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!
Scott Foster, guitar. Charles Thomas, bass. Mark Lee, drums. $20 suggested cover charge. Pay what you can. Teens & students – $5-10. Kids free. Bird & Beckett is your spot to decompress from the week’s travails, whether it’s the weather, the political climate, or just the work week that might have made you feel a bit wan, weak or overheated. Bird & Beckett’s favorite guitarist, Scott Foster, has a super trio for you this Friday, with bassist Charles Thomas and drummer Mark Lee joining him to play a little Bird, some Monk, some Scofield, bebop, blues and all the things that make jazz a special and inspiring American music. Use our Friday happy hour shows, 6-8pm each and every week, to connect with your neighbors and friends, and to recharge your spirit to go forth into a weekend of relaxation, release and rejoicing in the things that make living on…
Read MoreSamir Gupta, tabla. Parag Chordia, sarod. Ferhan Qureshi, tabla . $20 cover charge; byob . This evening, we are pleased to present a solo tabla set by Sameer Gupta followed by a second set of instrumental raga by sarodist Parag Chordia, accompanied by Ferhan Qureshi on tabla. For those who can’t make it to the shop to hear the concert live, it will also be streaming online. Just revisit this site at showtime and find the video screen near the top of the home page. Enlarge it and watch the show! Listen on a real sound system if you have one. It’ll enhance your enjoyment, we assure you. Keep in mind, if you will, that the work of musicians isn’t and shouldn’t be free, nor is our effort to bring it to you. Donate!
Read MoreJoin us in the shop Tuesday night for a much needed reading by two fine, productive and relevant American poets. Together, they have just released a chapbook, DEER /A-WI (Mammoth Press, 2024). Denise Low, Kansas Poet Laureate 2007-09, is author of House of Grace, House of Blood, archive-based poetry from the University of Arizona Press. Other recent publications are The Turtle’s Beating Heart: One Family’s Story of Lenape Survival (University of Nebraska Press); Wing (Red Mountain); and Casino Bestiary (Spartan). Low is a founding board member of Indigenous Nations Poets, former board president of AWP, and literary programmer for The 222 an arts organization in northern California. At Haskell Indian Nations University she founded the creative writing program. She teaches for Baker University’s School of Professional and Graduate Studies. She blogs, reviews, and co-publishes Mammoth Publications, which specializes in Indigenous American authors. American Book Review wrote of her Jackalope (Red…
Read MoreMitch Polzak is one swingin’ cat! Wait ’til you hear him smoke that pig with lightning speed. His trio is the toast of rockabilly festivals, county fairs, bars and clubs throughout the Bay Area and the Central Valley. He’s raved on in Nashville and Memphis, and in Valencia, Spain, With Joe Goldmark, the king of the pedal steel, on Mitch’s Bird & Beckett date, you’re in for an elegant display of virtuosity. Tim Wagar on bass and Kenny Owen on drums back it up flawlessly. You’re gonna like this band, if you don’t already. Visit Mitch’s site and get ready for a fabulous winter afternoon of rip-roarin’ rockabilly and country classics: http://www.mitchpolzak.com/ Who says we don’t love America! The orange one can blow that notion right out his oh never mind… Byob and a twenty for the band!
Read MoreIndependent reporter Denise Sullivan brings the SFLives series to Bird & Beckett for a Sunday morning livestream, which you can find on Bird & Beckett’s YouTube channel and Facebook page. You can also tap on the shop’s window at 9:55. and we’ll usher you to a seat in the half-light of the shop. This month’s guest is San Francisco writer Ben Terrall, celebrating issue number 10 of his publication, “Namaste, Motherfucker!” Terrall writes on film noir, international affairs and domestic drama with wit and wisdom. Besides his amazing output in the form of Namaste, Motherfucker!, his work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, InThese Times, CounterPunch, Noir City, the San Francisco Bay Guardian and other fine outlets. He thanks his parents for nurturing his movie and book addictions from an early age. The SFLives Project is a series of candid conversations between Denise and many of the artists, activists…
Read MoreThe music kicks off this Friday at 6pm, when piano professor Eric Shifrin brings his In Crowd–Ari Munkres on bass and Mark Lee on drums–to celebrate the songs of Hoosier Hoagy Carmichael, the droll pianist, singer and tunesmith who brought us Stardust, Skylark, Georgia on My Mind and a host of other indelibly memorable melodies. [NO LATE SHOW THIS FRIDAY. The 8:30pm show will be rescheduled, as the leader has sustained an injury that will take awhile to heal. Watch for the announcement of a new date after the first of the year for Keshav Batish, traps drummer and sitar player, in musical conversation with the renowned tabla master Ashwin Batish, broadening to include his ensemble ensemble called EKTA with saxophonists Kristen Strom and Shay Salhov along with guitarists Nelsen Hutchison and Ryan Pate.] Saturday, from 7:30-9:30pm, bassist Amina Scott brings a trio to Bird &…
Read MoreDan Richman, scheduled as the featured poet tonight, cannot attend due to illness. Dan is a wry and philosophical poet, also a playwright, novelist, essayist and performer, of good humor and great insight. He read on our first bill of poets back in 1999 or so, and has continued to write all along, taking in the terrain on which San Francisco is built, the birds circling in its skies and wading in the bayshore wetlands, and the people who inhabit the streets and trails, going about their business day to day. We’ll look forward to his return to the mic when he’s better and his schedule allows. Time spent in his company is time well spent. Tonight’s reading is all open mic, with Michael Koch, m.c.
Read MoreChinese 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 five 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 MoreFour jazz combos from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music take the stage tonight! Four 30-45 minute sets starting at 3pm with a 15 minute break between sets. $25 cover charge, byob. No reservations required.
Read MoreHal Richards, saxophones, clarinets, flutes, shawm, crumhorn. Henry Hung, trumpet. Kevin Gerzevitz, piano. Ron Belcher, bass. Akira Tana, drums. $25 cover charge; byob. For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733. Something old, something new. Something borrowed and some blues. Coming three days before the election, the quintet will perform Lenny Carlson’s piece. “The Toddler,” to provide perspective. Hal Richards, born in New York City, is a versatile woodwind specialist (saxophones, flutes, clarinets, oboe and bassoon). He’s been performing and recording with many of the Bay Areas finest musicians since 1976. Currently performing with Jeff Sanford’s Cartoon Jazz Orchestra and Septet, The Berkeley Saxophone Quartet, The Dave Parker Quintet, The California Pops Orchestra, and the Golden Gate Park Band, Hal has appeared with Carol Channing, Terry Gibbs, Eric Marienthal, Bill Perkins, Bob Florence, Omar Clay, Lenny Niehaus, Fred Radke, and at The North Beach Jazz Festival. As a Bay Area…
Read MoreNeil Adler, harmonica and piano. Jeff Buenz, six-string bass. Akira Tana, drums. $20 cover; byob. students and musicians, $10. Also streamed live on Bird & Beckett’s facebook page and youtube channel for those who can’t make it into the shop for the show. Neil Adler has cooked up a collection of uplifting, rhythmic tunes he’s so excited by that this public unveiling can’t wait for their imminent release on cd and all those digital platforms. Wait! He got it done! CDs are here for sale! Be among the first! Jeff Buenz, Carlitos Medrano and Akira Tana, stellar musicians all, collaborated with Neil in the studio to bring the songs to life, and all three will be on hand with Neil to render it live for your ears. You can get a taste of the recordings sessions at this link. Wait! Seems Carlitos had a little mishap involving his bike and…
Read MoreJim Witzel, guitar. Adam Shulman, organ. Jason Lewis, drums. $20 suggested donation, byob. $10 for students and musicians, kids free. “Jim Witzel has a warmth to his style and a precise technique that brings clarity to any melody before exploding with improvisation.” — LA Jazz Scene. This evening, Jim Witzel brings a trio to explore the tunes on his new album, “Breaking Through Gently.” Jim professes a fondness for the open sound and texture of the recordings released by the ECM label beginning in the early 1970s, and “Breaking Through Gently” represents a shift from the blues-based, hard bop feel of much of his earlier work. On the album, Jim is joined by his old friend, the Grammy winning pianist Phil Aaron, with whom he co-led the band Hyperion in Los Angeles a few decades ago, along with Bay Area colleagues Dan Feiszli on bass and Jason Lewis on drums.…
Read MoreDon’t just peer in from the sidewalk! Come into the comfort of Bird & Beckett and grab a seat to hear the jazz pouring forth from our little stage. If you haven’t had the pleasure in the past, you owe it to yourself tonight. From 6-8pm, guitarist Jim Witzel is joined by Adam Shulman on organ and Jason Lewis on drums for two sets to celebrate Jim’s new release “Breaking Through Gently.” Jim’s album represents a shift from the masterful blues-based, hard bop feel of much of his earlier work, and reflects his fondness for the open sound and texture of the recordings released by the ECM label beginning in the early 1970s. At 8:30, Neil Adler takes the stage with bassist Jeff Buenz, conguero Carlitos Medrano and drummer Akira Tana to render the tunes on his cd “Emi’s Song,” now on the verge of release. Jeff, Carlitos and Akira…
Read MoreWelcome home, Jayla! Welcome her home, people! With Emmanuel Michael on guitar and Michael Mitchell on guitar, it’ll be a fine night of jazz music! $20 cover, byob, reservations 415-586-3733.
Read MoreVince Lateano brings decades of experience to bear, making the Bird & Beckett stage available to players sublime and aspirational. You should come! It’s nothin’ but fun. Sometimes excruciating, sometimes magical. And all the better for it!
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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." We've been doing that very thing for more than a decade and a half, 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 through our fiscal sponsor, Jazz in the Neighborhood.
Click on "donate" in the navigation bar above. Better yet, send or drop off a check made out to our fiscal sponsor, Jazz in the Neighborhood, with BBCLP in the memo line. Our mailing address is:
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