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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]
Saúl Sierra, bass Marco Díaz, trumpet & piano Charlie Gurke, saxophones Emilio Davalos, percussion $20 cover charge; byob. Students, $10 Cash at the door, please. For a reservation, call the bookshop at 415-586-3733 Saúl Sierra was born and raised in Mexico City, where he started playing professionally in 1990. In 1995, he enrolled at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, graduating in 1999 with a B.Mus. in Performance. He received the US Scholarship tour award and the Outstanding Performer award at Berklee. As a resident of the San Francisco Bay Area since the fall of 1999, Saúl has performed, toured or recorded with Poncho Sanchez, Paquito D’ Rivera, Zakir Hussain, Arturo Sandoval, Jerry Gonzales, Jerry Medina, Walfredo de los Reyes, Giovanni Hidalgo, Peter Erskine, Donny McCaslin, Charlie Musselwhite, Pete Escovedo, Ernesto Oviedo, Steve Turre, Ray Vega, Hector Tricoche, Paquito Guzman, Antonio Sanchez, Arturo O’Farrill, Larry Harlow, Bobi Céspedes, Jimmy Bosh,…
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Noah Frank, trumpet. Stephanie Woodford, piano & vocals. Dexter Williams, bass. Isaac Schwartz, drums. $20 cover charge at the door, cash please; byob. Students, $10. No reservations required. Amazing talent; a band you won’t find in the clubs. Except this one! Come find out what you’re missing. Noah and Stephanie bring a joyful and cool vibe that wraps picnic gatherings, wedding parties, clubgoers and coffee house denizens in hip optimism, chill certainty and vulnerable wonder. Whether they call a Lee Morgan hard bop classic, a sparkling Stevie Wonder workout, an Aretha Franklin masterpiece or grunge rock beguilingly transfigured into jazz, Dexter and Isaac know just how to make it swing. Bring a friend or make a new one. You’ll feel right at home at Bird & Beckett tonight.
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Jinx Jones, guitar. Kurt Ribak, bass. Ken Owen, guitar. cover charge $20; byob. students $10. reservations, call 415-586-3733. Luxurious guitar and exotica. Cool swing and soul with a hot trio. That’s Jinx’s jazz bag! Welcome a true apostle of the many towering gods of the jazz guitar traditions, from Freddie Green to Charlie Christian to Tal Farlow to Wes Montgomery to Barney Kessel to Joe Pass to Kenny Burrell to Grant Green to Emily Remler to Mimi Fox… “Jinx Jones can indeed dazzle, Jones comps while launching melodic lines in a repertoire consisting of standards by Montgomery, Kessel, Lionel Hampton, and Benny Goodman, with his original “Alise” lending a Latin mood. Most impressive is Jones’ arrangement of Miles Davis’ “So What,” mixing percussive rhythm, singe-note passages, and octaves in the modal masterpiece.” Dan Forte, Vintage Guitar Magazine, 2018.
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Michael Koch hosts our monthly 1st Thursday readings, with Jerry Ferraz conducting the open mic that follows. This month, we present three featured readers, all with books published by American Poetry Systems, based in South San Francisco. Bring a few poems of your own to read in the open mic, and join the American poetry system! Keith Gaboury earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College. His latest book is Monetized Happiness (American Poetry Systems, 2025). His other books include Still Human (Falkenberg Press, 2025), The Cosmos is Alive (Kelsay Books, 2023), and Oakland, I’m Not Dead (Pedestrian Press, 2020). His poems have appeared in such literary publications as Poetry Quarterly, New Millennium Writings, and the San Francisco Public Library’s Poem of the Day Series. Keith is a bibliophile and a preschool teacher. He lives in Oakland, California. You can learn more at keithgaboury.com and keithgaboury.me. David Hutchinson is…
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Two writers bring new work. Jan Sollish has published a memoir about her years from 1977 to 1982 at the Club Fugazi tending bar at Beach Blanket Babylon; Jackie Martin Davis has brought out a book of short stories that verge on memoir, fictively brushing up against the chronology and experiences of the author’s life. Jan Sollish worked at Beach Blanket Babylon in the 1970s while she taught Catholic school as a kindergarten teacher. She wrote whenever she had an extra minute and a scrap of paper. She has been featured in the Noe Valley Voice, the San Francisco Chronicle, and City Lights bookstore. In her free time, Jan has studied with some of San Francisco’s most noted writers, including Leslie Kirk Campbell, poet Janell Moon, and former San Francisco Chronicle columnist Adair Lara. Jackie Martin Davis has written a memoir, a novel, another memoir and now this short story…
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5 Jazz Dates +CMC Showcase _____ Thursday, February 26, 7:30pm {$20} Charles McNeal with the Joe Warner Trio _____ Friday, February 27, 6:00pm {$20} 230 Jones Street Band _____ Friday, February 27, 8:30pm {$20} Stephan Crump, solo _____ Saturday, February 28, 7:30pm {$25} Idris Ackamoor: Artistic Being _____ Sunday, March 1, 1:00pm {$ – pay what you can; $20 requested} Shirley Wong & the CMC Lunar New Year showcase Year of the Fire Horse! _____ Sunday, March 1, 5:00pm {Students free; adult audience, $20 requested } Next Gen Jam w/ Bishop O’Dowd Jazz Combo _____ Reserve a seat by calling the bookshop at (415) 586-3733. We’ll hold your reservation until the music starts. No advance ticket sales; plan to pay with cash at the door, and byob. _____ MORE DETAILS: Thursday, February 26, 7:30pm. $20 cash cover charge at the door, please. Students $10. Charles McNeal with…
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Just added! Hurry down to Bird & Beckett for fresh & fiery jazz tonight! Young saxophonist Alex So is coming on strong And young bassist Isaac Coyle, says bassist Fred Randolph, has been blowing Fred’s mind! Anyone who’s heard him these past few years in the clubs around town will agree. At the kit is the great Myron Cohen, who’s founded and propagated the Billy Higgins Legacy Band to give young players a conduit to jazz knowledge and jazz greatness! Come out and hear for yourself!
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Bishop O’Dowd High School’s Jazz Combo is made up of talented students from the Honors Jazz Band. They meet at the end of Jazz Band class, bringing their enthusiasm, ideas, and energy to O’Dowd’s vibrant music program. Each of them has a unique story to tell through music. They have performed at many festivals in the area including CMEA Festival, Reno Jazz Festival, Folsom Jazz Festival, and Santa Cruz Jazz Festival The combo is directed by Mr. Fred Randolph. Fred is a familiar face at Bird & Beckett having frequently performed here both with his own group and as a sideman. He is a multifaceted bassist, composer, and bandleader. He has released 4 cds under his own name and has composed music for the films “Love Twice” and “Fourth Movement” directed by Rob Nilsson. Fred maintains a busy schedule both as a freelance bassist and as a bandleader/composer. He is…
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Shirley Wong hosts a panoply of faculty, student and allied musical talents in a tribute to her sister Betty and to the wonders of the Community Music Center, a San Francisco tradition for well over one hundred years. The Community Music Center has introduced generation upon generation of eager students to the wonders of music performance, and is going strong. Shirley and her sister Betty, who we lost just a few months ago, have been a part of it for decades, and this annual program celebrating the lunar new year has been a keystone in Bird & Beckett’s programming for several decades. Please come out and donate to help us reward the talent involved.
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Betty Ann Wong has passed. Our Glen Park neighbor, she lived for decades in a humble but iconic house at the foot of O’Shaughnessy, at its intersection with Elk, above a dragon-emblazed garage door. Through a long career as a musician and composer, Betty personified humanity’s devotion to its music, in its many colors and rhythmic subtleties, for the bond it affords the world’s peace-loving people in their varied hues and accents. Betty’s siblings were a formidable bunch–she and her surviving twin Shirley were closely associated in music all their lives, from early classical music lessons to studies, degrees and faculty positions at Mills College, UC San Diego and San Francisco State, joining the faculty of the San Francisco Community Music Center in 1972, and co-founding the Flowing Stream Ensemble in 1973 and the Phoenix Spring Ensemble in 1977 to dive into Chinese and pan-Asian musical traditions. Their brother Zeppelin,…
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Idris Ackamoor, alto saxophone. Bobby Cobb, saxophone. Skyler Stover, bass. Donald Robinson, drums. $25 cover charge; byob. Students $10; Kids free. For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733. Idris Ackamoor is a giant in the music of jazz and has been since the 1970s. From Oberlin College (where Cecil Taylor instilled the magnificence of jazz in his students) to Paris (where Donald Robinson and Idris first collaborated) and Africa (where The Pyramids fully coalesced) to San Francisco (where the Pyramids gave way to Cultural Odyssey, a project of Idris and Rhodessa Jones) to today, with the Pyramids continuing to tour internationally, Cultural Odyssey persisting and Idris’s many projects exploding in the popular consciousness, Idris only grows in stature and depth. Tonight’s quartet will set you on your ear. Don’t miss out!
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$20 cover charge / byob. Students, $10. For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733 With this performance at Bird & Beckett, Stephan Crump kicks off a California tour before returning to New York. Stephan’s solo performances are engaging and intimate, celebrating his unique musicality; his solo work is crystallized on the album Rocket Love, of which Will Layman in Popmatters has said, “I am tempted to call Rocket Love my favorite solo bass recording of all time. At a minimum, it is the most varied and fun.” Memphis-bred, Grammy-nominated, Echo Award-winning bassist/composer Stephan Crump is an active bandleader with fifteen critically-acclaimed album releases and numerous film scoring contributions. Stephan’s solo performance, which explores his unique musical language through an expansive range of sonorities on the acoustic bass, is a culmination of decades of work as a bassist, composer, and improviser. From his home studio in Brooklyn, Crump released monthly solo recordings from…
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Charlie McCarthy, saxophone. Sam Cady, piano. Chuck Bennett, bass. Tony Johnson, drums. $20 suggested cover charge / byob. Students $5-$10 sliding scale. Kids free. No reservations needed. Stay for a tune, stay for two hours & two sets. Jazz is here for you at Bird & Beckett, and this band represents the legacy that the “Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project” aims to sustain and extend for today’s ears and tomorrow’s jazz minds. Jazz in the bookshop started in earnest in 2002, when tenor player Chuck Peterson (at left in the accompanying photo, with Tony at the drum kit, Glen Deardorff on guitar and vocalist Dorothy Lefkovitz at right) proposed that if we’d give him a weekly berth, he’d bring us experienced talent and make sure they were adequately paid — as long as we did what we could to help on that score. We taught our patrons that fair…
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Charles McNeal, alto sax. Joe Warner, piano. Ron Belcher, bass. Jemal Ramirez, drums. $20 cover charge; byob. $10 for students. For a reservation, call the bookshop at 415-586-3733. Saxophonist Charles McNeal has been a featured performer at the Monterey, San Jose, San Francisco and Telluride jazz festivals as well as the Playboy Jazz Festival (now known as the Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival), and the Umbria Jazz Festival and Porretta Soul Festival in Italy. He’s performed, recorded and/or toured with: Lyle Lovett, The Headhunters w/Mike Clark and Bill Summers, Jimmy Scott, Charlie Mussellwhite, Keb Mo, John Faddis, Wynton Marsalis, James Carter, Steve Turre, McCoy Tyner, Ray Obiedo, Dave Garabaldi, Steve Turre, James Carter, Brenda Boykin, Claire Dee, Lavay Smith and the Red Hot Skillet Lickers, Barbara Morrison, Jackie Ryan, Take 6, Kirk Whalum, Nneenna Freelon, Barbara Dennerlein, Junior Mance, Bruce Forman, Mark Elf, Roberta Flack, The Temptations, Norman Conners, Jean Carne,…
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Jazzx4 + 1 Lit Talk _____ Tuesday, February 17, 7:30pm {$20} Jerome Sabbagh Trio _____ Thursday, February 19, 7:30pm, a live stream {Free} Walker Talks, on Ella Young _____ Friday, February 20, 6:00pm {$20} Scott Foster/David Phillips/Andrew Higgins/David Rokeach _____ Saturday, February 21, 7:30pm {$20} Levy / Campilongo Guitar Duo _____ Sunday, February 22, 5:00pm {$20} Jam session _____ Reserve a seat by calling the bookshop at (415) 586-3733. We’ll hold your reservation until the music starts. No advance ticket sales; plan to pay with cash at the door, and byob. _____ MORE DETAILS: Tuesday, February 17, 7:30pm – $20 cover/byob Jerome Sabbagh Trio Jerome Sabbagh, tenor sax; Essiet Okon Essiet, bass; Sylvia Cuenca, drums… Thursday, February 19, 7:30pm – donations welcome Walker Talks, a monthly live stream from the bowels of the darkened bookshop. This month, Ella Young—a California presence. An Irish revolutionary, visionary mystic, immigrant, scholar, poet and…
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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.
TAKE OUR SURVEY
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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
