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84350265713?pwd=eE84V3BYdWxiSFBHNHhmdUt1WTUzdz09 Meeting ID: 843 5026 5713 Passcode: 244211 The featured readers this time out are Norma Smith and Ellyseo Metcalf. Read on! Norma Smith has lived in the East Bay for more than half a century. She has worked as a journalist, a translator-interpreter, community scholar-educator, event and conference organizer, and as an editor, writing coach, and workshop facilitator. Norma’s book of poems, HOME REMEDY, is available at https://blacklawrencepress.com/books/home-remedy/ Ellyseo (el-LEE-see-oh) Metcalf is another lost soul that read The Stranger in high school and never recovered. Unable to find meaning within the Marine Corps, religion, or education, he now scribbles pretentious blasphemy…
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The first Sunday of the month is a set aside for a jam session for young jazz musicians hosted by a professional trio, with a student combo from one of the area’s fine jazz programs opening the evening with a 45 minute set. This month, Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland sends us another great band, bursting with young talent. Then, drummer Akira Tana leads a jam session with his trio, open to student musicians from all directions. The art of the session is a key skill that aspiring jazz musicians take to with astonishing results. Always a pleasure to hear! No charge to attend, but audience donations at the show or sent to the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project, our 501(c)3 nonprofit, help us keep this series going. Use the “Donate” button on this website or bring a check to the store! Be sure to let us know…
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Harvey’s back, and Bird & Beckett’s got him! The Los Angeles Times noted many years ago, that “Harvey Wainapel can be judged by the company he keeps.” He toured the world for a year as a member of Ray Charles’ group. Two of Brazilian jazz’s brightest stars, Airto Moreira and Flora Purim, kept him traveling with their group on and off for six years. And modern sax master Joe Lovano utilized Harvey’s talents for tours in Europe and North America. He’s also performed and/or recorded with pianists Dave Brubeck, Kenny Barron & McCoy Tyner, drummers Mike Clark (Herbie Hancock) & Billy Hart (everyone!), the hr-Bigband (German Radio Big Band in Frankfurt) and Holland’s Metropole Orchestra. Wainapel has also presented his OWN work in clubs, festivals, workshops, and studios in 17 countries. Sax master Joe Lovano states “It’s a pleasure to listen to Harvey’s soulful interpretations.” Japan’s JazzLife calls Wainapel “a musician with his own unique and deep sound.” “The room is warm, the audience…
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Join us for an unforgettable evening of jazz with drummer Sheldon Alexander’s quartet. A sought-after sideman for many, many gigs, he’s also passionately developing his own unique projects. This night at Bird & Beckett will feature an exceptional combo, with the renowned guitarist Ilya Lushtak straight from New York City, alongside two musicians who have been key players in these parts for decades, Adam Shulman on the organ and Erik Jekabson on the trumpet. Prepare to be captivated by this extraordinary ensemble under the leadership of a rising star of the Bay Area music scene.
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Chinese American revolutionary feminist poet Nellie Wong, a Glen Park resident, grew up in Oakland’s Chinatown and came of age working in her parents’ restaurant there. Tracked into a working class path and following business classes at Oakland High School, she went to work as a secretary at Bethlehem Steel. In her 30s, in the late 1960s, Nellie enrolled at San Francisco State University, taking creative writing, ethnic studies and feminist studies classes and joining the Freedom Socialist Party and Radical Women, lifelong associations that continue to this day. Her development as a poet and her dedication to the struggle for radical social change took on a focused momentum in those years at San Francisco State which has continued for six decades. In her mid-80s, in tribute to her engagement in poetry and political struggle, students at Oakland High successfully petitioned for a building at the school to be named…
Read MoreNot a chance that we’ll cease and desist!… Tuesday to Sunday, we sell books noon to six each day… And along the way… Friday, April 5th, the weekend’s jazz begins! At 6pm, Zoot! a Sam Cady joint. With Charlie McCarthy, Ollie Dudek and Tony Johnson. Just great jazz, the monster under the bed! Zoot alors! And at 8:30pm, the Sheldon Alexander Quartet, with yet another great guitarist from NYC, Ilya Lushtak, plus trumpeter extraordinaire Erik Jekabson and the great Adam Shulman on organ! Sheldon is a young drummer with an incandescent future ahead of him and a great presence in the present that is Bay Area Jazz! Saturday, April 6th, 7:30pm, the fabulous Harvey Wainapel, from whom we’ve heard far too little since the events of early 2020, brings a fabulous quartet — reasserting his position as one of the very key reed players in these parts. He has the…
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Jam session on the last Sunday of each month from 5 to 7pm! All jazz players welcome. Audience, please donate to help us pay the Vince Lateano Trio to host the jam — Ben Stolorow, piano; Peter Barshay bass, Vince Lateano, drums.
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Noah Frank, trumpet Stephanie Woodford, piano Curtis Aikens, bass Martin Diller, drums $20 cover charge; byob. Reservations, call 415-586-3733. The Noah Frank Quartet will present a mixture of original tunes, pop covers, and jazz standards. Noah has performed at NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series, DC Jazz Festival, PDX Jazz Festival, Rockefeller Center, and many more.
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“Tal is an amazing guitarist and fabulous human making stunning music.” –Nora Stanley $15 cover charge, byob. Reservations, call 415-586-3733. Tal Yahalom is an award-winning guitarist, composer and bandleader based in Brooklyn, New York since 2014. Drawing from a wide range of influences – spanning jazz and impressionistic classical music to Brazilian repertoire and South-American guitar traditions – Tal aims to create engaging storytelling, adventurous interplay and a deep sense of groove while expanding on the traditional roles and textural capabilities of the guitar. As a leader, he performs regularly with diverse solo programs, a chamber-jazz quintet (set to release its debut album in 2024), a collective post-rock trio KADAWA, and various trios which have featured Caroline Davis, Dan Weiss, Eivind Opsvik and Rogerio Boccato. Following three solo guitar EPs of original and improvised music, Tal released ‘Solo Standards’ in June 2023 – an ambitious and creative take on classic jazz…
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Robert Kennedy, organ Scott Foster, guitar Cody Rhodes, drums $20 cover charge; byob. Reservations, call 415-586-3733. Robert Kennedy’s 2015 debut Hammond organ combo release Big Shoes spent nine weeks on the CMJ charts, peaking at #11, and his 2018 album Closer to Home, also with the organ trio, peaked at #5 on NACC’s jazz chart, #1 on RMR’s jazz chart, and #32 on JazzWeek’s Top 50. Arriving in the Bay Area in 1988 from the American South, Robert played piano in the Stanford University Jazz Band and studied jazz piano with the great jazz pianist, band director and educator Bill Bell. Robert was a founding member of the groups Hip Pocket Jazz Quintet and Double Funk Crunch, performed as pianist with the SFJAZZ Monday Night Band, and held the accordion chair in Mission Hot Club. He has had the pleasure of playing venues such as Yoshi’s, the Boom Boom Room, San…
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Janet Popesco Archibald, oboe & English horn Paul Ehrlich, viola Victoria Ehrlich, cello Zachariah Spellman, tuba Karen Hutchinson, piano Comprising musicians from the San Francisco Opera and Ballet Orchestras, the Lowell Ensemble will perform a fun & festive mix of Classical, Folk & Pop music, featuring Nadia Boulanger’s Trois Pieces and Schumann’s Pieces in Canonic Style for oboe, cello & piano, Astor Piazzolla’s Grand Tango for cello & piano, Jacobson’s Preludes for Tuba & piano, & everything from Bach to Bacharach. $20 cover charge; byob Reservations, call 415-586-3733
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Anne Breedlove Part-Time Nomads: Traveling the World by Bicycle Diane LeBow Dancing on the Wine-Dark Sea: Memoir of a Trailblazing Woman’s Travels, Adventures and Romance MJ Pramik Travels on the Edge: One Woman’s Journeys on a Runaway Planet Free. Seat reservations accepted by phone at 415-586-3733. Reservations honored until the event begins at 7pm. Three writers with a hunger for knowledge and experience of the wider world, their individual reasons and preoccupations and their unique insights converge at Bird & Beckett to read from their work and to entertain your own thoughts, insights and questions. ____________________ Anne Breedlove’s Part Time Nomads is part memoir, part travelogue and one hundred percent ode to taking on crazy challenges no matter your age or life situation. The book focuses on Anne and her husband’s evolution from weekend cyclists to fully loaded, self-contained international bicycle travelers. Averaging eight…
Read MoreOn the fourth Monday of each month, Kim Shuck hosts an open mic on Zoom. Here’s how to find it: Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84350265713?pwd=eE84V3BYdWxiSFBHNHhmdUt1WTUzdz09 Meeting ID: 843 5026 5713 Passcode: 244211 When Monday Mar 25, 2024 ⋅ 7pm – 8:30pm (Pacific Time – Los Angeles) Location https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84350265713?pwd=eE84V3BYdWxiSFBHNHhmdUt1WTUzdz09 View map
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Never before has the Bird & Beckett stage proffered such wit and wisdom, pathos and bathos… Come to be entertained for a rewarding hour by six experienced & truth-telling women of great pluck, good humor & infinite grace. Free to all, reservations welcome (call the shop). No heckling allowed. Laughter and tears inevitable.
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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
