San Francisco pickers, Trouble Town boil a hot pot of folk, bluegrass, swing, jazz and rock into a rebel blend of music with a big acoustic sound. The band’s musical chemistry and diverse influences have allowed them to pull from a deep musical well and make it a special stew all their own. The band was formed in 2019 from a more traditional 5-piece that included a banjoist and fiddler. When both players moved out of state the remaining members found that the resulting trio format of the core band opened a plethora of musical possibilities. Led by Western Swing Hall of Famer, Pam Brandon (AKA Belle of Belle Monroe and Her Brewglass Boys) on bass, with Forrest Allen (Dusty Green Bones Band) on mandolin, and Mark Ignatius (Burl Haggard, Boots and The Katz, Das Tapes) on guitar, the band worked through the pandemic by performing outdoors in parks and…

Paul Harding, whose brilliant and absorbing novel Tinkers took the world by surprise on its publication in 2009 by Bellevue Literary Press and won him the Pulitzer Prize in 2010, will read at Bird & Beckett this coming Sunday from his recently published third novel, This Other Eden (W.W. Norton, 2023). Ten years in the writing, This Other Eden is richly imagined from the true story of Malaga Island off the coast of Maine, settled in 1793 by a former slave and his Galway wife. From that beginning, the multiracial community tended apple orchards, fished, did mainlanders’ laundry and found other ways to scrape by and flourish in many ways despite a severe and unforgiving environment, mostly isolated from the prejudices and violence of the mainland society. All that changed in 1911/12 when the mainland blue bloods, prosecutors of christian morality, officialdom and eugenicists decided in their wisdom and racist…

San Francisco journalist Denise Sullivan conducts a monthly series of conversations (the second Sunday of each month from 10-11 a.m.) with The City’s activists, educators, arts and cultural leaders and community workers, the everyday people who help make this place we call home, live streamed from Bird & Beckett Books. Find the live stream 1t 10a.m. on our YouTube channel or Facebook page. Use the “refresh” button at 10 a.m. if the stream isn’t not live when you first link to it! This month’s guest is designer, educator, musician and founder of Demonstration Gardens, Kasey Rios. As a public gardener, Rios has a vision for a greener city. But beyond gardening and fair use of public space, Rios is an advocate of  resilience work, community engagement and fair wages for all. From the Bright Sounds Apprenticeship Program, training future sound and recording engineers at Hyde Street Studios to the annual…

Pianist Ken Cook returns with his quartet for two sets of jazz. Rob Sudduth, saxophone Ken Cook, piano Doug Miller, bass Kendrick Freeman, drums Here’s evidence of his last Bird & Beckett quartet date, on January 13, 2023:

Born, raised and based in Los Angeles, electric 6-string bassist and composer Steuart Liebig has been a pillar of the new music scene there for decades, prolific in his explorations of modern creative jazz and free improvisation, as well as third stream and classical music. As a young player in the late 1970s, he played rhythm guitar in Les McCann’s soul jazz band, contributing to four McCann albums, and in the mid- to late 1980s he could be found working with Nels Cline in their fusion band BLOC and in Julius Hemphill’s band alongside Alex Cline and Bill Frisell. Countless associations and projects have followed. Here’s an enlightening article from JazzTimes magazine delving into his work ca. 2001. Liebig’s trio at Bird & Beckett tonight, with Bay Area improvisers Garth Powell on drums and Phillip Greenlief on saxophone, builds on past encounters among the three to forge something original and…

Always a good time when Eric attracts the In Crowd to Bird & Beckett! He’s here with a fresh band on the second Friday of every month. This time out, this is the fabulous band: Eric Shifrin, piano Willie Perez, guitar Joe Kyle Jr. bass Jason Hanson drums BYOB and a twenty for the band if you can manage it! Donations are voluntary, though necessary to support our determination to pay a decent guarantee regardless of audience turnout or financial enthusiasm. Be as enthusiastic as your pocketbook can manage, and as the music excites & pleases. Thanks for supporting live jazz in San Francisco in 2023! Mark your calendar now for the 2nd Friday in July, when he’ll be back with Nancy Wright on saxophone, Bing Nathan on bass and Mark Lee on drums. Here’s Eric’s last outing, the second Friday of April:

Three long-time friends and colleagues converge to share their work. Art Beck will be reading from his latest book, Angel Rain, Poems 1977-2020 (Shanti Arts Publishing, 2022). He received the Northern California Book Award for poetry in translation for his book Opera Omnia Luxorius, a Duet for Sitar and Trombone (Otis Books/Seismicity 2012). His Mea Roma (Shearsman Books, 2018) a “meditative sampling” of Martial epigrams, was a runner up in the American Literary Translators Association’s 2018 Cliff Becker Book Prize. His Etudes, a Rilke Recital (Shanti Arts 2020) was a finalist in the 2021 NCBA. Denise Low, Ph.D., is a former Kansas Poet Laureate. Her essays about surviving COVID-19 are in Jigsaw Puzzling (Meadowlark Press, 2022). She won the a Red Mountain Press award for Shadow Light: Poems. Other publications are the memoir, The Turtle’s Beating Heart: One Family’s Story of Lenape Survival (Univ. of Nebraska Press); Wing: Poems (Red Mountain, Hefner…

Author and journalist Zarina Zabrisky, well known on the San Francisco literary scene and for her political engagement since about 2010, has been based in Odesa, Ukraine since the early months of the Russian invasion. She will share photos and writings this evening, and will engage with the audience to answer their questions on the war and its human dimensions. Originally from the USSR, her childhood was split between summers in Ukraine and winters in Russia. After relocating to San Francisco, she worked in various literary genres, including fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. She is the author of five books, including the novel We, Monsters. As a journalist, Zabrisky has contributed to numerous publications, covering topics ranging from politics to culture and social issues. After the Russian invasion, she moved to Ukraine to report directly from the front lines. Based in Odesa, Zabrisky has traveled extensively across the war-torn country, contributing…

  Scott Foster’s CMC jazz combo performs 5-6pm followed by a jam session hosted by the Keith Saunders Trio. Your voluntary contributions help us pay a stipend to the student musicians and a fair guaranteed wage to the members of the trio. The Community Music Center has been teaching music to San Franciscans, young and old, for more than a century, and its jazz ensembles are coached by a dedicated faculty drawing from many of the City’s finest musicians.   The trio: Keith Saunders, piano Ollie Dudek, bass Ron Marabuto, drums The jam session is open to all non-professional players, though no players will be chased away due to their professional status! We appreciate you sharing your talents and experience! No charge to play or attend, although audience donations are gratefully solicited to help pay an honorarium to the students performing in the opening combo and a guaranteed wage to…

Katherine J. Williams reads from her new poetry collection, Still Life (Cherry Grove Collections, 2022). Katherine J. Williams, art therapist and clinical psychologist, was the Director of the Art Therapy Program at George Washington University, where she is now Associate Professor Emerita. Her clinical articles have appeared in The American Journal of Art Therapy and Art Therapy. Poems have been published in journals and anthologies such as Poet Lore, The Northern Virginia Review, 3rd Wednesday, The Poet’s Cookbook, The Widow’s Handbook, and How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope. One of her poems was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Written with an artist’s eye, Still Life candidly and exquisitely explores moments of beauty, tenderness, doubt, and devastation. These poems from one life become a celebration of the human capacity for joy in its complexity. Readers will recognize themselves in Still Life, and will find ways to understand the…

Erik Jekabson, trumpet & flugelhorn Dave MacNab, guitar Dan Feiszli, bass Jason Lewis, drums A solid evening of standards and originals from four key players on the local scene. $20 cover (cash, please); byob. For a reservation, call the bookshop at 415-586-3733. Erik and his colleagues tonight demonstrate the depth of talent that has flowered in the Bay Area in recent decades. Keeping them working and resident in the Bay Area relies on having a healthy venue landscape. Thank you for supporting the venues that present the musicians! Bird & Beckett presents its music and poetry events under the umbrella of the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, which counts on the donations of individuals like you to augment audience revenues in order to pay the musicians fairly and cover operating costs. Please consider making a donation today. Only with a healthy donor base can we…

Luis Peralta, piano Brian Juarez, bass Ben Esposito, drums Spencer Hoeffert, guitar Pianist Luis Peralta, a young lion on the local jazz scene, is joined by three players who have all been making their mark in a big way in this post-pandemic era of live music. Bassist Brian Juarez is making his first Bird & Beckett appearance. Luis, Ben and Spencer have each crossed our stage on multiple occasions, making memorable music. Luis  is a 20-year-old native of Oakland who began playing piano at seven, embarking quickly on a serious study of European Classical and American Classical Music (Jazz). In 2017 he performed Alex Conde’s Concierto Para Piano Flamenco y Orquesta as a soloist with the Oakland Youth Orchestra. In 2019, Luis was awarded a full scholarship to study piano at the New School in New York City. He has studied with and performed with Bay Area figures such as…

Drummer Ron Vincent’s career notably includes seven years in Gerry Mulligan’s last quartet, 1989 to 1996, ending only with Mulligan’s death. Ron had graduated from Berklee College of Music in 1973, toured for six years then spent three years in Kansas City through 1982 when he settled in New York City. Seven years later, he was with Mulligan. He’s continued to be a key player in the New York City jazz scene; he works often as a sideman and has recorded for labels including GRP, Concord and Palmetto, where he’s been a producer as well as a co-producers for a number of projects. Ron was a member of the Gerry Mulligan Quartet and Mulligan’s Re-Birth of the Cool Tentet from 1989 until Mulligan’s passing in 1996. He recorded four cds with Mulligan and has also recorded with Phil Woods, Lee Konitz, Randy Brecker, Bob Brookmeyer, Bill Charlap, John Lewis and…

Sonoma County poet laureate emeritus Bill Vartnaw (2012-2013) has been publisher of Taurean Horn Press since 1974. He is director of the Petaluma Poetry Walk, an annual poetry festival founded by Geri Digiorno in September 1996. His latest chapbook is “The Nile to the Milky Way,” available online at sharpgiving.com Jack Crimmins’ poetry is concerned with people, landscape and spirit. His books are “Kit Fox Blues”, with an introduction by Diane di Prima, published by di Prima’s press, Eidolon Editions; “The Rust Life”, an experimental long poem; and “Dancing In The Sun Room”. He’s worked for many years as a licensed psychotherapist and lives in Sonoma County. An open mic follows, so please bring your work. The open mic always reveals talent and insight that can’t be predicted but is ultimately so very rewarding, for the poets and audience alike. No charge to read at or attend our monthly 1st…

Michael Wilcox and Sheldon Brown have had an ongoing trio project going for several years, usually with drummers Bryan Bowman or Alan Hall. Bryan isn’t able to make it this time, and Alan Hall has (sadly for his trio mates) relocated . . . So this time around they are delighted to note that they’ll be playing with the fabulous Dillon Vado. Dillon is a young lion of jazz, a triple threat on drums, on vibes, and as an extraordinary educator. Michael and Sheldon have put together a book of tunes that covers a lot territory: from original pieces of theirs to adaptations of classical pieces by Brahms, Faure, Machaut and Bartok, Bulgarian music, Choro, music of Herbie Nichols, and much more. They assert that they’re very grateful to be playing at “one of the Bay Area’s premier venues for creative music,” Bird & Beckett. Michael Wilcox – Fretted and…