Charlie Gurke, baritone saxophone Marcus Stephens, alto and tenor saxophones Josh Tower, bass Isaac Schwartz, drums Who doesn’t love the bari sax in jazz? One of San Francisco’s foremost bari practitioners will be in the house this Friday! Charlie Gurke is a keystone of the local jazz scene, leader of the famed Gurkestra — an elastic concept that puts many San Francisco talents to brilliant use in a variety of lovely settings! To our small stage, he brings a quartet once again for your pleasure. Jazz chamber music most pleasing to the senses. $20 cash cover charge at the door. Reservations welcome — call 415-586-3733. BYOB & a mask. A live stream will be found on Bird & Beckett Facebook page and YouTube channel. Your donations help fund the stream and, even more importantly, help us pay the musicians a guaranteed fair wage. Thanks for supporting jazz in SF! Here’s…

Jeffrey Zable is a teacher, conga/bongo player, and a writer of poetry, flash fiction and non-fiction. His writing has appeared in hundreds of literary magazines and anthologies—more recently in Fiery Scribe, Third Wednesday and Fleas On The Dog. Ken Weichel has been writing and creating collages for the last fifty years. His latest book Azure, a collection of poems, was just published. He continues working and promoting the Book Arts, and has long operated Androgyne Books, an independent small press focused on the work of San Francisco and Bay Area poets and short story writers, as well as translations of modern Dutch poets. The press has its roots in the poetry magazine Androgyne, which published its first issue in 1971. Our monthly 1st Thursdays poetry series is booked and hosted by Jerry Ferraz and Michael Koch. All are welcome to read in the open mic. Sign up prior to the…

On and on into the summer– CBop…Scott Foster…Rob Reich…Jimbo Trout…Kazemde George…Kathryn Takara & Friends…Joel Frahm…Judith Serin & Zack Rogow…Avotcja & Modupue…Tony Johnson…Lewis Jordan/Music at Large…Dysfunctional…Keith Hatschek…Sony & Jerry Holland…Citta di Vitti…Kai Lyons…Jayla Chee…Carolyn Davis…Joseph TinGin…books… and that’s just July… Check our events calendar. We’re booked through to the end of the year! Get on our mailing list! Click on the “newsletters” link in the navigation bar above to subscribe. Bird & Beckett is a guaranteed fair wage establishment, so bring some dough to the shows if you can afford it. If you can’t and you let us know, we’ll wave you in. But if you’ve got it, help us pay the talent! Culture. That’s the ticket! We offer a lot of it. You need it. We need it!  

Saxophonist and good friend Chuck Peterson passed this past Friday, February 18, 2022. Born February 8, 1931, he was 91 when he left us. Many of you have heard or lived some of Chuck’s story along the way. We know it imperfectly but we have a feel for it, for Chuck, for those who traveled a path alongside him. I met Chuck around the turn of the century… I opened Bird & Beckett in May 1999, and immediately a neighbor from around the corner, Blanche Bebb, a lover of literature if there ever was one, tuned in to what we were up to with this nascent bookshop. A friend of hers, Mary Goode, who’d often roust Blanche out for a few glasses of wine at Glen Park Station, noticed the jazz bent we seemed to exhibit. Mary’s husband, the late drummer John Markham–Johnny Markham, as he was known to his…

Francis Wong, saxophone William Roper, tuba Karl Evangelista, guitar Deszon X. Claiborne, drums Heavy cats, light on their feet. Memorializing the meaning of music by playing it. Feel the spirit $20 cover charge, byob and a mask capacity is 20, so call for a reservation (415) 586-3733

Jazz musicians, this one’s for you. Drummer Vince Lateano leads the session with Peter Barshay on bass and Ben Stolorow on piano. No fee to play. Audience, bring a $20 to help us pay the rhythm section. BYOB, and a mask for when you’re not playing, or if you’re not playing. Covid, you know…

  YAY! THE MOBY DICK SET The Literary Side of The Evangenitals Catch them at Bird & Beckett while they’re in town to play El Rio’s 25th Anniversary Shit Kicker Memorial Day Bash. $15-25 sliding scale, byob, and a mask Streamed on Bird & Beckett’s YouTube channel and Facebook page — or you MAY be able to just click on the little video screen at the top of this webpage…depending on your browser, we think. for the lowdown on this high flown band, visit their site!    

Andrew Stephens – trumpet (in town briefly from NYC!). Ben Goldberg – clarinet. Daniel Fabricant – bass. Rob Reich – piano, accordion. Rob Reich returns to Bird & Beckett with his group “Swings Left”. Rooted in the classic swing music of the late 1930s, “Swings Left” plays the tunes of Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Artie Shaw, as well as many of Rob’s original tunes in this style, combining hot rhythms with a cool sensibility.  Swings Left is a fabulous combo with a fabulous repertoire. $20 cash cover charge. BYOB & a mask. Capacity is 20 during the current surge, so call for a reservation! 415-586-3733 Streamed on Bird & Beckett’s YouTube channel and Facebook page — or you MAY be able to just click on the little video screen at the top of this webpage…depending on your browser, we think. If you watch a substantial amount of…

Bob Kenmotsu, saxophone Keith Saunders, piano Eric Markowitz, bass Tony Johnson, drums Bebop to bossa, and always swingin’ $20 cash cover charge – doors open at 7:20 for the 7:30 show BYOB and a mask, as covid still stalks the fringes of the land… capacity is just 20 at the moment to make for more breathing room call 415-586-3733 to reserve a seat Live in the shop and viewable as a live stream on YouTube or Facebook Tony has been a force on the San Francisco jazz scene for over 50 years. He arrived from his native Australia in 1959 and was immediately playing and recording with great musicians including sax player Pony Poindexter and vocalist Bev Kelly. Tony toured with Earl “Fatha” Hines, George Shearing and Peggy Lee, and played the Sullivan show with the Vagabonds (Las Vegas Tropicana Hotel house band) on a bill that included Sammy Davis,…

A jazz giant visits Bird & Beckett tonight in the company of three colleagues of considerable stature and experience themselves–if a generation or two removed. We’re pleased and deeply honored to present the eminent trumpeter Eddie Henderson in the company of his associates Peter Zak on piano, Marcos Varela on bass and Sylvia Cuenca on drums. $25 cash cover charge at the door. BYOB and a mask. Doors open at 7:20 for the 7:30 show. Reservations, call 415-586-3733. The performance is also streamed live on our YouTube channel and Facebook page. Donate if you can! Eddie Henderson’s five decades-plus prominence among the great trumpet players of jazz began alongside Julian Priester, Bennie Maupin, Patrick Gleeson, Buster Williams, Chepito Areas and Billy Hart in Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi band, which produced the lps Mwandishi (1971), Crossings (1972) and Sextant (1973). Mwandishi was hugely influential in describing and realizing possibilities opened up by…

SF-born & raised, NY-based Latin jazz drummer & percussionist Annette Aguilar is in town to play Carnaval this weekend! Catch her at Bird & Beckett Thursday 5/26 at 5pm with Anthony Blea on violin, Murray Low on piano and Mike Arnold on bass $20 cover charge – BYOB & a mask Capacity is 20 – call for a reservation at 415-586-3733 The performance is also streamed live on our YouTube channel and Facebook page. Donate if you can! __________________________ Annette A. Aguilar has been a force on the New York scene for decades, notably with her band StringBeans. Here in San Francisco, you can often catch her performing at Bird & Beckett and around town with her Beans on the Left! She returns home to San Francisco several times a year to be with family and play with favorite local associates including, tonight, violinist Anthony Blea, pianist Murray Low and…

Bring a poem, or just come to listen to the poets! Topic: Bird and Beckett Online Open Mic!  Time: This is a recurring meeting Meet anytime Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84350265713?pwd=eE84V3BYdWxiSFBHNHhmdUt1WTUzdz09 Meeting ID: 843 5026 5713 Passcode: 244211

Says Dave: The name Slug Teacher is derived from a line in “Here In This Spring”, a poem written in 1933 by iconic Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. I’ve long been fascinated by his work, not least for the sheer musicality of the rhythms, textures and timbres of his creations. Slug Teacher takes off on musical explorations directly inspired by the poems. My accomplice in these adventures is the master percussionist Galen Grant. I will be reading six of my favourite Dylan Thomas poems. Spaces which occur naturally in the poems (between verses sometimes, but also at other times) will be augmented by spontaneous improvisations by myself on clarinet and bass clarinet along with Galen on drums. Please join us for what promises to be a unique experience. $20 cash cover charge; $10-20 sliding scale – first time free! Covid numbers are rising, so we’ll be limiting the audience to about…

George Cotsirilos, guitar Keith Saunders, piano Robb Fisher, bass Ron Marabuto, drums $20 cash cover charge; $10-20 sliding scale – first time free! Covid numbers are rising, so we’ll be limiting the audience to about 20 people and returning to masks for the time being. Reservations, call 415-586-3733. Doors open at 7:20pm. Show at 7:30. BYOB as well as a mask. You can also take the show in live streamed on our YouTube channel or Facebook page. Donate if you can. CD release concert — the first of three dates the quartet will play this spring in the Bay Area to celebrate the 5/20/22 release of its newest album, Refuge on OA2/Origin Records, featuring George Cotsirilos’s original compositions and a few gems from the jazz canon. The quartet’s prior CD, Mostly in Blue was named by Downbeat Magazine as one of the best CDs of 2018 and reached #15 on the Jazz…