2nd Fridays jazz happy hours are the province of Eric Shifrin and a deep pool of talent he’s cultivated over decades on the San Francisco scene. Tonight, his “Peninsula Project!” from the gutters of North Beach to the gilded shelves of the bookstore. BYOB and some dough for the musicians. A twenty fits the bill very well, but pitch in what fits your economics. Stay for a tune or a set or the whole 2-1/2 hour happy hour! Whatever takes the workweek stress away. Eric & the In Crowd will make it easy and oh, so pleasurable. Eric Shifrin, piano & vocals Rick Brown, trombone Carl Herder, bass Garry Williams, drums

Farhad Bahrami, electric ûd and compositions Hafez Modirzadeh, saxophones John-Carlos Perea, electric bass Amir Abbas Etemadzadeh, tombak and daf Keshav Batish, drums $25 cover charge at the door (cash, please) BYOB.  Reservations, call 415-586-3733.           Born to Iranian teachers on Fullbright scholarships to the U.S., Farhad Bahrami’s childhood was spent in Texas, Tehran, and Oxford. In 1979, he came to San Diego to study engineering at San Diego State University, graduating in 1984 with a bachelor’s in music (composition) and computer science, receiving a master’s in music (ethnomusicology) from SDSU in 2007, having pursued his interests in music in parallel to his career in software. In San Diego, he brought Persian music to the experimental Trummerflora Collective and was co-founder and musical director of Jazmahalis, an ensemble that mixed elements of Persian folk music (mahali) with jazz, recording two albums: one of original pop and dance…

Drummer Myron Cohen carries the spirit of the late Billy Higgins into the present day, with joy and a propulsive, irresistible beat.  In the countless iterations of his Billy Higgins Legacy Project, he honors the mentoring he received by the late great drummer Higgins with his own mentoring of many, many brilliant emerging players, taken under his wing in a burning desire to be true to Higgins’ spirit. Today, he performs with the young saxophonist Peyton Pleninger in an hour-long duo interplay. Peyton Pleninger, a tenor saxophonist, improviser, bandleader and conceptualist still in his twenties, has forged a personal path that challenges the boundaries of what it means to be a musician. His experience involves a variety of disciplines centered around music, which also includes astrology, painting and sculpture, botany, construction, massage and medical inquiry. Pleninger worked as a mentee of Milford Graves, from spring 2019 until Graves’ passing in…

Ocean-inspired originals from three jazaquanuts! Daniel Heffez, tenor sax Adam Shulman, organ Omar Aran, drums $20 cover charge (cash, please) byob          

    Bluesy Jazz for International Women’s Day. Here is a story of a blues woman who meets with other musicians… and then, we have Jazz through her journey. Pat Wilder, guitar and vocals Nzinga Smith, saxophone Mike Rogers, bass Mike R, drums $20 cover charge (cash, please); sliding scale available. byob

Betty Wong presents a number of ensembles and soloists, all closely associated with San Francisco’s century old Community Music Center, reflecting the breadth of the world’s music, celebrating the Year of the Rabbit. The Randy Craig Trio always plays a sweet set of jazz to finish out the program. Come and be in the presence of some San Francisco jewels. No charge, but your donations are welcome and appreciated.

Greg Abate, saxophone Ben Stolorow, piano Matt Montgomery, bass Sylvia Cuenca, drums Welcoming the return of the road warrior, a year since his last visit to the Bird & Beckett stage! Greg Abate tours relentlessly and tears it up every time, and this trio is fully up to the challenge. Are you? (We’re quite sure you are; it’s nothing but fun, great bebop, originals and a gorgeous horn player!) $20 cash cover charge. Byob. Reserve: 415-586-3733. www.gregabate.com

$20 cash  cover charge -  byob Reservations, call 415-586-3733 John-Carlos Perea: Native American cedar flutes, drum, voice Masaru Koga: saxophones, flute, shakuhachi   Karl Evangelista: guitar  The John-Carlos Perea trio improvises with and through the shared musical experiences of its members. Featuring guitarist Karl Evangelista and saxophonist/flutist Masaru Koga, the trio will perform music from Cedar Flute Songs, Perea’s upcoming cedar flute album available Spring 2023. This reunion marks the trio’s first performance since Koga’s departure for New York in 2019.  

Luke Schwartz, guitar Curtis Aikens, bass Jeff Pera, drums Keeping the jazz happy hour happy for an hour. byob and a twenty for the trio!

Rachelle Escamilla is a Chicana poet from the Central Coast of California. She has three collections of poetry, Imaginary Animal (Willow Books, 2015, 2nd Edition, 2021), Me Drawing a Picture of Me[n] (Willow Books, 2019), and Space Junk from the Heavenly Palace (Nomadic Press 2023).   Janice Lobo Sapigao is a Filipina American author from the San Francisco Bay Area. She was a Poet Laureate Fellow with the Academy of American Poets. She is an Associate Professor of English at Skyline College. She founded the Santa Clara County Youth Poet Laureate Program when she was the county Poet Laureate from 2020-2021.

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 most recent 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. Born and raised in Sacramento, Vince…

Bird & Beckett is excited and pleased to host a free listening party with musician and bandleader Idris Ackamoor in anticipation of the upcoming concerts with his full seven-piece band, The Pyramids, augmented by a string quartet and an additional horn section at the Presidio Theater in mid-March, as well as the impending release of their new album, “Afro Futuristic Dreams.” Score your free tickets to the March concerts at the free listening party tonight!! At Bird & Beckett on Saturday, February 25th, from 7:30 to 9:30pm, Idris will be joined by band members Sandra Poindexter (violin) and Bobby Cobb (guitar) as he narrates the band’s arc and its futuristic destiny, demonstrating key concepts with his saxophone and composition fragments. The event is free, but reservations are strongly suggested; please call the bookshop at 415-586-3733 during business hours, noon to six, Tuesday to Sunday to reserve for this momentous free…

Come out for an hour’s duo set by two musicians with a long history of collaboration. Guitarist John Stowell is in town for a few days and joins his friend and colleague, the saxophonist Michael Zilber to continue a conversation in jazz which we last encountered at Bird & Beckett in August 2022. $15 cover charge. byob.  

Charlie McCarthy, saxophones and flute Si Perkoff, piano Glen Deardorff, guitar Chuck Bennett, bass Tony Johnson, drums with guest vocalist Darlene Langston Bassist Al Obidinski, a wonderfully funny, droll, down to earth & supremely hip bass player, one of the great human beings, passed away last month. We’re more than sad that he’s gone. This evening, his bandstand colleagues in the long-running residence of the 230 Jones Street band created and nurtured by the late tenor player Chuck Peterson and now led by drummer Tony Johnson will pay tribute with special attention to some tunes Al played during his time with Benny Goodman and stories from many decades of friendship. Bring your own beverage and some dough to help us pay these six musicians! $20-30 donation requested, though you needn’t let lack of funds keep you home. Come help us celebrate a fine jazz musician, and donate what you can.…

The tradition resumes! The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble travels out of Chicago each February for a tour with stops all around the country. Percussionist Kahil El’Zabar leads the trio, featuring Corey Wilkes on trumpet and Alex Harding on baritone sax. The EHE first visited Bird & Beckett in February 2017 and made stops here in February 2018 and 2019, and on January 31, 2020, before the pandemic put a stop to their travels for two years. We’re delighted to have them return! $30 cover charge. Cash please, at the door. Reservations highly suggested. Call 415-586-3733. Doors open 15 minutes before the show. BYOB. Sir Kahil El’Zabar was born in 1953 in Chicago, attended Kennedy-King and Malcolm X City Colleges of Chicago before enrolling at Lake Forest College, in Lake Forest, Illinois, and also studied at the University of Ghana. In 1969, El’Zabar performed with Eugene Ammons in St. Louis and Cincinnati.…