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…

Christine No and Heather Bourbeau are featured to open the poetry session tonight. Christine has a new book coming out and Heather has recently been part of the Wall and Response project with Maw Shein Win and Megan Wilson of the Clarion Alley Mural Project. Kim Shuck, San Francisco’s 7th Poet Laureate, hosts Bird & Beckett’s 2nd & 4th Mondays poetry reading series, which begins with a featured poet or two, followed by an open mic. All are invited to participate with a poem. Zoom link and information are presented below: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84350265713?pwd=eE84V3BYdWxiSFBHNHhmdUt1WTUzdz09 Meeting ID: 843 5026 5713 Passcode: 244211 One tap mobile +16699006833,,84350265713#,,,,*244211# US (San Jose) +13462487799,,84350265713#,,,,*244211# US (Houston) Dial by your location +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 929 436 2866 US (New York) +1 301 715 8592 US…

Join San Francisco columnist Denise Sullivan for a series of morning discussions with The City’s arts and cultural leaders and 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, September 12 at 10 a.m., Denise’s guest is Kathy Zarur, Associate Professor of Art History at Skyline College, a curator and conference organizer with an eye on land and place, belonging, indigeneity, diaspora, migration and alliance-building.   Kathy’s recently curated exhibitions include Preoccupations: Palestinian Landscapes (Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco and Holding House, Detroit, 2019-2020); side by side/in the world (San Francisco Arts Commission, 2019), Betweenscapes (SOMArts for Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center and Kearny Street Workshop, 2018), and Where Is Here (Museum of the African Diaspora, 2016-2017).…

TOGETHER AGAIN Betty Wong & Friends CD Release Concert & Bird & Beckett Pandemic Relief Party Live in the shop and viewable as a live stream on YouTube or Facebook! TOGETHER AGAIN was inspired by two musicians — during the Covid pandemic, a time of impending threat to survival — making music that draws energy from what it means to be alive and productive. This project also bears the scars and lessons learned from the time of pandemic. We have survived and will continue to survive. Betty Wong on piano and Annalise Zamula on alto saxophone and flute play original compositions, Piazzola tangos and Milhaud’s Scaramouche plus Betty Wong piano compositions and more. Plus some jazz quartet cuts from Randy Craig, Richard Saunders, Ken Rosen & Joe DeAndreis.

Michael O’Neill, reeds Adam Shulman, piano Dan Feiszli, bass Jason Lewis, drums The Michael O’Neill Quartet has developed an avid following over nearly two decades. O’Neill’s latest album, And Then It Rained (Jazzmo Records, 2020), featuring bassist Dan Feiszli and drummer Jason Lewis alongside pianist Michael Bluestein, is his fourth, and the first to focus on his original compositions.  O’Neill is joined on his Bird & Beckett date by Feiszli and Lewis as well as pianist Adam Shulman, who has worked with major artists including Paula West, Stefon Harris, Dayna Stephens, Miguel Zenon, Mark Murphy, Larry Coryell, Grant Stewart, John Clayton, and Bobby Hutcherson, and has made four albums under his own name. First call drummer Jason Lewis has played with  Boz Scaggs, Gary Burton, Paul McCandless, Regina Carter, Kurt Elling and Taylor Eigsti, among others. Dan Feiszli is a respected recording engineer as well as being an in-demand bassist.…

Simon Rowe leads a trio in two sets of straight ahead, bebop and latin inflected jazz. An Australian bitten by the jazz bug in Sydney at age 12, when his grandfather brought a Louis Armstrong lp into the house, Simon has traveled the American jazz byways ever since he packed off to Texas as a high school trumpet player. Sojourns in American cities from St. Louis, Missouri (where he gained perhaps his deepest and most enduring jazz insights from a long bandstand association playing piano in the quartet of seasoned local tenor sax legend Willie Akins) to Fargo, North Dakota (where he taught and opened a night club) to Stockton, California (where he led the Brubeck Institute for five years) all preceded his arrival five years ago in San Francisco. Here, he designed, built and led a jazz degree program for the City’s 100-year old classical conservatory before striking off…

Horace Silver, a giant of jazz born in 1928, joined Stan Getz on piano in 1950 and changed the face of jazz. In 1953, he co-founded the Jazz Messengers with Art Blakey and went on to ever greater heights, always with an individual voice that can’t be imitated — only honored. Pianist Keith Saunders leads a trio in tribute, hot on the heels of Silver’s September 2nd birthday — with Michael Zisman on bass and Tony Johnson on drums. $20 cover charge (cash please). Call for reservations – 415-586-3733. BYOB. Proof of vaccination  and masks required. Can’t attend in person? Catch the live stream on facebook or youtube.

Jerry Ferraz and Michael Koch host Bird & Beckett’s  monthly poetry open mic (1st Sundays), typically following a reading by a featured poet. Tonight, Jane Rades takes the stage.    

Thollem McDonas – KeyboardAndré Custodio – Drums/Electronics 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! Click here to read music journalist Andrew Gilbert’s piece on Thollem published August 23 on the KQED website. Thollem and André have been playing together on and off for over ten years in between numerous side projects. The first set will be a classic duo of drums and keyboard (Organ, Rhodes, Clavier, and more). 2nd set will employ an expanded palette of sounds using electronics and an unconventional approach to acoustic instruments.…

Bob Kenmotsu, saxophone Keith Saunders, piano Eric Markowitz, bass Tony Johnson, drums 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 the sax player Pony Poindexter and vocalist Bev Kelly. He toured with Earl “Fatha” Hines, George Shearing and Peggy Lee, and played the Sullivan show with the Vagabonds (house band for the Las Vegas Tropicana Hotel) on a bill that included Sammy Davis, Jr. To this day, he’s in high demand and gigs constantly around Northern California. Tonight his band comprises some very fine musicians that he’s often worked with at the Club Deluxe on Haight Street and in numerous other venues. We rely on Tony to bring great jazz…

Judy will read her work, and be quizzed for your benefit about her work and her attitudes by Silvi Alcivar. We imagine Silvi might be prompted to read a few of her own poems along the way. Live in the shop and viewable as a live stream on YouTube or Facebook! Judith Ayn Bernhard is a founding member and past chair of Marin Poetry Center and is the author of the poetry collection, Prisoners of Culture. A former Berlitz School of Languages instructor and translator, her literary translations and poems have appeared in numerous anthologies. She lives with her husband, Byron Spooner, in San Francisco where she teaches writing and occasionally gives public readings of her work. Silvi is a lover of typewriters, Sufjan Stevens, bunnies, jellyfish, wild parrots, San Francisco, old people, and wind. Her poetry lives in the moment two strangers meet over her red royal typewriter–the anonymity…

Jonah Cabral is a young alto saxophonist who’s coming on strong, back home for a minute in San Francisco while pursuing a degree in music in the Netherlands. He has tenor player Gavin Halloran, pianist Simon Rowe, bassist Jayla Chee and drummer Vince Lateano on the date — three young players and two veterans romping through two sets of bebop, standards and originals. To get a taste of what Jonah’s recorded recently in the Netherlands recently, click here. $20 cover (cash please!) Student musicians, $10. Live in the shop and viewable as a live stream on YouTube or Facebook! BYOB. Proof of vaccination required. Please leave your masks on and up the entire time you’re in the shop, except when actively sipping on something! Thanks!  

Mutant Audio – guitarist Scott Foster’s ongoing project with saxophonist David Boyce (Broun Fellinis) and the drummer Cairo McCockran. Last heard at Bird & Beckett in February 2021 – click here. Tonight, Mutant Audio is live in the shop, and is also viewable as a live stream on YouTube or Facebook! $20 cover charge (cash please). BYOB. Proof of vaccination is now required, and masks must be worn the entire time you’re in the shop, except when actually sipping a little something…

Annette A Aguilar, NYC Latin/Brazilian drummer with San Francisco roots, returns with her seven-piece band, Beans on the Left, including Anthony Blea on violin, Chloe Scott on flute, Murray Low on piano, Gary Brown on bass, Ricky Aguilar on congas and Mena Ramos on bata. Her New York band, StringBeans, has been a major force on the Latin Jazz scene there for years, and lately she’s been working with the legendary Arturo O’Farrill in BronX BandA. Annette A. Aguilar, drums & percussion Anthony Blea, violin Chloe Scott, flute Murray Low, piano Gary Brown, bass Mena Ramos, bata Ricky Aguilar, congas Live in the shop and viewable as a live stream on YouTube or Facebook! Check our the band’s Bird &Beckett May 30, 2021 hit (skip to the 7min. mark to bypass the silence accompanying the band’s set up & sound check). $25-35 sliding scale cover tonight. Cash please. Call ahead…