Join San Francisco columnist Denise Sullivan for a series of morning discussions 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, every second Sunday at 10 am, live streamed from Bird & Beckett Books in Glen Park. Find the stream on Bird & Beckett’s YouTube channel or Facebook page. This morning, Sunday, October 10 at 10 a.m., Denise’s guest is Jennifer Beach. co-founder of Prison Radio. Jennifer is a long-term Mission District resident and prison abolitionist. She teaches English Composition at San Francisco State University and keeps Prison Radio afloat because she is convinced that only by hearing underrepresented voices can we chart a future of positive social change. Read more on Jennifer Beach’s work in SFLives https://www.sfexaminer.com/news-columnists/prison-radio-broadcasting-uncensored-incarcerated-voices/    

Phillip Greenlief, tenor and alto saxophones Dan Seamans, bass Tom Hassett, drums special guest: Beth Schenck, alto saxophone Beth Schenck is a saxophonist, composer and educator, who has made previous forays at Bird & Beckett in the bands Sifter and Social Stutter, and as a guest with the Lost Trio. She feels most at home with music that blurs the line between composition and improvisation. Beth’s music has been described by critics as “frank and beautiful” (Greg Burk), “reliably enthralling” and “transporting” (Andrew Gilbert). The Lost Trio has been together since 1994, and “stepped into existence” with a weekly gig at The Rose Pistola in North Beach, a residency that was followed by a four-year stint on Sundays at Cato’s Ale House in Oakland. The Lost Trio has a history of touring through venues up and down the west coast, and has done many live radio appearances and in-store performances…

Pamela Rose, vocal Terrence Brewer, guitar “One guitar, one voice. All swingin’.” Long-time friends and collaborators in jazz, Pamela Rose and Terrence Brewer just a few short years ago began thrilling audiences with a duo project based on the great performances that Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass brought to the concert stage and a number of lp releases in the early and mid-1970s. They’ll bring some of that material and their fabulous rapport and talents to Bird & Beckett for one early October evening, much to our delight. Terrence Brewer has been called “the San Francisco Bay Area’s #1 jazz guitarist,” and there’s ample evidence for that claim. He’s a multiple-award winning guitarist, an in-demand bandleader and a first call sideman, a much admired record producer, concert performer and studio musician, and one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s foremost music educators. Over the past decade, he’s performed over 2,500…

Jerry Ferraz and Michael Koch host our monthly in-store, in-person poetry session, each month with a featured reader or two and an open mic, always a delight and a revelation. Jennifer Barone is an Italian-American poet and artist. She is the author of three books of poetry, her most recent: “Saporoso – Poems of Italian Food & Love” (Feather Press). She is known to collaborate with artists and musicians as the founder and co-host of the monthly WordParty Poetry & Jazz Series. She has been a featured poet at LitQuake, The SF Public Library, The SFJazz Poetry & Jazz Festival, Marin Poetry Center, The Red Poppy Art House, The Beat Museum, SF MoMa, and DeYoung Museum. She is a winner of the 2007 and 2012 SF Public Library’s Poets Eleven contest for North Beach where she resides and has been published in literary journals such as The Marin Poetry Center Anthology, Forum Literary Magazine of CCSF, The Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, and Quiet Lightning’s sPARKLE…

We’ve sent some musicians SFMOMA way for the public’s pleasure! Stroll into the museum at 4pm with your vax card in hand & your mask in place — that’s when they hang the “out of commission” sign on the cash register — then hie thee to the 5th floor galleries to take in Joan Mitchell’s astonishing work (peeking at Nam June Paik’s crazy amalgamations adjacent, if you can fit them in), and drift out to the adjacent outdoor rooftop sculpture terrace off and on between 5 and closing. That’s where the live stuff breaks loose! You’ll be regaled there by musicians and poets deployed for the afternoon at the museum’s request (thanks Claudia La Rocco!) by your little Glen Park bookshop cum jazzspot and the little Oakland gallery that can, Round Weather. For our part, we’ve asked Lisa Mezzacappa and Clark Coolidge to field trios and Geechi Taylor to helm…

Poet & Publisher Marina Lazzara hosts a reading and celebration on the occasion of the release of new chapbooks from Two Way Mirror Books: Tammy Fortin Elizabeth Costello Brian Lucas Nicholas Whittington with special visit by J. Grabowski Live in the shop and viewable as a live stream on YouTube or Facebook. Bring some cash to buy a chapbook or two, feed the bucket, reward the eulipions, defray the expenses. Also BYOB! Call for reservations – 415-586-3733 during regular store hours, Tuesday to Sunday, noon to six pm. Proof of vaccination required on entry; masks required while in the shop. BYOB. Please only lower your mask only when sipping whatever it is your sipping. Thanks!

Phillip Greenlief, tenor and alto saxophones Dan Seamans, bass Tom Hassett, drums with guest Steve Adams, alto and baritone saxophones Steve Adams, a member of the Rova saxophone quartet since 1988 and also a member of the Bill Horvitz Band, the Matt Small Ensemble and the Vinny Golia Large Ensemble, has performed with Anthony Braxton, Sam Rivers, Dave Holland, John Zorn, Cecil Taylor, Donald Byrd and Jaki Byard and with many other jazz, rock, classical, dance and theater groups. He is on 35 recordings, including seven with Rova and four with Your Neighborhood Jazz Quartet, his group in Boston in the 1970s & ’80s. In the Boston era, he was also a member of Birdsongs of the Mesozoic and Composers in Red Sneakers. He plays sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxophones as well as flute, alto flute, bass flute, clarinet, bass clarinet and synthesizer. The Lost Trio has been…

Breaking news! Tonight, 10/1/21, JaZzline Institute Director Afrikahn Jamal Davys was here with BAJABA Jazz Masters Calvin Keys and Dawan Muhammad to present bassist Heshima Mark Williams with a BAJABA Jazz Master Award for 2021! Check our video of tonight’s show (on fb & yt) to catch the award presentation, which took place on the set break! We’re proud and pleased to host this momentous event! The Brother Khalil Abdullah Quartet Khalil Abdullah, guitar Anne Sajdera, piano Heshima Mark Williams, bass Genius Wesley, drums Live in the shop and viewable as a live stream  (and after the fact) on YouTube or Facebook. Doors open at 7:20pm. Music at 7:30pm. $20 cash cover charge at the door. Call for reservations – 415-586-3733 during regular store hours, Tuesday to Sunday, noon to six pm. Proof of vaccination required on entry; masks required while in the shop. BYOB. Please only lower your mask only when…

In honor of the turning of the wheels that have been a long time turning. A building up and breaking down in imagery for the sake of the enrichening of our metaphors, and metaphorical concepts. One more exploration of mythical speech. A compendium. A gazette. Walker Brents III relates tales from diverse traditions.               No in-store audience, but viewable as a live stream on YouTube or Facebook. Donations via methods described on the live stream screen are very much appreciated to help us pay the storyteller a guaranteed “fair” wage.    

Kim Shuck, poet & artist, conducts Bird & Beckett’s virtual poetry series twice a month. On the second Monday of the month, two poets are featured with an open mic following; on the fourth Monday of the month, it’s all open mic. So polish up a gem or grab one you want to try out on other poets and Zoom in. We’ll post the Zoom invitation in this space three or four days ahead of the reading. As San Francisco Poet Laureate from June 2017 to January 2021, Kim Shuck made it her mission to be the laureate of the City’s open mics, and so she was, traveling without pause week after week from venue to venue and co-hosting ours with long-time major domo Jerry Ferraz. Once the pandemic hit, she took our reading online, onto Zoom, and carried on with barely any real help from us but major technical…

Live in the shop and viewable as a live stream on YouTube or Facebook. This early evening into the twilight, Bird & Beckett is pleased to present a combo comprising students from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Roots, Jazz and American Music B.Mus. degree program. It’ll be a sextet, coached into being by Akira Tana, but set off on their own to represent! Trumpeter Carter Eng and drummer John Cavalier lead the group, which includes Morgan Harrison and Jayden Johnson, saxophones; Spencer Hoefert, guitar; and Alan Jones, bass. A jam session open to young players from throughout the Bay Area, grounded by a trio of seasoned Bay Area jazz professionals (Glen Pearson, piano; Gary Brown, bass; Deszon Claiborne, drums) follows the combo performance. Student musician stipends and a guaranteed fair wage for the professional musicians conducting the jam session are underwritten jointly by Jazz in the Neighborhood and the Bird & Beckett…

Eric Shifrin, piano Richard Chon, violin Ari Munkres, bass Mark Lee, drums Live in the shop and viewable as a live stream on YouTube or Facebook. Doors open at 7:20pm. Music at 7:30pm. $20 cash cover charge at the door. Call for reservations – 415-586-3733 during regular store hours, Tuesday to Sunday, noon to six pm. Proof of vaccination required on entry; masks required while in the shop. BYOB. Please only lower your mask only when sipping whatever it is your sipping. Thanks!

Making the swing to bop & the bossa nova, and making it count! Four pros plying their trade for the glory and a guaranteed fair wage! Charlie McCarthy, saxophone Glen Deardorff, guitar Al Obidinski, bass Tony Johnson, drums Live in the shop and viewable as a live stream on YouTube or Facebook. Doors open at 7:20pm. Music at 7:30pm. $20 cash cover charge at the door. Call for reservations – 415-586-3733 during regular store hours, Tuesday to Sunday, noon to six pm. Proof of vaccination required on entry; masks required while in the shop. BYOB. Please only lower your mask only when sipping whatever it is your sipping. Thanks!      

The Isaac Schwartztet brings a fresh take and vibrant artistry to the jazz/black american music repertoire. Leading the Schwartztet from the drumset is Isaac Schwartz, joined by Henry Hung, trumpet; Sam Priven, alto saxophone; Joshua Thurston-Milgrom, bass. Live in the shop and viewable as a live stream on YouTube or Facebook. Isaac, an Oakland native, has honed his craft for the last 20 years and has toured the country as well as Europe with various projects. He has performed and taught at the California Jazz Conservatory, has played multiple sold out shows at The Sound Room in Oakland, and currently helps lead the People’s Session at Artichoke Basille’s Pizza* in the Temescal, where seasoned pros and up and coming musicians share the stage. * (A note from B&B’s proprietor: Sadly, we haven’t yet convinced that hip national pizza corp. with 14 locations nationwide to pay their musicians, but we’re commencing to work on…

Scott Foster, guitar Matt Montgomery, bass Dan Foltz, drums Scott Foster concocts a new project or revisits and tweaks an old one every single time out, and has done so ever since we asked him to assume a monthly residency many, many years ago. First, though, he provided unassuming brilliance to Bird & Beckett’s legacy jazz dates that began in October 2002. Scott was on those weekly gigs from the start, and quickly became our favorite local jazz guitar player, bar none. He continues to fit the bill for a full spectrum of soul satisfying and intellectually engaging jazz, working brilliantly with a raft of supremely talented colleagues, who seem always pleased to answer his call to assembly. Live in the shop and viewable as a live stream on YouTube or Facebook. Doors open at 7:20pm. Music at 7:30pm. $20 cash cover charge at the door. Call for reservations – 415-586-3733 during regular…