What a weekend! Thursday at 7pm – Poets Gail Mitchell and Bill Vartnaw, with an open mic to follow. Friday at 5:30pm – The Erik Jekabson Quartet. Trumpet & flugelhorn player / composer Jekabson provides originals for a crack combo, with Matt Clark, piano; Dan Feiszli, bass and Brian Fischler, drums. Friday at 8:30pm (not 9, as stated here and there) – CD Release: “House of Welcome” – Free Press Music is a project of singer Christie Aida in close association with drummer Dave Mihaly. Billy White, piano, and Annelies Zamula, saxophone. Saturday at 7:30pm – The Charlie McCarthy Quartet. NOTE: Charlie has fallen ill and can’t make the date. James Mahone, a terrific tenor player, will sub for him, under drummer Akira Tana’s leadership, with the great David Udolf, piano, and the young and talented Curtis Aikens, bass. Sunday at 2pm – Poet Jorge Argueta with Jose Cuellar (Dr.…

Seven spirited and talented student jazz musicians from Lick-Wilmerding High School, put the music through its paces for a 45-minute set beginning at 5pm. After a short break, a jam session follows, expressly offered to student musicians from all directions, hosted by the Akira Tana Trio, with Keith Saunders on piano and Eric Markowitz on drums. Whether you can make it to the show or not, please donate to help us pay the professional trio a guaranteed wage for their labors, and to gather an additional $175 as a donation to the Homeless Prenatal Program on behalf of the students in the combo. They’re participants in Lick-Wilmerding’s Public Purpose Program, which is partnering with the Homeless Prenatal Program this year, and have asked that their honorarium go to that important organization. All told, we’re looking for $625 this afternoon. Help us meet that hurdle!

Philosopher, theologian and Islamic scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University, writes that Hafiz, “(t)his supreme poet, who is called ‘Tongue of the Invisible’ (Lisan al-ghayb), produced poems of magic beauty, poems whose imagery and music transmute the lead of the forgetful soul to the gold of the soul which lives in the longing for its Beloved and in the remembrance of that union which predates man’s terrestrial journey. Hafiz was himself aware that his was not simply a human voice. Rather, his poetry was a celestial song which brought the heavens themselves into a state of ecstasy.” Gary Gach presents poems of Hafiz crafted into English with Iranian short story writer and translator Erfan Mojib, newly published as Hafiz’s Little Book of Life (Hampton Roads, 2023).

Hurry down for an 8:30 start for the late show this Friday, as singer Christie Aida leads Free Press Music in a concert celebrating the band’s new recording, “House of Welcome, Vol.1.”  Check it out here. ——————————————————————– House of Welcome opened as a luxury hotel after the 1906 earthquake and lives on now as the Cadillac Hotel, operated by the nonprofit Reality House West to offer supportive services and housing to residents with few resources. House of Welcome remains the Cadillac’s signature concept in the present day. Many of the songs on Free Press Music’s new EP reflect FPM leader Christie Aida’s immersion as a volunteer for Reality House West, the nonprofit created by the late Leroy Looper and his wife Kathy Looper and other activists to make the Cadillac a refuge and a home for its residents. The stories, struggles and everyday life experiences of Tenderloin and SOMA residents…

Loralee Christensen, vocals Ricc Sandoval, guitar Henry Salvia, piano Paul Olguin, bass John Hanes, drums Byob and a twenty for the band. All ages welcome! Loralee is a soul singer well known and loved on the North Bay music scene for three decades or more. She’s performed with soul legend Bettye Lavette, Clarence Clemons (The E-Street Band), Mickey Thomas (The Starship, Elvin Bishop) and Johnny Colla (Huey Lewis & the News). Ricc Sandoval on guitar has been a mainstay on the Bay Area scene, playing with Katherine Chase, and most recently Shana Morrison. Drummer John Hanes plays a very active role in the local improv music scene, playing with the likes of Pihillip Greenleif, John Schott, Myles Boisen and many others. His work with Pearl Harbor and the Explosions is the stuff of legend. He also plays with Victor Krummenacher of Camper Van Beethoven & Monks of Doom fame. Henry…

Guitarist Brad Buethe leads a quartet with saxophonist Rob Sudduth, bassist Peter Barshay and drummer Jason Lewis, exploring each tune with the musical insight and freedom that comes of decades of experience traveling far beyond the boundaries of San Francisco, and the comfort of calling it home. $20; byob. Reservations, call 415-586-3733.  

Featuring vocalist Sandra Aran, Sondango brings you two generous sets of superbly crafted songs with deep grooves, playing salsa, samba, bolero, cumbia, ska and more. With music director Richard Nelson Hall on piano, Scott Foster on guitar, Dean Muench on bass and Dan Foltz on drums, Sondango will have you dancing in the aisles. Bring a twenty for the cover charge and something to sip. With an eye towards representing the grand diversity that is San Francisco, Richard and Sandra write their original songs in Spanish illustrating such common themes as love, loss, joy and passion. Strongly rooted in their love of jazz and Latin rhythms, Sondango brings together musicians from San Francisco, the East Bay and the Peninsula. Sondango embodies a meeting of cultures, and sensibilities with the here and now. After studying classical piano and composition at the National University of Mexico, Sandra completed her Bachelor of Arts…

Thursday, September 28th, Martin Nakell travels up from SoCal with Rebecca Goodman, where both teach creative writing at Chapman University’s Wilkinson College, to present prose and poetry at 7:30pm in the company of their friend Evan Burkin, himself a writer and an MFA student of creative writing at San Francisco State. Author of the manifesto “The Way of Chaos: Literary, Art, and Music Composition,” Nakell has published 18 books of fiction and poetry. Consciousness, his most recent collection of poems, was published in 2021 by Spuyten Duyvil Press. His forthcoming Martin Nakell Reader will come out from Spuyten Duyvil in 2024. “The content of Consciousness is language,” he says.”If the reader connects with the language, I will have done well.” Goodman has written three “fictions,” her latest being the recently published Forgotten Night (Spuyten Duyvil 2023), preceded by Aftersight (Spuyten Duyvil, 2015) and The Surface of Motion (Green Integer, 2008).…

9/27, 7:30 – David Kubrin book event – Marxism & Witchcraft. With Francisco Herrera.David Kubrin, genial and brilliant philosopher of art, science, community and social evolution, comes over — with his friend Francisco Herrera providing guitar and song — to present his book Marxism & Witchcraft. Starhawk notes that, “Marxism and Witchcraft is a vitally important book, a tremendous resource for anyone interested in the question ‘How did we get into this mess?’“At this time of environmental meltdown, Kubrin’s careful analysis of how and why the mechanistic model was imposed on science, philosophy and Western culture is vital to our understanding what we must do to transform it. To see the world as alive again, infused with vitality and spirit, we must also confront the violence with which that worldview was stamped out — the Witch persecutions that assaulted women’s power and traditional modes of healing, the genocide against indigenous…

All welcome! Musicians, be our guests. Audience, help us pay the trio! Bring a twenty if you’re able, and consider donating to the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project, the 501(c)3 we use to fund our music, poetry and other cultural programming. That’s what makes it work when audiences can’t carry the burden of paying the talent. We’ve got a lot of talent in San Francisco, spanning the generations.

Raquel Baena – trombone and vocals Justin Flynn – saxophones Dan Neville – marimba and vibraphone Andres Fonseca – drums and percussion Juan Sebastian Monsalve – bass and musical director $20-$30 sliding scale cover charge; byob. Balsa de Fuego gathers Panhispanic rhythms and music such as Cumbia, Joropo & Currulao and bends them and blends them using lots of resources and sounds from jazz and the community vibe of Terraza 7 in Queens, resulting in a truly New York flavored collage. This new project lead by Colombian composer Juan Sebastian Monsalve (known as one of the precursors of the New Colombian Music with his band Curupira) assembles a diverse range of musicians from the New York music scene, achieving a powerful contemporary sound with strong roots in tradition.  

Noel Jewkes, reeds and flute Grant Levin, piano Chris Amberger, bass Josh Setala, drums $20 cash cover charge, byob For reservations, call 415-586-3733 Noel Jewkes is a legend among Bay Area jazz fans for his six-plus decades on the scene as a master of the tenor saxophone and any number of allied instruments, a disciple of the great Lester Young, an expert in swing. Come hear him with a rhythm section comprising long-time associates Grant Levin on piano and Chris Amberger on bass together with the young drummer Josh Setala. Jazz the way we like it!     In Noel’s five decades here on the coast, he’s been called on to work with singers from Rosemary Clooney to Billy Eckstein to Jon Hendricks, in blues-rock bands with Mike Bloomfield and Nick Gravenitis, in the all-female rock band Ace of Cups, in the jump blues outfit led by Lavay Smith and…

Lew Tabackin, flute & tenor saxophone Essiet Okon Essiet, bass Sylvia Cuenca, drums $20 cash cover charge; byob Reservations, call 415-586-3733 In transit between an 8-date/12-day tour in Japan and a booking at the Monterey Jazz Festival, master musician Lew Tabackin stops off at Bird & Beckett in San Francisco for a trio date. From the MJF notes: Lew Tabackin, flutist and tenor saxophonist, is an artist of astonishing vision. His electrifying flute playing is at once virtuosic, primordial, cross-cultural, and passionate. His distinctive tenor sax style includes the use of wide intervals, abrupt changes of mood and tempo, and purposeful fervor, all in the service of showing the full range of possibilities of his instrument — melodically, rhythmically, and dynamically. Without copying or emulating jazz greats of the past, Mr. Tabackin has absorbed elements into his style, ultimately creating his own sound and aura. His interest in music began…

Bob Kenmotsu, tenor saxophone Keith Saunders, piano Eric Markowitz, bass Tony Johnson, drums $20 suggested donation; byob for reservations, call 415-586-3733 Drummer Tony Johnson’s monthly 4th Fridays residency continues! His quartet features musicians with long experience in San Francisco, New York, St. Louis and internationally. Tony arrived in San Francisco from Australia in 1959 and hit the ground swingin’, recording in 1960 with vocalist Bev Kelly, live at the Coffee Gallery on Grant Street in North Beach, engineered by Willy Heider, produced by Orrin Keepnews and released by Riverside Records. He’s never stopped since.  

Walker Brents III presents a talk once a month at Bird & Beckett on a variety of subjects, from poets to philosophers to mystics, folktales to tall tales…   With regard to today’s talk on Friedrich Schiller, he says, “Schiller’s thoughts bring us through a cosmos of art-wisdom that encompasses Kant, the French Revolution, Rousseau and many other places, times, and place-names. Sometimes placeless places of no-name as well. Liquifying our aesthetic inklings and energizing our aesthetic intuitions. This is much more simple and profound than it may seem like at first. Schiller’s concepts are mythical, sublime and humble, all at one moment of whole perception. I offer it to you.” Walker’s talk can be found on our Facebook page or YouTube channel, as well as live in the shop.

  The Tony Johnson Quartet Friday 9/22 at 5:30pm Drummer Tony Johnson swam ashore from Australia in 1959 and hit North Beach swingin’. The singer Bev Kelly led a date at the Coffee Gallery in October 1960 with Pony Poindexter on saxophone, Flip Nunez on piano, Johnny Allen on bass and Tony, himself, on drums, recorded by Wally Heider, produced by Orrin Keepnews and released by Riverside Records as “Bev Kelly, Live at the Coffee Gallery.” Here’s a taste. Tony leads a date at Bird & Beckett on the third Friday of each month, this time out with his quartet featuring Bob Kenmotsu on saxophone, Keith Saunders on piano and Eric Markowitz on bass.           Lew Tabackin Trio Friday 9/22 at 9pmLew Tabackin, the famed NY-based veteran saxophonist/flutist, will be flying in from Tokyo and tuning up here before heading down to play the Monterey Jazz…

Ron Jackson, guitar Essiet Okon Essiet, bass Sylvia Cuenca, drums $20 cover charge at the door; byob reservations: 415-586-3733 New York-based jazz master of the seven-string guitar Ron Jackson returns to Bird & Beckett with Essiet Okon Essiet on bass and Sylvia Cuenca on drums — one stop on a tour that’s taking him from the Rocky Mountain Archtop Festival in Arvada, Colorado to several stops in the Bay Area including Bird & Beckett and up to the Pacific Northwest for shows in Ashland, Salem and Portland. We’re happy to have him back! View this video of his 1/17/23 Bird & Beckett performance with Essiet & Sylvia to remind you how great it was or to clue you in to what he’ll bring this time around! Ron has performed, recorded and taught in over 30 countries, working with such artists as Taj Mahal, Jimmy McGriff, Larry Coryell, Benny Golson, Oliver…

There are plenty of reasons to come down to Bird & Beckett! We sell books and records six days a week, open Tuesday to Sunday from noon to six. And then there are the shows — ten of them in the two weeks between the Joe McKinley Quartet date on the 16th and the weekend of the 22nd to the 24th. You’ll find a double bill of the Tony Johnson Quartet and the Lew Tabackin Trio on Friday (9/22), the Noel Jewkes Quartet Saturday evening (9/23) and a Colombian jazz/folkloric outfit from Queens, Balsa de Fuego, on Sunday (9/24) brought to us by vibes player Dan Neville, and a jam session following… a rich vein of jazz, for sure. A full weekend follows to close out September–peek at our events calendar for a glimpse of those shows! Seating starts about 15 minutes before showtime, and you’ll generally be alright if…

Glen Park writer Beth Winegarner presents her new book on the buried history of San Francisco’s long gone cemeteries… with a little help from “Here Lies a Story”‘s Courtney Minick. San Francisco’s Forgotten Cemeteries: A Buried History, pub date Aug. 28 (call Bird & Beckett to order your copy now!), traces the international city’s settler graveyards — and uncovers how more than 50,000 graves were left behind when the dead moved to Colma.  San Francisco is famous for not having any cemeteries, but the claim isn’t exactly what it seems. In the early 20th Century, the city relocated more than 150,000 graves to the nearby town of Colma to make way for a rapidly growing population. But an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 burials were quietly built over and forgotten, only to resurface every time a new building project began.  The dead still lie beneath some of the city’s most cherished…

Joel Eis at the podium addressing a student protest at CSU Fresno, 1970. Author Joel Eis, hosted and introduced by poet, bandleader, musicologist and KPFA/KPOO dj Avotcja, presents his memoir, Standin’ in a Hard Rain: The Making of a Revolutionary Life. Thursday 9/14 at 7pm Joel Eis has a bookshop with a radical bent in San Rafael called Rebound, writes science fiction, and has had a long career in theater production and education, with an overriding commitment to political theater and activism. His memoir “is a useful and compelling read as the nation once again tries to find its bearings.” –David Harris, journalist and activist. Threeocracy plays the music of the Lucky Thompson / Oscar Pettiford collaborations of 1956. Friday 9/14 at 5:30pm – $20 suggested / byob Bassist Oscar Pettiford’s tune Tricotism is the centerpiece of two 1956 recording dates with saxophonist Lucky Thompson. Pettiford (1922-1960) was a key bassist…

Mario Guarneri is assembling a great jazz band from the membership rolls of the Independent Musicians Alliance to entertain you tonight, with a jam session open to all IMA members to follow. IMA members attend free of charge. The public is welcome–it’s a fundraiser for the IMA, so bring your checkbook or the equivalent! Pay a $20 cover charge to help Bird & Beckett pay a fair guaranteed wage to the band members. And make a donation if you’re able to one or all of the organizations that are working locally to assist the musicians in their struggle — the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project, the Independent Musicians Alliance and Jazz in the Neighborhood. Together, we can do this. BYOB if it sounds like thirsty work to you! The IMA is a solidarity organization co-founded in 2022 by Mario Guarneri and Eric Whittington — now 180 musicians strong —…

Kim Shuck, San Francisco’s 7th Poet Laureate (2017-2020), hosts two readings on zoom each month, with featured readers and an open mic on the second Monday of each month and an all-open mic format on the fourth Monday of the month. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84350265713?pwd=eE84V3BYdWxiSFBHNHhmdUt1WTUzdz09 Meeting ID: 843 5026 5713 Passcode: 244211 September 11, Kimi Sugioka and Lia Le-Nguyen are featured. Kimi Sugioka is a mother, educator, songwriter and poet. She earned an MFA from Naropa University and has published two books of poetry; the newest of which is Wile & Wing on Manic D Press. She has been published in numerous anthologies and is the poet laureate of Alameda, California. As an active board member for literary arts organizations, she curates and hosts readings in Alameda and San Francisco. She believes that creating community through art is a revolutionary act. Lia Le-Nguyen (she/they) is a writer based in Fremont, California. This year, Lia was…

Join Joe & the boys for a couple of hours reveling in the pain of heartache and demon alcohol, and a tribute or two to the valor of the American trucker! Sure they can close down the honky tonks, but they’ll never close down the bookshop! BYOB and a twenty for the band!  

Jazz and poetic compositions by saxophonist/poet Lewis Jordan, an international touring and recording artist, poet, actor and playwright, whose teachers are the music and poetry of Ayler, Shepp, Coleman, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago; the thoughts and spirit of Krishnamurti and Rumi. Music at Large includes Lewis Jordan’s long-time collaborators Sandi Poindexter, Ollen Erich Hunt and Jimmy Biala, who will appear on tonight’s program, and expands as circumstances allow to include such artists as Bruce Ackley, Pearl Ubungen, Tureeda Mikel, John-Carlos Perea, Karl Evangelista, Genny Lim, David Boyce, Ian Carey, Marshall Trammell, Masaru Koga, India Cook, and many others since its inception. https://www.musicatlarge.org/music-at-large The ensemble’s performance September 27, 2021 at Freight and Salvage in Berkeley can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjMUFMF1Uk0. Lewis should be king! video production by Jeremy Allen | Musiquito Media https://www.musiquito.com/ Recordings by Lewis Jordan and Music at Large include This is Where I Came In (2017),…

Always a good time when the In Crowd gathers at Bird & Beckett. Eric Shifrin, piano Paul Smith, bass Raul Ramirez, drums $20 suggested, BYOB Can’t make it to the show? Check it out in the live stream on our YouTube channel or Facebook page. Donate to support the musicians & the stream!

Two scrappy poets with long histories in San Francisco bohemia make their way out to Bird & Beckett to make some noise in sleepy Glen Park! Jessica Loos’s work verges on performance art, channeling a strain of poetic tradition steeped in surrealism, dada and the best of Charles Bukowski. She’s a member of The Living Theatre and a collage artist as well, and organizes the poetry for the North Beach First Friday Artwalk and the North Beach Festival. Never satisfied, she also puts on readings, often with live music, at Specs Bar in Adler Alley opposite City Lights, and in Kerouac Alley between City Lights and Vesuvio opposite Specs–not to mention on Upper Grant Street on the sidewalk in front of Macchiarini Creative Design. Cara Vida left a life among the suits long ago to find a dizzying and earthy reality. With a carney’s purity, she utilizes a collage technique…

Liam Furey, tenor saxophone Anne Sajdera, piano Aaron Germain, bass Brian Andres, drums $20 suggested / byob reservations: 415-586-3733 Born and raised in Bird and Beckett’s own backyard in Glen Park, Liam Furey leads a top-flight rhythm section through two rewarding sets of reflective originals and unique standards. Liam has been involved in SF’s jazz scene for years, notably composing and recording the soundtrack for “Red Poet”, the documentary centering around the life of the late SF Poet Laureate Jack Hirschman. Visit Liam’s website at liamfurey.com for a taste of his rich tenor tone. His quartet for the date includes Anne Sajdera, a consummate jazz pianist with deep Brazilian and classical roots; bassist Aaron Germain, whose collaborations with musicians from a global range of traditions are widely acclaimed; and drummer Brian Andres, a key player on the Bay Area latin jazz scene.  

The Anhad Naad Collective this evening comprises vocalist Divya Vyas, Jun Ishimuro on flute and Charles Thomas on bass, joined by guest singer Madhuranjan Mohaan. $20-25 cover charge, sliding scale Anhad Naad Collective performance at Bird & Beckett can be viewed live and also after the fact on our bookshop’s Facebook page or YouTube channel. Please donate $5 or more using the venmo or paypal information on the screen to help us pay the performers and help with the streaming expense. Anhad Naad derives from the Sanskrit “Anahata Nad,” meaning “sound produced without touching two parts” and meaning at the same time “pure” or “clean, stainless”. The name of this chakra signifies the state of freshness that appears when we are able to become detached and to look at the different and apparently contradictory experiences of life with a state of openness (expansion). Flute player Jun Ishimuro came up with…