Avotcja, poet and prose writer, musician, musicologist, dj and cultural warrior, has just brought out With Every Step I Take 2 (Taurean Horn Press, 2022). Join us at Bird & Beckett for a publication party and help us celebrate with Avotcja and master percussionist & steel pan wizard Val Serrant. No charge! Donations appreciated. Call for a reservation: 415-586-3733 The event can also be found in a live stream, and can also be viewed later in the archive, on our Facebook page and YouTube channel. Your donations help us to pay the artists and to meet the expenses of streaming. “Introducing herself as storyteller, ‘wild woman,’ a ‘bonafide sound junkie,’ nothing slows or dampens Avotcja’s passion for the power and wonder of music. Guided by ancient, ancestral wisdom, she refuses to separate poetry and storytelling from song or dance. In ‘Blue To the Bone,’ her rhapsodic tribute to Oakland’s uncrowned poet…

Phillip Greenlief saxophones Adriana Camacho Torres, bass Scott Amendola, drums $20 cash cover charge at the door BYOB The live stream can be found on our Facebook page or YouTube channel Mexico City born, raised and based bassist Adriana Camacho Torres takes improvised music wherever it wants to go in the company of local heroes Phillip Greenlief and Scott Amendola on saxophones and drums, respectively. Phillip Greenlief was born in Los Angeles in 1959. Scott Amendola was born in New Jersey in 1963. Each has been in the Bay Area for three to four decades. Two Bay Area musicians with global reputations. Such are the musicians we can boast of here, and such are the international connections they provide. Read an interview with Adriana here. Visit her website here.

Dig the vibes! Erik von Buchau, vibraphone Matt Clark, piano Giulio Cetto, bass Jeff Marrs, drums BYOB and a twenty for the band! For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733 Also live streamed on our Facebook page and YouTube channel Your donations help us pay the musicians a guaranteed fair wage. Here’s a taste! Catch Erik at the 11:30 mark!  

You’ll find Walker’s Talk on our Facebook page and YouTube channel. Please donate to help us pay Walker for his heroic & eloquent locution. Tonight, Walker Brents III delves into the thought of Henry David Thoreau, whose genius lay in seeing nature for itself, with no need to be any other thing. We grow spontaneously in our understanding as we read him, which is why the cosmos arising from his pages strangely resonates with our own, in all we see and do not see. His gift to us is an awareness of the value of education as it relates to the needs of the living mind. The world before us is inexhaustible in what it can teach us, and in the ways we can learn to protect it.

  Free blues & boogie woogie tonight! No cover charge! The German Consulate of San Francisco has offered to sponsor a free performance by renowned boogie woogie and blues pianist Frank Muschalle for your listening pleasure! Mr. Muschalle has been touring worldwide for three decades to all points of the compass, spreading boogie woogie pleasure wherever he finds a good piano, and Bird & Beckett has one for him! Come sample his wares, courtesy of our friends at the Consulate! Doors open at 7:15 for the 7:30pm show. Get a taste of Frank’s boogie woogie from the video below. Visit his website here (in English) or here (auf Deutsch).  

No cover charge. Donations help us maintain the tradition and pay the trio! Come prepared if you want to play!

Piano jazz by the deep, soulful and wonderful Rudi Mwongozi is one of our favorite things! Click on the youtube link below for a blazing and wonderful trio rendition of “My Favorite Things” from an outdoor performance at a lovely & festive NYC Eid-Al-Fatir celebration in 2017. A master musician thriving on the vibe. Rudi will play a solo set at Bird & Beckett Sunday the 25th at 5pm. Don’t miss it! $5 to $25 sliding scale cover charge requested. All ages welcome. Call ahead to reserve a seat at 415-586-3733.

most events start at 7:30, doors at 7:20. byob. for reservations/information, call the shop at 415-586-3733. cover charge is typically $20 to $25 — cash, please! Saturday, Sept. 24 – 7:30pm jazz club goes roots reggae for one glorious night! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlW23PtWLB0 The Baytals Safaa Modir, guitar Connor Sablan, keyboards Russell Vazquez, bass Hafez Modirzadeh, tenor sax Keshav Batish, drums Sunday, Sept. 25 at 5pm – Rudi Mwongozi solo piano home on a visit to family, from NYC at 7pm – Vince Lateano’s Doggone Jazz Jam Session with Ben Stolorow & Peter Barshay _________________________ can’t make it down to the shop? you’re missing out on a good thing! but you can usually catch the livestream on our Facebook page and YouTube channel. Please donate to help us pay the musicians! A recurring monthly donation can give you unlimited guilt-free consumption of the stream and our sincere gratitude. Bird & Beckett guarantees…

Bob Kenmotsu, tenor sax Keith Saunders, piano Eric Markowitz, bass Tony Johnson, drums Catch the show here:

Art Hirahara, piano John Wiitala, bass Tim Bulkley, drums $20 cover charge (cash at the door, please) Doors open at 7:45pm BYOB Reservations: 415-586-3733 Livestream on our Facebook page and YouTube channel. Please donate to help us pay the musicians! Art Hirahara is a jazz keyboardist and composer based in New York City. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Art moved to New York in 2002 to be challenged by its pool of world-class musicians. There he has honed his craft, performing in a wide range of musical situations ranging from straight ahead standards to time cycle-based progressive jazz to working with singer/songwriters. Art has had the privilege to perform with Don Braden, Stacey Kent, Freddy Cole, Akira Tana, Rufus Reid, royal hartigan and many others. He has performed around the world in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, the Middle East and extensively around the United States. As a bandleader, he has released seven recordings…

Poets converge at Bird & Beckett tonight, 9/21, to honor Gregory Corso, reading from The Golden Dot: Last Poems, 1997-2000, edited by Raymond Foye and George Scrivani, is newly published by Lithic Press. Co-editor Scrivani will join Scott Bird, Neeli Cherkovski, Agneta Falk, Sarah Menefee and Tate Swindell to read from the book, and to contribute poems of their own in tribute to this key figure in modern American poetry. Nothing can rival the experience of being at the reading with poets that knew Corso as a friend and colleague. But if you simply can’t, we encourage you to take in tonight’s reading in the live stream that’s to be found at 7pm on our Facebook page and YouTube channel. If you like what you hear in the stream, and value what Bird & Beckett puts on offer there, please donate to help us pay an honorarium to the participating…

intimate conversations in jazz Mas Koga, saxophones & flutes Frank Martin, piano Peter Barshay, bass Bryan Bowman, drums $20 cover charge (cash at the door, please) Doors open at 7:20pm for the 7:30pm show BYOB reservations, call 415-586-3733 Tonight’s show can also be found on our Facebook page and YouTube channel. If you like what you hear in the stream, and stick around for more, donate to help us pay the musicians!

No charge. Donations appreciated! Live in the shop! The live stream can be found on our Facebook page or YouTube channel The Oaktown Jazz Workshops at Jack London Square have been cultivating and training young talent for three decades now. Recent alumni of the program come to Bird & Beckett on Sunday, October 2nd at 5pm to perform as the Oaktown Jazz Workshops’ Youth Mentors. At right, OJW Youth Mentors Jordon Dabney – tenor saxophone Maximilian Ehrhardt – trumpet Anthony Mills-Branch – bass Pepe Tekpa – drums This quartet shows how early training, talent, intense study and a strong community-based environment like the OJW can combine to produce the next generation of jazz giants. Oaktown Jazz Workshops employs a cascading mentorship model, where “near-peers” comprised of OJW alumni serve as inspiring Youth Mentors for the incoming, younger musicians.  Visit the Oaktown Jazz Workshops website at this link.      …

LEVITATOR textured & ferocious music Safa Shokrai, bass Kjell Nordeson, drums Darren Johnston, trumpet $20 cover charge (cash at the door, please) Doors open at 7:20pm for the 7:30pm show BYOB reservations, call 415-586-3733 Tonight’s show can also be found on our Facebook page and YouTube channel. If you like what you hear in the stream, and stick around for more, donate to help us pay the musicians!