Black Fire This Time An Ensemble of Jazz & Poetry Poets Avotcja Venus Jones Shizue Seigel Christl Rikka Perkins Zakiyyah G.E. Capehart Nazela Jamison Bryant Bolling Dondi Dancy Music Avotcja, small percussion Heshima Mark Williams, bass Heather Buchanan, piano Readings with jazz, from contributors to the new and acclaimed anthology from Willow Press — Black Fire This Time — a collection of over 100 poets and writers on the history and legacy of the Black Arts Movement, edited by Dr. Kim McMillon and assistant editor Kofi Antwi. With special guests from Write Now! SF Bay. This event at Bird & Beckett occurs on the eve of The National Black American Read-In (NBARI), a celebration of excellence by Black poets, writers and playwrights, kicking off officially with an event at the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) on February 23, 2023 and running throughout the year. No cover charge, but your…

The mind of Ibn Arabi, says Walker, is like a mountain range, from which vast ecosystems of thought are continuously created.  He’ll assay to take you there to have a look at the nearness of this mind to us, in time-and-space terms, as well as take in a bit of the distance involved, as it relates to our on-going human journey. Ibn Arabi (1165-1240) was a key mystic, philosopher and poet of the 500-year Islamic “Golden Era” that dates from the 8th century. Look for Bird & Beckett’s live streams on our YouTube channel and Facebook page. ____________________________ Walker Talks is a monthly talk (save the summer months) that Walker Brents III has been offering the Bird & Beckett community on diverse topics since the early days of the bookshop, beginning shortly after the turn of the century. During the summers, with his wife Joyce, he travels up the coast…

Wayne de Silva, saxophone Brad Buethe, guitar Peter Barshay, bass Brian Melvin, drums $20 cash cover charge at the door. BYOB. Reservations, call the shop at 415-586-3733. Brian Melvin remembers when he was 5 years old in San Francisco fascinated by Ringo Starr’s swing on the drum kit with the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show, getting a drum with a cymbal attached that Christmas shortly after he turned 6,  and at age 7 meeting Buddy Rich at Bimbo’s 365 Club. Buddy genially gave Brian a pair of sticks, his album “Big Swing Face,” a picture and a friendship that lasted up until Buddy’s departure five years ago. Not long after, he was grooving on the music exploding in the Haight Ashbury, especially the Grateful Dead and its drummers. Soon, the drumming of Jerry Granelli profoundly influenced him. “Jerry was just so different,” writes Brian, “and brought the mystical into…

On the third Sunday of each month, we’re delighted to present the Vince Lateano Trio playing two sets, for the pure pleasure of it. Vince Lateano, drums Peter Barshay, bass Ben Stolorow, piano byob and a twenty for the trio! Vince Lateano has been a marvelous presence on the San Francisco scene since he came to the City in the mid-1960s. He quickly worked his way into the local jazz scene, playing, recording and touring with Vince Guaraldi, subbing around town for Johnny Markham when Markham went on the road with Sinatra and other major acts, and working extensively with Cal Tjader, Eddie Duran, Chet Baker, Clare Fisher and a host of others through the years… Later, all through the 1990s ’til it closed as such in 2003, he was the house drummer at Jazz at Pearl’s in North Beach, playing with his own trio several nights a week and…

Jane Lenoir, flute Ricardo Peixoto, 7-string guitar Brian Rice, pandeiro with special guest Paul Hanson, bassoon $20 cash cover charge at the door, byob Reservations, call (415) 586-3733 The Berkeley Choro Ensemble (pronounced “shoro”) is a group of world-class musicians from the SF Bay Area that made its debut in January, 2010 at the Berkeley Public Library with founding member Harvey Wainapel, presently on hiatus. The group celebrates the music, culture and history of Brazil, with a special emphasis on choro, a genre and style of music which emerged in the 1800s in Brazil, fusing the music of Brazil’s European immigrants and the native music of Brazil’s indigenous and African-Brazilian population. In particular, the choro sound is somewhat akin to a combination of European classical music, ragtime and blues. Historically, the choro style influenced Brazil’s most famous classical composer, Heitor Villa Lobos, to compose some of the world’s most hauntingly…

Filling in for Scott Foster on his traditional third Friday booking at Bird & Beckett, we offer a stellar trio of drummer Sylvia Cuenca, bassist Peter Barshay and pianist Ben Stolorow, performing for you from 5:30 to 8:00pm.    Peter and Ben are stalwart members of Vince Lateano’s trio, which has a third-Sundays residency at Bird & Beckett throughout 2023. And this coming third Sunday (2/19), Peter will pull a double, playing with the Lateano trio at from 5 to 7pm, then anchoring a quartet date at 9pm with traveling (from Estonia) drummer Brian Melvin in the company of guitarist Brad Buethe and saxophonist Wayne De Silva. The Lateano trio, Vince, Peter & Ben, also hosts a jam session at Bird & Beckett on the last Sunday of each month from 5 to 7pm! That’s a scene to be at. Be sure to make it on 2/26! But returning to…

BYOB and a twenty for the trio! Doors open at 7:15. Scott Amendola, a drummer, composer and bandleader who’s been a creative force on the Bay Area jazz scene and beyond for four decades, knows all about the power of subtraction. His stripped-down trio SticklerPhonics brings together long-time collaborators Raffi Garabedian on tenor saxophone and trombonist Danny Lubin-Laden, New York-seasoned improvisers who’ve worked together since their formative years in the vaunted Berkeley High Jazz Band, circa 2003, already twenty years ago! The trio has plunged into the unmediated terrain that opens up in the absence of the usual guidelines, “a situation where there’s no bass and no chords,” Amendola has said. He continues, “The sound is ever evolving. We’re really settling in. But there’s also the feeling like there are places to go. We’ve been adding my electronics and Danny bringing in a little looper. We’re just getting started.” With…

Tony Saunders on Bass & Vocals Marc Daniels Guitar Tina Bryant Keys Don Schiff Bass Larry Vann Drums $25, byob Advance reservations – 415-586-3733 You can leave your hat on! Celebrate Valentine’s Day with Tony Saunders & Co. and celebrate as well the 89th anniversary of Tony’s late father Merl Saunders’ birth.   Tony grew up playing music with his father, who put him through the San Francisco Conservatory of Music studying piano, but Tony gravitated to the bass and his father launched him on a career that has included four lps as a leader and countless others as sideman, composer and producer. In the mid-1970s, Merl formed the “Aunt Monk” band with Larry Vann on drums and a young Tony on bass — in a super line up that included guitarist Chris Hayes (of Huey Lewis & the News) and saxophonist Martin Fierro (Zero). Fantasy Records released Merl Saunders…

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84350265713?pwd=eE84V3BYdWxiSFBHNHhmdUt1WTUzdz09 Meeting ID: 843 5026 5713 Passcode: 244211 Robert Eugene Rubino is a retired newspaper copy editor and sports columnist who has published prose and poetry in various print and online journals. In 2016 he was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in creative nonfiction and in 2022 published three collections: “Aficionado,” prose & poetry, hummingwordpress.com “Vanity Unfair,” poetry, cathexisnorthwestpress.com “Douglas Knocks Out Tyson,” poetry, rawartreview.com Born and raised in New York City, for more than 50 years he has lived in California, including Berkeley, San Francisco, Oakland, the Gold Country, the San Joaquin Valley and  for 30 years in the North Bay. He currently lives in Palo Alto with his wife, Terry. Karen Llagas’s new chapbook, All Of Us Are Cleaved, is recently published by Nomadic Press. Her first collection of poetry, Archipelago Dust, was published by Meritage Press in 2010. A recipient of the 2022 RHINO Founder’s Prize, Filamore Tabios, Sr. Memorial Poetry Prize, an Elizabeth George Award and…

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 workers, the everyday people who help make this place we call home, live streamed from Bird & Beckett Books and viewable on the Bird & Beckett Facebook page and YouTube channel. This month Denise is in conversation with Dr. Ahimsa Porter Sumchai, one of San Francisco’s leading experts in environmental toxins and a persistent advocate for environmental justice for residents of the Bayview-Hunters Point community. Sumchai is the founder and principal investigator for the Hunters Point Community Biomonitoring Program, founding chair of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Restoration Advisory Board’s Radiological Subcommittee and contributor to the 2005 Draft Historical Radiological Assessment and medical director of Golden State MD Health & Wellness, a UCSF and Stanford trained author and researcher, and…

original latin jazz rock fusion explosion! Adrian Areas proudly carries a tradition that encompasses all the San Francisco jazz rock fusion history that constellates around the Azteca/Malo/Santana years. His uncle Chepito was right in the midst of that wonderful maelstrom. Thomas Molina, trumpet Josh Icban, guitar Jeff Patterson, bass Jimmy Toor, drums Adrian Areas, Moperc tumbadoras $25 cash cover charge. Doors open at 7:20 for the 7:30 show BYOB and a mask. Live in the shop! You can also take it in live streamed on our YouTube channel or Facebook page. Donate if you can!

Eric Shifrin has brought the In Crowd to Bird & Beckett countless times in the past twenty years, but it’s never been enough! He’s been the favorite of the swells & the swindlers in the finest saloons and boites of this town for decades, and when he brings the In Crowd in here, we’re all in. So now, we’ve invited him to come into Bird & Beckett every second Friday, for the happiest 2.5-hour happy hour you’ll find. This Friday, he’s featuring the wonderful Lara Louise on guitar and vocals, and the marvelous Simon Planting on bass. You may arrive in a mood shaped by the travails of the working week, but when you leave at 8 you’ll be singing a different, snappier tune– we can assure you of that! BYOB and a twenty for the musicians! On the skids or the dole? Bring what you can afford and sip…

Pieces to be read this evening from the anthology will include: Janet Alvarado’s Introduction to Claming Our Stories – read by the author/editor Albert A. Acena’s “Where Have the Nurses Gone? – read by Laarni San Juan Rhys Alvarado’s “1946” – read by Alohi Alvarado Emil Guillermo’s “Centennial Club Members Ricardo and Willie: Filipinos in the Heart of San Francisco” – read by Janet Alvarado Baylan Megino’s “Dancing My Filipino Roots” – read by the author Oscar Peñaranda’s “Babaylan in Playland by the Sea” – read by Edwin Lozada Giulio Sorro’s “My Dad Is a Flower” – read by the author _________________________________________________ Bios of the writers and readers: Alohi Vega Alvarado is native born of Maui, Hawaii. She is an artist, freelance model and designer. In high school, Alohi pursued live theater performance and art.  In 2021, Alohi was featured in underwater fashions by Justin Drew, Fashion Le Cour.  Alohi,…