Trombonist Mara Fox has amazed audiences all over the world for more than two decades, working in jazz, R&B, Latin and classical contexts. She’s recorded and toured internationally with Conjunto Cespedes, and with the Klezmorim. Locally, she plays with the Pacific Mambo Orchestra (2013 Grammy Award Winner for “Tropical Island” as Best Latin Album), the Montclair Women’s Big Band, The Purple Ones, Paula Harris and the Beasts of Blues. She’s also played with the Berkeley Symphony, the San Francisco Sinfonietta, the Mike Vax Big Band and countless other ensembles. Tonight, she brings the fire to the Bird & Beckett bandstand with a quartet assembled by Scott Foster, Bird & Beckett’s favorite guitarist bar none since he first crossed our stage right after the turn of the century. Scott has been a regular feature of our programming from the start. Says Scott, “It will be a fun trip down memory lane…

Two San Francisco music legends, booked to play as a duo tonight, had to postpone their performance due to illness. Watch for a rescheduled date. reservations are always advisedcall 415-586-3733 during regular store hoursand speak to a human to put your name on the list.~~capacity is limited~~Please bring $20 cash for the cover charge, and byob proof of vaccination & masks required Can’t get to the shop for the show? Or just can’t get in due to the throng? Catch the live streams on Bird & Beckett’s YouTube channel or Facebook page.Will Bernard, guitar                Beth Custer, clarinetThursday, 12/16, 7:30pm

For decades now, Grant Levin has been one of the best kept secrets in jazz, and Bird & Beckett has been proud to present him literally hundreds of times since he arrived in the Bay Area in 2010. The performance documented here was the last of the live-stream only pandemic concerts we presented between March 2020 and June 2021. The very next week, on Friday June 18, 2021, we once again began to welcome live audiences into the shop. Grant will be back before an audience here on Saturday, July 17, 2021 in a stellar trio with bassist Peter Barshay and drummer Hamir Atwal. Meanwhile, you can catch him solo at the Hotel Nikko’s Kanpai Lounge and Anzu Restaurant two or three times a week. Good reason to fly into SFO and take BART to the Powell Street station, then wheel your suitcase over to the Nikko and take a…

The Seducers close out their 2021 billings at Bird & Beckett this Sunday, 12/12, 5:00-8:00pm.  It’s never anything but super great. Nor are you! All pure pleasure! B&B asks that you bring proof of vaccination and wear a mask, although the band may not be masked on stage.  We also request that you bring a twenty for the band and your own bottle for yourself! Thanks! We look forward to seeing everyone again to start to close out 2021! The Seducers are back 1/9/22! Mark your calendar! reservations, please call the shop at 415-586-3733 $20 cash cover charge, byob; proof of vaccination and masks, please also live on YouTube and Facebook .

  For your browsing pleasure, SUPER GREAT performs while you poke around the shop!This holiday season, keep in mind: YOU AREN’T A DISAPPOINTMENT. You are SUPER GREAT and if people get down on you for not being perfect all the time then bite their faces off. You are SUPER GREAT and faces are high in protein. SUPER GREAT! Watching in the stream? Please donate online. Find the stream on Bird & Beckett’s YouTube channel or Facebook page. SUPER GREAT is the duo of Angie Bennett & Kendra O’Dwyer, going there for you! Kendra’s past includes playing drums in Dogbreath and guitar & vocals in Go!Commando! Angie is known as the instigator & chief lyricist of the vocal trio Bad Mommies and similar roles in the quartet The Maraca Incident. She’s also Bird & Beckett’s sound guy, and before that, the shop’s photographer and PR person. The present is beyond description.…

San Francisco columnist 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, as well as lesser-known workers, the everyday people who help make this place we call home, live streamed from Bird & Beckett Books in Glen Park. Find the stream on Bird & Beckett’s YouTube channel or Facebook page. Tiny (aka Lisa Gray-Garcia) is a formerly unhoused, incarcerated poverty scholar, journalist, poet, visionary, teacher and mama of Tiburcio, daughter of a houseless, disabled, indigenous mama Dee, and the co–founder of POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE/PoorNewsNetwork. She is also the author of Criminal of Poverty: Growing Up Homeless in America, When Mama and Me Lived Outside, El Trabajador and her new anthology and glossary, The Sidewalk Motel: Poetry from a Poverty Skola and PoShunary. She is also co-author of Poverty Scholarship, Covid 19 & Virus of Poverty and How to Not Call…

Noel Jewkes, saxophone Charlie McCarthy, saxophone Sam Cady, piano Joe McKinley, bass Akira Tana, drums arrangements by Jeffrey Gaeto reservations, please call the shop at 415-586-3733. $25 cash cover charge, byob; proof of vaccination and masks, please! also live on YouTube and Facebook . thanks!

John Calloway, flute and percussion Ken Cook, piano Marcus Shelby, bass Brian Andres, drums* with guest vocalist Angie Doctor reservations, please call the shop at 415-586-3733. $20 cash cover charge, byob; proof of vaccination and masks, please! also live on YouTube and Facebook . thanks for joining us! * Brian Andres is subbing for Sylvia Cuenca tonight.

At 5pm, a seven-piece jazz combo from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music leads off with a set, and then the Terrence Brewer Trio takes the stage, opening with a short trio set leading into a jam session for student players welcomed from anywhere in the Bay Area. If you’re an aspiring jazz musician with a grasp of your instrument and a passion for the art form, please come out! Proof of vaccination and masks required. The December 5th evening was streamed live on YouTube and Facebook and can be seen there. Donations appreciated, with instructions on the screen.     ______________________ The student combo opening the evening is from the SFCM jazz ensemble class taught by saxophonist Kristen Strom. Amanda Jane Ross – vocals Aidan Siemann – saxophone Nate Gilbreath – trombone Junhong Jung – guitar Julian Esparza – bass Reece Cogswell & JC Grady – drums Serious students of…

George Cotsirilos, guitar Keith Saunders, piano Robb Fisher, bass Ron Marabuto, drums Tonight, the George Cotsirilos Quartet highlights its just-completed recording project, due for release on CD in a matter of weeks. A group of highly accomplished jazz veterans boasting years of close collaboration, the quartet released the widely acclaimed album Mostly In Blue in early 2018. The album debuted to excellent notices and spent over three months on the national Jazz Weekly radio top 50 charts, rising to number 15. In its December 2018 issue, Downbeat Magazine listed the CD as one of the best of the year. The quartet performs primarily original modern jazz compositions along with gems from the jazz canon. Read more on George and his colleagues in the quartet at https://www.georgecotsirilos.com/ Call the bookshop at 415-586-3733 to reserve a seat, as space is limited. Reservations must be claimed by showtime. Doors open at 7:20 for the 7:30…

Destiny Muhammad, the Harpist from the Hood, brings a reverence for her ancestor jazz harp mothers Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane to the creation of a unique sound and a personal approach to jazz standards, reimagining the past and creating original compositions. Since picking up the harp in her thirties, she has devoted untold hours to the development of her music. Performing in manifold collaborations, there’s no one like her in contemporary jazz. Her signature genre, “Celtic to Coltrane,” bears that out — cool and eclectic, with a feel of jazz & storytelling to round out the sonic experience. . “Whether interpreting jazz standards or her original tunes, Muhammad turns every piece into a soulful adventure.” Yerba Buena Gardens Festival “While certainly inspired by Alice Coltrane, Muhammad brings her own unique touch to the strings, as well as a contemporary melodic style that is exacting, whether she is working solo…

Jerry Ferraz and Michael Koch co-host Bird & Beckett’s monthly poetry reading on the first Thursday of each month, with an open mic following the featured readers. Maria Serafin, “The Word-Weave Rumbera,”  is a performance poet and percussionist, widely known for her work as leader of El Grupo Sinigual, with its 35-year history of performances from San Francisco, Los Angeles to Miami. Maria’s voice has been likened to that of salsa queen, Celia Cruz. Francisco Orrego, a poet and painter, was born in San Francisco’s Mission District and raised from ten until eighteen years of age in Medellin, Colombia. A self taught artist, he now spends his time searching for his soul as a conscious objector of human expectations.   Please bring proof of vaccination and a mask, also BYOB. No charge, though small donations help us pay an honorarium to the featured poets. Can’t get to the shop for…

Post-Thanksgiving, on Sunday, November 28, we’ll open the shop and clear the stage at 5pm for a three-hour all-comers jam session — students and old hands alike! Professional musicians, come on out. Live streamed on our facebook page or youtube channel No remuneration, except for the Keith Saunders Trio, with Eric Markowitz on bass and Akira Tana on drums — and what a trio that is, conducting the jam session! We’ll pay them each the JITN leader’s rate of $150 plus a 10% leader’s fee. They’re all leaders. Jazz is a team sport. (And, a profession. Let there by no doubt.) Everybody else? Come on out, if you have a vax card and a mask. We’ll lay in some beer and the finest water one can buy for a few bucks a bottle, and we’ll let you negotiate your way to the stage with your colleagues and the trio. ***********…

Make Bird & Beckett a stop on your holiday whirl. Keep the faith and keep swingin’ — The Cottontails make it easy! Vocalist Karina Denike and pianist Michael McIntosh have been pleasing audiences with this marvelous band at Bird & Beckett at Thanksgiving time for years and are we ever thankful to have them back! Call for reservations at 415-586-3733. BYOB, proof of vax, masks, $25 cash for the cover charge! Can’t make it to the shop, watch on our facebook page or youtube channel and donate per the hints on the screen to support the musicians and the stream!  

A fabulous band with an affinity for New Orleans–just the tonic you want and need in these times! Bounce back from your Thanksgiving indulgence, shake it down & rave it up in the company of good friends and companions! Jim Peterson, saxophone Scott Foster, guitar Joe Kyle, Jr., bass Larry Vann, drums Can’t stir from the couch? We understand! But if you watch the show from there, we hope you’ll donate to sustain the musicians and the stream. Instructions are on the screen once you’ve found the show on our facebook page or youtube channel. If you’re coming to the shop for the show, more’s the better! We’ll be happy to have your company to celebrate living, breathing culture! Jazz & it’s offshoots are the creation of African American musicians, composers, arrangers, dancers… We’re more than thankful that it’s at the base of American culture. If you’ve called for a…