Once a month, jazz combos comprising students from local colleges and high schools open the program, followed by a student jam session hosted by a professional trio. All young (or youngish) students aspiring to a career in jazz — including those who are learning on the bandstands and in the public squares — are encouraged to turn out for the jam session that concludes each outing. No cover charge and no advance sign up required. Call the shop for further information — 415-586-3733. On October 31, from 5 to 8pm, a sextet from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music will open, with a jam session to follow — open to all students of the music — hosted by the Tammy Lynne Hall Trio. SFCM Sextet: Charles Blagrove, trombone Lola Miller-Henline, piano Fernando Rodriguez, bass Daniel Alonso, alto saxophone Josh Setala, drums Lucien Campanella, guitar Come hear the sextet & come…

Darren Johnston – trumpet Ben Goldberg – clarinet, contra-alto clarinet David Boyce – tenor sax, bass clarinet Gerald Cleaver – drums BYOB, and bring a twenty for the band. If you’re watching in the stream, thanks for helping us meet the quartet’s guarantee and the cost of streaming by donating online. Find the stream on Bird & Beckett’s YouTube channel or Facebook page. Proof of vax and masks at the shows help us make this a safe outing for you. Seating starts ten minutes before showtime, and is limited! Call for a reservation – 415-586-3733. Born May 4, 1963 and raised in Detroit, Gerald Cleaver is a product of the city’s rich music tradition. Inspired by his father, drummer John Cleaver, he began playing the drums at an early age. He also played violin in elementary school, and trumpet in junior high and high school. As a teenager he gained…

Enjoy an intimate evening of jazz standards, a few tunes off the beaten track, a couple of originals, and hear what a long-running quartet can bring to the table Mark Secosh, saxophone Bob Jones, piano Dan Keller, bass André Custodio, drums Joining CBop for their second set, soulful jazz vocalist Raja Live in the shop & live streamed on Bird & Beckett’s YouTube channel and Facebook page Seating is limited, so call the store for a reservation during business hours, Tuesday to Sunday, 12-6pm. 415-586-3733 BYOB and your $20 cash cover, and settle in for a lovely evening of jazz in the bookshop

Illuminating the paragraphs of such sages as Mulla Nasrudin and Lao Tsu is like singing with your eyes, or making scat-notes out of the tracks of a tattered clown.  Wise fools.  Old sages who ride off on donkeys into the mountains.  Scattered texts and word-of-mouth.  Jokes that strike home.  Such stuff as dreams are made on.  What Shakespeare made our world of… The analogies in which these two jesters spoke were hardly written down, more like pulled out of the air of their speech-space, then shaped by hand into letters. They endure and fascinate.  Any view of them is a new view… Walker’s talk on Mulla Nasrudin and Lao Tsu is viewable for free or a small voluntary donation via Paypal, Venmo or the Cash App on our YouTube channel and Facebook page

The 4th Mondays Poets!Zoom is all open mic! BYOP! And stay home! Hosted by Kim Shuck, San Francisco Poet Laureate Emerita. Bird and Beckett Online Open Mic. Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/84350265713?pwd=eE84V3BYdWxiSFBHNHhmdUt1WTUzdz09Meeting ID: 843 5026 5713Passcode: 244211 facebook invite: Facebook Invite

Gail Dobson brings a quintet this evening featuring renowned reed player and educator Paul Contos, pianist Adam Shulman, bassist Matt Montgomery and drummer Omar Aran, with guest singers from Gail’s vocal studio. Tonight kicks off an early evening Sunday series of jazz, Americana and other music. All ages welcome. Gail has been acclaimed in the Bay Area and nationally as a jazz singer since her youth in the 1970s, and continues to perform and teach to this day. With her husband, the late pianist Smith Dobson, she raised two musicians well known to audiences on both coasts; their son Smith Dobson V is a multi-instrumentalist who started out on drums and soon mastered the vibes and saxophone — he’s one of the top jazz players in the Bay Area today. Their daughter Sasha has a career as a vocalist in New York, well known for her role in the alt…

Karl Evangelista, Ben Goldberg, Francis Wong and Beth Schenck converse on the bookshop stage in a live stream. They will discuss the art of improvisation, compositional challenges, and social consciousness in the Bay Area of 2021. Their question: how can intercommunal collaboration foster the creation of meaningful, adventurous music? We’ll have chairs, should you like to venture into the shop to listen in. We’d certainly welcome you! But it’s likely to be rainy and chilly, and in any case, it’s early. So tune in to the stream on youtube or facebook if you’d prefer to remain at home… and to turn on the dread computer. At least it’s not zoom. No one will see you or expect you to speak. Robe, slippers, barking dogs, babbling children, just consider them random improvisational elements. As a primer for today’s conversation, you could do worse than to read this piece.  

Ben Goldberg & Scott Amendola w/ special guest Nate Brenner Celebrating the digital release of Plays Monk’s eponymous debut album Ben Goldberg – clarinets Scott Amendola – drums/electronics Nate Brenner – e.bass/bass synth/etc. BYOB, and bring a twenty to help us pay the trio. If you’re watching in the stream, thanks for donating online if you’re able! Find the stream on Bird & Beckett’s YouTube channel or Facebook page. Proof of vax and masks at the shows help us make this a safe outing for you! Seating starts 15 minutes before showtime, and is limited! Call for a reservation – 415-586-3733!      

Drummer Tony Johnson leads a quartet on the 4th Friday of each month. Tonight, it’s guaranteed fun with a lot of bop and all swingin’. Jeff Burr’s on guitar, Matt Montgomery’s on bass — with Tony, that’s one sweet rhythm section. And out front, the sublime Bob Kenmotsu is on saxophone. Come hear what small combo jazz is all about. Each of these musicians has great ears, great chops and a profound understanding of what makes this music cook. $20 cash cover charge. BYOB, proof of vax, mask! Seating is limited. For reservations, call 415-586-3733. Doors open at 7:20pm. If you’re watching in the stream, thanks for helping us break even by donating online! Find the stream on Bird & Beckett’s YouTube channel or Facebook page.

A spectacular sextet celebrates a true genius of jazz. Trumpeter Geechi Taylor and flautist/percussionist/session leader John Calloway have assembled an all-star band for the occasion. Drummer Josh Jones joins the fun, along with conguero Akheel Mestayer, bassist Gary Brown and pianist Ken Cook. Guaranteed cooking bop and afro-latin jazz music of the highest order! BYOB, and bring $30 cash for tonight’s sextet! We’re guaranteeing a fair wage to the musicians, such that it takes 30 people at $30 each to meet that for six musicians–and we’ve found that our practical safe & comfortable capacity in the shop, vaxxed & masked, is 30. So grab your cash, vax card & mask and come down to Bird & Beckett to celebrate Dizzy and the San Francisco jazz musicians that play in his honor tonight! If you’re watching in the stream, thanks for helping us bring the music to you through the cyberwires…

Exclusive Limited TEN Person LIVE Audience.  $40 per ticket.  Make your paid reservation in advance with the  bookstore to guarantee a seat.  Live stream contribution of $10-20 requested for those unable to attend in person. Just use the link in the following paragraph to donate. If you’re watching in the stream, thanks for helping us break even by donating online! Find the stream at showtime and after the fact on Bird & Beckett’s YouTube channel or Facebook page. Everyone attending the live performance must show proof of vaccination; seats will be spaced six feet apart. The performers request that the in-person audience be 100% masked at the Hollywood Muse Masked Ball tonight! In the Hollywood Muse Masked Ball, poet Tony Seymour takes a deep dive into an extended work inspired by his “Hollywood Muse,” enlisted for strictly inspirational purposes at a juncture when he desperately needed to get his creative…

Greg Abate is on the road again! And he’s blowing through Bird & Beckett twice this Saturday, his third Bird & Beckett visit in five years. In the morning, Greg will conduct a workshop of interest to players and fans both; and in the evening, he’ll lead a quartet with local heroes Ben Stolorow on piano, Eric Markowitz on bass and Mike Mitchell on drums through some beautiful material drawn from his just-released album of compositions by pianist Kenny Barron. Read the Jazztimes review of the album here. The morning workshop will make for an enlightening introduction to the evening’s concert. Plan to catch them both, whether you’re a serious jazz musician or a fan with a strong desire to know what makes jazz tick! Pay $20 to attend the 10am workshop in person and you’ll be admitted to the 7:30pm concert for half price. Active students of jazz performance…

Sondango was born of a long and deep musical friendship between pianist Richard Nelson Hall and vocalist Sandra Aran, who found ready accomplices in bassist Dan Feiszli and drummer Russ Gold, all enamored of Latin grooves, jazz and pop. With this fabulous ensemble, they celebrate their love of the grand diversity that is San Francisco — a place where cultures and sensibilities meet with the here and now. Guitarist Scott Foster has invited his good friends in Sondango to join him tonight at Bird & Beckett, his second home, where he’ll lend his inimitable talents to their heady brew. Embracing San Francisco’s cultural brew, Sondango’s original songs in Spanish draw on themes of love, loss, joy and passion. Rooted in the musicians’ shared devotion to jazz and Latin rhythms, Sondango brings the joy in the music to you. BYOB, and bring a twenty for the band. We’re guaranteeing a “fair”…

Kim Shuck, San Francisco’s 7th Poet Laureate, hosts Bird & Beckett’s 2nd & 4th Mondays poetry reading series. The 2nd Monday Poets!Zooms begin with a featured poet or two, followed by an open mic. The 4th Mondays are all open. At both, all are invited to participate with a poem. The Zoom link for tonight’s reading is shown below: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84350265713?pwd=eE84V3BYdWxiSFBHNHhmdUt1WTUzdz09 Meeting ID: 843 5026 5713 Passcode: 244211 This Monday, October 11, at 7pm, the featured readers are Lauren Ito and Taneesh Kaur. Lauren Emiko Ito is a Gosei (fifth generation person of Japanese descent) poet, organizer, and curator whose art centers ancestral power, incarceration, and liberatory futures for generations to come. Her work has been published in anthologies, newspapers, and literary journals, including the San Francisco Public Library, The City is Already Speaking, this is my body: an anthology of women of color reclaiming narratives of self and body, Endangered…

Pedal steel master Joe Goldmark’s supergroup returns to Bird & Beckett for a monthly Sunday date! Joe’s built a solid band that features Mitch Polzak on lead guitar and vocal; Hank Maninger on bass guitar and vocal; and Kenny Owen, the Haiku Cowboy, on drums. Eddie Kendrick is in town and plans to join the band this evening for some of his signature tunes! Eddie’s a wonderful singer partial to Waylon Jennings and George Jones, and a rock solid bass guitar ace! Long a key member of the Seducers, Eddie hightailed it to Colorado five of years ago with his new bride, but a local wedding brings him back to town. Kismet! The timing couldn’t be better, as America’s favorite country band resumes its long-standing Sunday residency at Bird & Beckett, now in a more friendly 5pm time slot. Bring a twenty for the band and your own bottle for…