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

  Powerhouse saxophonist Nancy Wright joins the Fishpeople for an evening of Western-swing, ragtime-blues,and honky-tonk rock+roll JimBo Trout, guitar & vocals Nancy Wright, saxophone Steve Neil, bass Pete Lind, drums Happy hour show; two sets, byob, $20 suggested cover charge

    Wednesday 6/28 at 7pm. A Memorial Reading to Celebrate Nancy Wakeman. Poets gather to celebrate one of their own, a lovely poet and a fine friend of Bird & Beckett.   Thursday 6/29 at 7:30pm. Poets Angie Minkin, Heather Estes Saunders, Robin Michel & Kevin Dublin — plus Magic Dan. Poets read their work. No charge.         Friday 6/30 — two shows – 5:30 & 9:00pm. JimBo Trout & the Fishpeople 5:30 to 8pm – $20 at the door. Western-swing, ragtime-blues, and honky-tonk rock+roll Nancy Wright, sax; JimBo Trout, guitar & vocals; Steve Neil, bass; Pete Lind, drums Sheldon Alexander Quartet 9 to 10:30pm – $20 at the door. Young players show the way to Bay Area Jazz as it’s evolving in mid-2023. check the video on Sheldon’s website at this link Mario Ramirez, tenor sax; Zach Gamble, guitar; Jonny Kaminek, bass;  Sheldon Alexander, drums…

Tony Peebles, saxophone Christian Tumalan, piano Aaron Germain, bass Brian Andres, drums $20 suggested cover. Pay what you can! BYOB. Four giants of the San Francisco Bay Area’s Jazz, Latin & Latin Jazz scenes celebrate the release of their debut cd “Los Gatos Negros.” At this link, you can hear a track and read more:  https://www.brianandres.com/brian-andres-quartet Leader Brian Andres has a deep resume. Long a key Bay Area drummer, composer and bandleader, Brian was raised by professional musicians in Columbus, Ohio. There, he gained early professional credentials from performances with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members Little Anthony and the Imperials and Tony Award winner and Broadway star Faith Prince, as well as with such artists as Leroy “Sugar” Bonner from The Ohio Players, blues greats Sam Myers and Lonnie Mack and television and movie star Woody Harrelson. Brian’s growing interest in Latin music and culture brought him to…

Jam Session! All serious jazz musicians welcome! Last Sunday of every month hosted by the Vince Lateano Trio. Vince Lateano, drums. Peter Barshay, bass. and special guest Gaea Schell, piano. No charge to play. Audience donations appreciated, $10-20 suggested, to help us pay the trio.

Paul Hanson has played bassoon all over the world, in jazz clubs and jazz festivals, concert halls and back rooms, and notably for three years with Cirque du Soleil in Tokyo. In 2008, Paul was invited to create his own role as electric improvising bassoonist in Cirque Du Soleil’s ZED – a resident show at Tokyo Disney Resort. This unique creation performed 380 shows a year from 2008-2011. To this day Cirque Du Soleil auditions bassoonists because of the ZED role Paul helped develop and create. Before and since the Cirque run, Paul has traveled the globe, stunning audiences with the flexibility of his conception and execution on a challenging instrument not known for its flexibility. Paul is home in the Bay Area now, and played here at Bird & Beckett recently with his friends in the Berkeley Choro Ensemble. Now he’s bringing a duo project into the store for…

Friday, Tony Johnson’s 230 Jones Street Band at 5:30pm – $20 suggested donation ……………….– a quartet: Noel Jewkes, sax; Si Perkoff, piano; Chuck Bennett, bass; Tony Johnson, drums                 Jazz the Glass at 9:00pm – $20 at the door ………………–a trio: Daniel Heffez, saxophone; Adam Shulman, piano; Omar Aran, drums Saturday, Paul Hanson/Dave MacNab Duo at 7:30pm – $15 at the door ………………..–bassoon & guitar Sunday, Jam Session with the Vince Lateano Trio at 5pm – $20 suggested donation ………………–Ben Stolorow, piano; Peter Barshay, bass; Vince Lateano, drums