Patrick Cahill (The Machinery of Sleep), Gerald Fleming (The Choreographer), Carolyn Miller (Light, Moving), Eliot Schain (The Distant Sound) read poems from their Sixteen Rivers Press titles and new work.  

Vince Lateano has been a key musician in San Francisco jazz since the mid-1960s. Every third Sunday, you’ll catch his trio at Bird & Beckett– and on the last Sunday of each month, serious jazz musicians, accomplished and aspiring both, are invited to a jam session led by the trio. Either way, byob and a twenty for the band if you’re able. No one turned away for lack of funds, but check between the seat cushions and bring what you can. We’ll make sure the trio is paid, ‘though as Slim will attest, it’s even better when you help.

And yes, it’s a benefit for your beleaguered tho’ resurgent ‘n re-emergent jazz ‘n literary lounge, so bring yr checkbook! Whether it’s $10 you can contribute or $100, be the icing on this particular little birthday cake… Bird & Beckett’s music programming is 21 years old this year! Peter Case lit out from Buffalo, New York in 1973, age 18, in a blizzard, on a midnight bus headed west. That spring in San Francisco, you’d find him among the brilliant street musicians of the city, day and night, wailing on his guitar, singing with a voice that ricocheted off the storefronts and across the traffic lanes. You’d see him and hear him all over town, in the Mission, in the Tenderloin, and for a good, long stretch on the southeast corner opposite the Condor and City Lights every night of the week, busking alongside scuffling players and sterling veterans like…

duo B. vs. SPELUNKER enter the Bird & Beckett arena Saturday, August 19th at 5pm! $20 cover charge, byob. Reservations – 415-586-3733. New original trio music and covers by creative music heroes Threadgill, Braxton and more! The Bay Area improvising drums and bass duo of Jason Levis and Lisa Mezzacappa, as duo B., joins forces with Italian saxophonist Piero Bon Bittolo, aka SPELUNKER (boasting a new album by that name). Together, they’ll whip up a program of new compositions composed by members of the trio, plus new arrangements of music by creative jazz luminaries. As duo B., Mezzacappa and Levis have explored the farthest reaches of wide-open improvisation and gnarly composition for more than 15 years, immersing themselves in the music of Anthony Braxton, Henry Threadgill, Cecil Taylor, Wadada Leo Smith, and others, and releasing three records. They are a first-call rhythm section backing up local jazz heroes such as…

Saxophonist Marcus Stephens is picking the tunes for your happy hour jazz pleasure, fronting the combo Scott Foster has assembled especially for the occasion, with Matt Montgomery on bass and Michael Mitchell on drums. You’re in for two generous sets of music for a mid-August minute before school’s back in session. BYOB and a twenty for the band! Whatever your wallet will allow! Take a quick break when they finish at 8, and then hurry back at 8:30 for Mean to Me, a Bird & Beckett favorite, with Scott joining vocalist Judy Butterfield, pianist/saxophonist Ben Slater, bassist Tom Edler and drummer Cairo McCockran performing tunes from the ’20s to the ’40s mixed with bop, soul & latin jazz. Bring a twenty for each of these fine bands, and something to sip, and kick back for a Glen Park pause before the world starts down that road back to the salt…

A fantastic variety of music to choose from. You’ll most always be on the mark if you byob and a twenty for the band. And you can call to reserve a seat for any of these shows – 415-586-3733. Coming off our Thursday benefit thrown by nine stellar classical musicians (if you count Yuzoh the singing dog who, truth be told, sings along only to bluegrass), we have a cavalcade of six dates over the next three days! Our Friday happy hour show this week (5:30-8pm) is Eric Shifrin’s second Fridays residency, with the In Crowd comprising a trio this time out, and what a fun & fantastic little trio it is — Eric on piano, Ari Munkres on bass and Mark Lee on drums. Guaranteed pleasure! Bring a twenty for the band and something to sip! If you’re squeezing every dollar ’til the eagle grins, then just bring what…

San Francisco Opera & Ballet Orchestra Musicians & Friends Ride to the Rescue! When Bay Area woes reach operatic dimensions of impending tragedy, a batch of hardy musicians who know all about operatic dimensions grab their tools of the trade and come calling! Bird & Beckett is just the latest cause to grab their attention and garner their support. Thursday, August 10th at 7:30pm, come out to Bird & Beckett to enjoy the musicianship of ten stalwart music makers, San Francisco Opera & Ballet musicians, both active and retired, and friends, performing in various aggregations and all together on the Bird & Beckett stage. They’re planning a program of classical pieces and more, celebrating the connections between classical, pop and folk music. Bird & Beckett is honored to be just the latest beneficiaries of the largesse of these musicians and colleagues. The list includes concerts to benefit Ukraine, the Food…

Hafez Modirzadeh, saxophone Tim Volpicella, guitar Stan Poplin, bass Keshav Batish, drums $20 cover charge (cash, please) BYOB For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733 This quartet reaches the Bird & Beckett stage just one day after performing at the Hammer Museum at UCLA. From the Hammer Museum’s write up: Commanding saxophonist and expansive musical thinker Hafez Modirzadeh brings a new quartet of Northern California improvisers to explore his latest set of compositions. Modirzadeh has spent decades bridging jazz vocabulary with the sonorities and syntax of non-Western musics. His work is influenced as much by the tuning systems of Persian and Turkish music, Filipino kulintang, and Indonesian gamelan as it is by the harmolodic lyricism of Ornette Coleman and the gritty chromaticism of Thelonious Monk. On a mission to liberate musical expression from the homogenizing influence of equal temperament, Modirzadeh pursues a music of liberation through personal resonance discovered…

Diane di Prima was a towering figure in American poetry, and is sorely missed. Her passing in 2020 at the age of 86 has had to wait ’til now to be fully memorialized. There is no admission charge for our reading on Saturday nor for the grand event at the Castro on Sunday, though donations at both events will help the di Prima family cover the considerable expenses involved. There’s precious little time before the Castro Theater as we know it is reconfigured, and it would be a great mistake to miss this gathering to celebrate an individual whose position in San Francisco’s cultural history is impossible to overstate, and whose work, practice, influence, generosity and friendship have shaped generations the world over. (note that our address is misstated in the flyer reproduced above. That’s the address where Diane first read for us, though, and where she brought her students…

Mr. Lucky https://vimeo.com/261190051/3340b6b191 “The dean of postmodern lounge jazz swing singers…” & The ‘Intimate’ Cocktail Party! “A veritable super-group!”  20th Century Influenced… 21st Century Influencers… Entertaining Jazz! Ellington, Mancini, Bacharach, Withers…!? The unexpected rules…! In 1998, Mr. Lucky & The Cocktail Party grabbed manic energy and tuned up the Great American Songbook with a big +plus.  J. Raoul Brody and Ralph Carney assembled an amazing set of jazz musicians to create a fresh, exciting, jazzy sound….  Over one hundred performances later the band continues to evolve— every show is guaranteed dynamic and…entertaining!    Featuring these outstanding, top Bay Area musicians… Joshua Raoul Brody: ‘The Maestro’ on piano, Michael Groh: humming on guitar, Joe Quigley:  eclectic bass (Lisa Loeb’s ‘Stay’), Mr. Lucky: vocals, etc. Our extravagant and exceptional genius and friend, Ralph Carney remains on stage with us in spirit.  Mr. Lucky has appeared at an amazing array of venues— from Bimbo’s 365…

Charles Thomas, bass with Rob Zuckerman, saxophone Sam Cady, piano Michael Spencer, drums $20 suggested donation; pay what you can to support the musicians and the store! There’s no minimum on Friday evenings for these 2-1/2 hour happy hour shows. On the other hand, there’s no maximum either! BYOB Charles has a long history on the Bird & Beckett scene, playing bebop, bossas and standards as well as originals with any number of combos, and often leading his own. His performing career has run the gamut from R&B to funk to hard bop and more.  Tonight, it’s jazz in a straight ahead mode while he contemplates next steps in the music. We suspect there will be hints abounding about the directions he’ll take. His colleagues on the bandstand this evening are wonderful players, all. All are well suited to Charles’ purposes!

Jerry Ferraz has been the cornerstone of Bird & Beckett’s poetry scene since its inception back in 1999. He was on the first bill of poets that we presented shortly after we opened the store. His poems contemplate the eternal mysteries and verities of the human and natural spheres, with a sensibility that’s both ironic and generous. His good friend Jane Rades writes poems of disarming simplicity. She’s the one who taught Jerry how to sing, back when they often crossed paths and sometimes performed together on the 1970s coffee house poetry scene. An open mic follows the featured poets. Michael Koch and Jerry share the honors in booking and conducting our monthly first Thursdays poetry series.

The last Sunday of each month, veteran drummer Vince Lateano is at the center of a dynamic and easy going session at Bird & Beckett that attracts old hands and young pups alike, aided by bassist Peter Barshay and pianist Ben Stolorow. Bird & Beckett’s Doggone Session is just the latest iteration of sessions Vince has been renowned for over the decades at venues including Pier 23, the Dogpatch Saloon, the Seven Mile House (which Vince dubbed the Doghouse Jam) and Sweeties. And while some talents, characters and devotees show up pret’ near every time at these Bird & Beckett sessions, the churn and evolution is constant, and legendary players you’ve never heard of turn up with regularity, drawn by their history and friendship with Vince, a swinging force on the San Francisco jazz scene since he hit North Beach in the mid-1960s.  

Dewayne Oakley, bass and vocals Ralph Nelson, guitar Anthony Peagram, drums $20 cover charge (cash, please) byob The Dewayne Oakley Blues Ensemble returns to play soul satisfying sets of blues, calypso and jazz. Dewayne has brought the pleasure and joy of the music to audiences all around the bay for five decades or more. For the better part of the 1980s, he was a fixture on the blues and jazz scene in Nagoya, Japan, and returned with his own record label, Naki-Do, and the Blues Ensemble. Dewayne has been a Bird & Beckett favorite and close collaborator since last March, when vocalist Jazzy Raja first brought his Blues Ensemble to our stage. Tonight’s trio date is his fifth Bird & Beckett engagement in as many months. Here’s video from his latest outing on July 8th. Plus a little something extra.