Every third Sunday, enjoy the simple pleasures of the Vince Lateano Trio playing two sets of great music. Vince Lateano, drums Peter Barshay, bass Ben Stolorow, piano byob and a twenty for the trio! Here’s video of the trio’s last outing, on June 18th: Vince Lateano has been an invaluable part of the San Francisco scene since he came to the City in the mid-1960s. He quickly found his place in the local jazz scene, playing, recording and touring with Vince Guaraldi, subbing around town for Johnny Markham when Markham went on the road with Sinatra and other major acts, and working extensively with Cal Tjader, Eddie Duran, Chet Baker, Clare Fisher and a host of others through the years… Later, all through the 1990s ’til it closed as such in 2003, he was the house drummer at Jazz at Pearl’s in North Beach, playing with his own trio several…

Join Neeli Cherkovski and friends for a reading to celebrate his 78th birthday! Hello I am the way I am because nobody could convince me to be otherwise, a simple thought to be not so easily deterred from the wreckage of bad behavior it’s okay to say “yes” when you mean “no” it’s okay to do your best while you grow old because no one really cares not even if they want to I am the way I am out of spite, I hold the appellation “poet” in high regard and take a simple line or two I am as I am tending the garden, fearful of court documents, wary of tax forms, I never learned how to pry open a box of butterflies I am the way I am capable of secrets despite my mouth, I turn up the volume and listen-in to real news, angry mobs in Budapest,…

Shay Salhov, saxophone Dahveed Behroozi, piano Jason Lewis, drums Dahveed Behroozi, Shay Salhov and Jason Lewis have nearly a decade of experience collaborating as a trio and as a quartet with the late bassist John Shifflett, focused on original compositions and steeped in improvisation, drawing on classical and world music elements. $20 cash cover charge. BYOB. For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733. Find the Bird & Beckett live streams on our YouTube channel or Facebook page, and donate if you possibly can to support the musicians, the music and the venue! Donations to our general fund at this link  

Gaea Schell, piano/flute/voice Jordan Samuels, guitar John Wiitala, bass Greg Wyser-Pratte, drums play music from her new CD, “In Your Own Sweet Way” (Saphu Records, 2023) The CD features the same musicians — Gaea Schell (flute, piano, and vocals), Jordan Samuels (guitar), John Wiitala (bass) and Greg Wyser-Pratte (drums) — along with Carlos Caro (percussion on Cava dell’Isola, El Picacho, and Luna Plateada); Marco Diaz (trumpet and piano on El Pichacho). From Women in Jazz Media: While most of us stayed home during the pandemic and looked for projects to fill our time, GAEA SCHELL flew to central Mexico to play gigs with a Cuban son group, where she also swam in waterfalls in San Luis Potosi, began learning Spanish, and released sea turtles. She also went to Florence, Italy, to study opera, completed a master’s degree in composition in Vermont, won a Chamber Music America grant to work with…

The Annie Orzen Trio pushes the envelope of jazz, bringing a unique repertoire of original compositions and freshly interpreted standards to the Bird & Beckett stage. Heavily inspired by their training in jazz and their collective love for modern genres of music, the group combines jazz, r&b, gospel, and funk into a contagiously exciting night of music. $20 cover charge (cash, please) $10 for students age 22 and under reservations: 415-586-3733 Pianist, composer and leader Annie Orzen, born and raised in San Francisco, is pursuing a Bachelor’s of Music in jazz and contemporary media from The Eastman School of Music (Rochester, New York), where she studies under acclaimed pianist Gary Versace. Her sound is influenced by her love for bebop, gospel, r&b, and modern jazz, all of which she combines in her jazz trio conception. Annie has performed at notable San Francisco venues including Brick & Mortar Music Hall and…

Two shows on Friday — Eric & the In Crowd featuring saxophonist Nancy Wright from 5:30 to 8:00pm followed by the Gaea Schell Quartet from 9:00 to 10:30pm; The Dahveed Behroozi / Shay Salhov / Jason Lewis Trio Saturday from 7:30 to 9:30pm; A Birthday Celebration Reading for Neeli Cherkovski Sunday at 2pm; and the Vince Lateano Trio Sunday from 5-7pm!  

Zoom links below! Join us to hear the featured poets and read one of your own in the open mic! Roopa Ramamoorthi is a scientist and poet who lives in Berkeley. Her poetry, essays and short stories have been included in 80 publications including Perspectives on NPR and various anthologies including best of 60 years of Spectrum and the Vona anthology Dismantle. Her writing also appears in India Currents, Ursa Minor, Berkeley Daily Planet and other journals. Most recently she conducted poetry workshops with people living with rare diseases and the collection Rare Sounds was published by the Ipsen Foundation. She enjoys outdoor Zumba and yoga and walking and of course reading and listening to other poets. Vincent Calvarese has been published in poetry, fiction, non-fiction and visual art. A San Francisco native, he now calls Coachella Valley his home as well as his muse. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84350265713?pwd=eE84V3BYdWxiSFBHNHhmdUt1WTUzdz09 Meeting…

The second Sunday of every odd month, we welcome the Seducers to take us to the sweet, beating heart of the country, where everyone suffers the same heartache and joy. Don’t miss a good thing! BYOB and a twenty for the band!

On Sunday, Warm Spell & Ouroboros join forces to help put Bird & Beckett fully back on our feet! Bird & Beckett is safe in the world with friends like you, and these wonderful musicians, poets at heart… please come hear them in your neighborhood bookshop, and bring what you can to donate to the cause of keeping Bird & Beckett afloat and helping it thrive in San Francisco, in California, in the Americas, in the world, in 2023 and beyond… Taken together, these two bands bring us a dozen exploratory improvisers, many of them supporting their music jones working day jobs as poets.  Warm Spell comprises Marina Lazzara, Brian Lucas, J. Lee, Kevin Van Yser Loo, and sometimes Richard Marriott, but this time Tammy Fortin. Ouroboros is the concoction of Clark Coolidge, Sheldon Brown, Joseph Noble and Andrew Joron. Are they poets wielding musical instruments or instruments wielding poets?…

Saturday, July 8th from 7:30 to 9:30, the Dewayne Oakley Blues Ensemble featuring pianist Vincent Khoe and drummer Jon Krosnick plays two 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 fourth Bird & Beckett engagement in as many months, the last two in duo with guitarist Ralph Nelson. On Sunday, it’s a benefit concert by Warm Spell & Ouroboros to help put Bird & Beckett fully back on…

Don Neely, tenor saxophone Duncan James, guitar Eric Shifrin, piano Jim Kerwin, bass Greg Gotelli, drums $20-$25 suggested donation. pay what you can! byob. Jazz rooted in the early 1900s New Orleans musical traditions. It was a time when guitarist Danny Barker — born in 1909 into the famed Barbarin family and a great chronicler of the early music — grew up amidst the creative ferment of Jelly Roll Morton, Jimmy Noone, Baby Dodds, Kid Ory, Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong…  so many giants of the time. Duncan James pays homage and plays for today.  

Poet Michael Warr and poet/translator Chun Yu, co-founders of Two Languages / One Community, present work that has evolved out of the project, which includes contributions from renowned authors from Chinese American and African American communities. The collaboration—which emerged during a period defined by COVID, injustice, violence, and social division—reflects the possibility of unity rooted in creativity. An open mic follows. Michael Koch and Jerry Ferraz host. _________________ Two Languages / One Community (TLOC) is the product of two poets born and raised in profoundly different countries (China and America), who spoke dramatically distinct languages and grew up in cultural and social environments with seemingly little in common. Through poetry, Yu and Warr found powerful connections and built the project to bridge the two cultures and peoples. TLOC’s first public program was a workshop series that used writing, storytelling, and translation to exchange culture and life experiences between Chinese American…

  Scott Larson,  trombone Keith Saunders, piano Eric Markowitz, bass Smith Dobson, drums Four swingin’ cats showing how hard bop is done in 2023! $20 cover charge byob

Tomorrow’s jazz tonight! Mario Ramirez, tenor sax Isaiah Harwood, piano Zach Gamble, guitar Jonny Kaminek, bass  Sheldon Alexander, drums New takes on the old standards, tunes that speak to the musicians’ individual sensibilities and originals from four young players well schooled in recent years at the California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley and now gigging in all the ways you do when you’re a working freelance musician in America. Read drummer/leader Sheldon Alexander’s bio here. $20 cover charge byob