653 Chenery Street
in San Francisco's Glen Park neighborhood
1-415-586-3733
[email protected]
Open to walk-in trade and browsing
Tuesday to Sunday
noon to six
Live Streams every weekend!
Refresh your browser to catch a show in progress!
Visit our Facebook page or YouTube channel!
But nothing beats being in the room with the music & the musicians!
Jam Session! All serious jazz musicians welcome! Last Sunday of every month hosted by the Vince Lateano Trio. Vince Lateano, drums. Peter Barshay, bass. Ben Stolorow, piano. No charge to play. Audience donations appreciated, $20 suggested, to help us pay the trio.
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Denny and Chuck dig into the Great American Songbook, augmented as suits their mood, for an hour of tunes to cheer you on this winter Sunday. Donate something to help us gather a decent guarantee for these long-time professional musicians. And bring something to sip if you’re so inclined. Stick around once they’re done to enjoy our monthly jam session that starts at 5pm.
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Duncan James, guitar. Larry Chinn, piano. Carla Kaufman, bass. Bob Blankenship, drums. $20 cover charge; byob. Reservations, call 415-586-3733. Four long-time bandstand colleagues play jazz as if it’s second nature to them, which it is, actually… byob and settle in for two sets of hard bop, bossa, swing and hot jazz at Bird & Beckett’s long-running Saturday night “jazz club” series. Duncan traditionally helps us close out the year each year with a gathering of friends and fellow musicians.
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Skylar Tang, trumpet. Matt Clark, piano. Essiet Okon Essiet, bass. Sylvia Cuenca, drums. $20 cover; byob. Sylvia Cuenca splits her time between New York and the Bay Area, where she was born and raised, performing in a great variety of situations domestically and internationally. She shared the bandstand with saxophone legend Joe Henderson for four years and with trumpet legend Clark Terry for 17 years, and has led her own groups and freelanced continuously since. During Sylvia’s tenure with the Joe Henderson Quartet, they toured extensively throughout Europe, in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, England, Switzerland, France, Italy, and Germany, and performed in venues across the U.S. In a trio setting, she performed with Henderson and Charlie Haden in 1989 and with Henderson and George Mraz in 1994. During her time with Clark Terry, Sylvia performed frequently with the Clark Terry Quintet and Big Band at the Village Vanguard, Birdland…
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It’s a bebop to bossa, blues to Broadway night at Bird & Beckett when Tony Johnson calls the 230 Jones Street crew to assembly, this time out joined by the mighty and soulful vocalist Darlene Langston. Rooted in the 2002 Chuck Peterson Trio, the 230 Jones Street Band is our legacy ensemble, an assemblage of jazz veterans–colleagues who got their start in the late 1950s and early ’60s as professionals, and union activists, by and large, advocating for fair wages and good working conditions. They get both at Bird & Beckett, a point of pride for us, and a good audience as well: respectful, well schooled in jazz and enthused! Tonight, under Tony’s leadership, the band consists of: Darlene Langston, vocals Charlie McCarthy, saxophones and flute Sam Cady, piano Chuck Bennett, bass Tony Johnson, drums The musicians must be paid, and you’re the key to making it possible for that…
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Dan Neville brings Colombian vocalist Xiomara Torres and the rich musical traditions of the Pacific coast of her native country to the San Francisco latin music scene for a special boxing day concert at Bird & Beckett. Xiomara Torres, vocals Dan Neville, vibraphone Aaron Germain, bass Brian Andres, drums $25 cover charge; byob. Reservations, call 415-202-4870.
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Playing for your browsing pleasure! Denny is one of the great lyrical pianists on the San Francisco scene. Enjoy his music on this holiday Sunday afternoon. No charge. A dozen chairs… A donation bucket to help the shop pay the performer and fund its ambitious concert series! Denny will perform a dozen or so tunes, ranging from traditional 19th century (Hard Times Come Again No More) to music from the Great American Songbook (People Will Say We’re in Love, A Woman is a Sometime Thing, In a Sentimental Mood, So in Love), to a jazz standard (Elm), a film music piece (On Golden Pond), a new look at Joni Mitchell (Both Sides Now) and, of course, holiday music (Greensleeves). Happy holidays!
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The Chris Trinidad Trio brings its sounds to Bird and Beckett this Saturday night, playing Chris’s book of tunes spanning a range of Iridium Records releases including Common Themes, Certain Times, and Chant Triptych II. His compositions are inspired by such writers as Ralph Towner, Pat Metheny, Jack DeJohnette, Jan Garbarek, Bill Evans, Brad Turner, Chris Gestrin, and Chris Tarry and draw ideas from genres as disparate as Cuban Timba, Original Pilipino Music, Gregorian Chant, and British Progressive Rock. A warm evening of delectable sonic sustenance is promised, featuring: Chris Trinidad, bass guitar + synth bass Bob Crawford, piano + melodica Isaac Schwartz, drum set $20 cover charge; byob. Reservations, call 415-586-3733.
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Todd Dickow – sax. Joel Behrman – trumpet. Benny Watson – piano. John Donnelly – bass. Greg Gotelli – drums. $20 cover charge; byob. Reservations, call 415-586-3733. The SF Jazz Quintet, helmed by drummer Greg Gotelli, brings to you the classic composers of hard bop era as well as the best of the Great American Songbook’s ballads. Performing the compositions of Sonny Clark, Lee Morgan, Tadd Dameron, Kenny Dorham, and Clifford Brown to name but a few, the SF Jazz Quintet delivers an exciting, powerfully rhythmic, horn driven ensemble sound. Their performance returns to the classic sounds that made this music some of the greatest, most loved jazz in the genre’s long history. Tonight’s iteration of his San Francisco Quintet includes formidable horn players including saxophonist Todd Dickow and trumpeter Berhman fronting the rhythm section of pianist Benny Watson, bassist John Donnelly and Greg on the drum kit. Todd Dickow’s…
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Guitarist Scott Foster’s quartet with tenor saxophonist Bob Kenmotsu, bassist John Wiitala and drummer Dan Foltz will be playing repertoire exclusively from the collaboration between Sonny Rollins and Jim Hall — music from the album “the Bridge” and beyond. What a treat! It’s getting to be a lot like Christmas! Scott weighs in: “This is a really exciting line up and music that is at the core of everything I love about jazz. I am sure it will bring joy to audiences and most certainly to me. Can’t wait.” Neither can we! Bring a twenty for the band and whatever you might want to sip during the show. Reserve a seat! Call the shop during store hours (Tuesday to Sunday, noon to six) at 415-586-3733. If you reserve, be sure to show up by showtime or we’ll release the seat if someone needs one… And let us know if you…
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POSTPONED TO 1/16 due to technical difficulties Antonin Artaud, charismatic silent movie actor, visionary dramatic theorist, and inspired prophet, was driven, by an increasingly troubled mind, in the years just prior to the second world war, to undertake a quixotic voyage to Mexico, in search of an elemental connection to the life of the earth and the sky. Much of what actually happened there is unknown, but in the years that followed, including other voyages and descents in and out of madness, his experiences and imaginations became the source of a great many poetic documents, which are available to us, and stand alone as priceless testimonies of a strange and gifted mind. On 10 January 1936, the poet, actor, and dramatic theorist, Antonin Artaud departed Europe on a journey to Mexico that would take him from the streets, cafés, and lecture halls of Mexico City to the remote mountains of…
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Josh Fineberg began his musical training at 4 years old with western classical and jazz on piano and bass in New York City. He was hailed as a prodigy and performed in jazz venues and concert halls across the New York area. In his teens, Josh fell in love with the music of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Pandit Nikhil Banerjee, and shifted his focus to sitar and Hindustani music while pursuing his Bachelor’s degree from New England Conservatory. Josh is a practitioner of the Maihar Gharana (school of playing) and has earned the love and respect of connoisseurs of Hindustani music, as well art-music communities around the world. Josh has learned with Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Ustad Aashish Khan and Sri Alam Khan, among others. He has performed extensively at festivals and concert halls in the USA, Canada, Europe and India and has recorded albums alongside some of the…
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Make it a habit! The Vince Lateano Trio plays the third Sunday of every month at Bird & Beckett! Tell your friends to meet you at San Francisco’s southernmost jazz joint & literary parlor! Vince is a 60-year veteran of the San Francisco jazz scene. Born, raised and introduced to jazz in Herb Caen’s home town of Sacramento, Vince rousted out of the Army in 1965 while the Vietnam War exploded. He immediately became a fixture on the local jazz scene, playing all the clubs in North Beach and all the concentric circles beyond, traveling the country with Woody Herman, perched on the drum throne in Cal Tjader’s final quartet in the early 1970s, leading the Jazz at Pearls house trio in the 1990s, running the jam session at the Dogpatch Saloon in the twenty-aughts and the doghouse jam at the Seven Mile House in the twenty-teens, and holding down…
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Ben Goldberg, clarinet. Myra Melford, piano. Ben Davis, cello. Jordan Glenn, drums. $25 cover charge; byob. Cash or venmo at the door, please. Reservations, call 415-586-3733. These four much admired musicians have not played together before, so no one can really know what’s going to happen. But individually and in every musical situation each always can be relied on to do their absolute best with logic and other forms of magic. Songs by people in the band and an expansive horizon of possibility are in store for the listener as well as for the performers. “Melford can be rhythmic, romantic, stoic, wry, and lusty but most of all daring — all in one tune. More importantly she‘s reconnected music to motion, leaving today‘s straightlaced young men in suits, who have dominated recent jazz, in her wake.” –Stuart Nicholson, The London Observer.
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Macy Blackman, piano Steve Reid, bass Larry Vann, drums $20 cover charge; byob. Musicians steeped in New Orleans R&B and soul, and all the New Orleans traditions from Jelly Roll Morton to Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, Doctor John, the Nevilles, the Wild Tchapatoulas, Irma Thomas…the list is long and rich, and they’re happy to roll out the songs. Macy himself is a marvel of curmudgeonly charm and talent. Actually, he just seems curmudgeonly. He’s really quite a cheerful fellow, when you stop to think about it!
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SUPPORT BIRD & BECKETT - DONATE TODAY!
Your donation to the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project helps us pay for a multitude of operating expenses necessary to present, promote and preserve local music, poetry, and more.
Help us keep the arts alive and thriving!
The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project was created in 2007 "to present, document and archive the creative work of significant living writers and musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area, for a neighborhood audience and future generations," continuing the work we began when the store was established in 1999.
We continue to present a full slate of programming of live music and poetry readings, and produce a literary journal and poetry chapbooks, and we seek and welcome your continued financial support by way of donations.
Click on "donate" in the navigation bar above. Better yet, make a check out to the “Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project” and drop it off or mail it to:
Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project
653 Chenery Street
San Francisco, CA 94131
Call us at (415) 586-3733 to find out how else you might lend your support.
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We're immensely appreciative of Jazz in the Neighborhood for having stepped in as our temporary fiscal sponsor for a few months, while we straightened out some paperwork to get nonprofit status restored to the BBCLP. We're happy to say that's been done, and all past, present, and future donations made directly to the BBCLP are fully tax-deductible!
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The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project
Our events are put on under the umbrella of the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project (the "BBCLP"). That's how we fund our ambitious schedule of 300 or so concerts and literary events every year.
The BBCLP is a [Read More ]
The Independent Musicians Alliance
Gigging musicians! You have nothing to lose but your lack of a collective voice to achieve fair wages for your work!
The IMA can be a conduit for you, if you join in to make it work.
https://www.independentmusiciansalliance.org/
Read more here - Andy Gilbert's Feb 25 article about the IMA from KQED's site
