Smith Dobson, tenor saxophone Keith Saunders, piano Eric Markowitz, bass Tony Johnson, drums Concluding their three-week “Deluxe Holiday” run, the Smith Dobson Quartet, led by a tenor player with a deep feeling for the cool intensity and beautiful facility of Lester Young and Stan Getz, takes the stage tonight. Two sets, with guest musicians sitting in on the second set. Doors open at 7:20 for the 7:30 show. BYOB. We request that patrons remain masked inside the venue regardless of vaccination status to keep each other healthy and so all can relax and enjoy the music. $20 cash cover charge/$10 after 9:30pm.  BYOB.* For musicians coming to sit in: $10 at the door, $5 back if you make it on to the bandstand to play.  Can’t make it to the shop tonight? Catch the quartet in the stream at showtime on YouTube or Facebook, and donate $10 by Paypal, Venmo…

Mike Olmos, trumpet Javier Santiago, piano Giulio Xavier Cetto, bass Jeff Marrs, drums Concluding a three-week “Deluxe Holiday” run, Mike Olmos leads a hard bop date guaranteed to please, featuring some of the Bay Area’s finest jazz players. Two sets, with guest musicians sitting in on the second set. Can’t make it to the shop tonight? Catch the quartet in the stream at showtime on YouTube or Facebook, and donate $10 by Paypal, Venmo or the Cash app! Don’t miss Smith Dobson’s date on Tuesday 7/27 and Patrick Wolff’s quartet on Wednesday 7/28! $20 cash cover charge/$10 after 9:30pm.  BYOB.* For musicians coming to sit in: $10 at the door, $5 back if you make it on to the bandstand to play.  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Why do we call it a Deluxe Holiday? It’s a plush cushion of music…

    Mondays – July 12, 19 and 26 – 7:30-10pm The Mike Olmos Quartet 7/12 – Javier Santiago, piano; Giulio Xavier Cetto, bass; Brian Fishler, drums 7/19 – Keith Saunders, piano; Giulio Xavier Cetto, bass; Brian Fishler, drums 7/26 – Javier Santiago, piano; Giulio Xavier Cetto, bass; Jeff Marrs, drums     Tuesdays – July 13, 20 and 27, 7:30-10pm The Smith Dobson V Quartet 7/13 – Adam Shulman, piano; Matt Montgomery, bass; James Gallagher, drums 7/20 – Keith Saunders, piano; Eric Markowitz, bass, Tony Johnson, drums 7/27 – Keith Saunders, piano; Eric Markowitz, bass; Tony Johnson, drums         Wednesdays – July 14, 21 and 28 – 7:30-10 pm The Patrick Wolff Quartet 7/14 – Adam Shulman, piano; Dexter Williams, bass; James Gallagher, drums 7/21 – Jeffrey Burr, guitar; Eric Markowitz, bass; James Gallagher, drums 7/28 – Keith Saunders; piano; Eric Markowitz, bass; James Gallagher- drums…

SF Poet Laureate Emerita Kim Shuck hosts the Bird & Beckett Poets!Zoom Tonight, Monday, July 26:  A zoomed poetry release reading for Essential Truths: The Bay Area in Color – the new anthology from poet/writer/editor Shizue Seigel. “It’s about standing strong in the Fillmore and Japantown. What is valuable about the old inner-city communities that are being erased by gentrification? Not only in the buildings, but in the nature of how people interacted with each other as a village where everybody had a place.” Read more at this link.  An open mic will follow where you can share one poem of a length that supports everyone having time to read. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84053465883?pwd=NHZIZ2U5elhjWjl2WjZmRFVMajVkdz09 Meeting ID: 840 5346 5883 Passcode: 572983 One tap mobile +16699006833,,84053465883#,,,,*572983# US (San Jose) +13462487799,,84053465883#,,,,*572983# US (Houston) Dial by your location +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) +1 253…

  Call to reserve a seat now! Rova has been a force on the international festival circuit for decades, but makes its home in San Francisco. Tonight, Rova digs in deep at Bird & Beckett! Bruce Ackley, soprano sax Steve Adams, alto sax Larry Ochs, tenor sax Jon Raskin, baritone sax Read up on Rova here     Live in the shop – $20 cash cover charge Live streamed on YouTube and Facebook View our live streams on our YouTube channel and our Facebook page. $10 or pay what your economics allow at this link We pay a “guaranteed fair wage” of $150 to each musician performing in our Friday and Saturday evening live streams and we look to the audience, whether live or online, in order to get that money together, so please do what you can! We are extremely grateful as well to the many individuals in the community who donate…

Drummer Tony Johnson anchors Bird & Beckett’s jazz scene on the fourth Friday of every month. Hear him tonight in the company of one of the great veteran saxophonists on the scene, Charlie McCarthy, guitarist Glen Deardorff and bassist Jeff Saxton. Guaranteed swinging bebop & bossa. Tony hit San Francisco in 1959, fresh off the boat from his native Australia, ready and raring to go. He got busy in the North Beach clubs right away, recorded in 1960 with vocalist Bev Kelly in a combo with legendary saxophonist Pony Poindexter, pianist Flip Nunez and bassist Johnny Allen at the Coffee Gallery on Grant Street, played behind Bobby Short at the Hungry I. Tony played on the Ed Sullivan Show with the Vagabonds (the house band of the Tropicana Hotel in Vegas), toured the country with George Shearing, backed Peggy Lee, recorded in the Claude Williamson Trio alongside bassist Don Prell…

Deluxe Jazz in July at Bird & Beckett Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays 7:30 to 10pm Tonight, Wed. 7/21: The Patrick Wolff Quartet Patrick Wolff, tenor saxophone Jeffrey Burr, guitar Eric Markowitz, bass James Gallagher, drums $20 cover in the store; $10 cover on the stream Staying home, but want to hear the music? Catch our live stream on Facebook       YouTube $10 cover charge by paypal, venmo, cash app or drop it by the shop Thanks for supporting the musicians! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Friday, July 23, 7:30pm $20 in the shop; $10 in the stream Tony Johnson & the 230 Jones Street Irregulars with Charlie McCarthy, Glen Deardorff & Al Obidinski   Saturday, July 24, 7:30pm $20 in the shop; $10 in the stream Rova Saxophone Quartet   ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~…

Barshay/Atwal/Levin: A Trio Bassist Peter Barshay has recorded, performed and toured with an impressive range of musicians during his career spanning five decades. He began that career in the San Francisco Bay Area, moving east in 1978 to join the dynamic New York City jazz scene. During his 17-year New York residency, he performed with a long list of top-name jazz artists. Back on the San Francisco scene and touring internationally in the 25-plus years since 1995, Peter is one of the great voices on his instrument anywhere, working in settings from concert halls to festival stages to small clubs and bars…to the bookshop cum jazz club known as Bird & Beckett in San Francisco. For this date, he’s enlisted the drummer Hamir Atwal and the pianist Grant Levin, two young and fully matured jazz musicians also comfortable playing at all the levels that live jazz offers the musicians and…

Scott Foster has been the skeleton key to the Bird & Beckett jazz sanctum since it kicked in in earnest, back in late 2002. Back then, Chuck Peterson, a Glen Park neighbor and a professional jazz musician working in the theater district pit bands–and also a proud Local 6 union member, started fielding a quartet weekly. Chuck called on bassist Don Prell to help recruit musicians, and Scott was one of those who was quickly a first call player on those dates and lit them up every time. Don’s career in the ’50s was pretty high profile and, after (or while) toiling in symphony orchestras for several decades, he also ran a jazz band of varied personnel at the San Francisco Boat Club down in Mission Bay. So, Don was in a position to call on lots of musicians and served that purpose well when he brought Scott onto the…

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. This morning, Sunday, July 11 at 10 a.m., Denise will engage Kelly Dessaint in a conversation on independent publishing, zine making, writing and driving-for-hire in the pre and post-pandemic Bay Area. Kelly Dessaint is a veteran of the small press. He has been pushing print media as a writer, editor, designer and publisher since the ’90s. He founded Phony Lid Books in 1999 to publish paperbacks by underground writers, played in a bunch of bands, did odd jobs and peddled rare books at flea markets around LA. In 2014, he moved to Oakland and started driving for Uber and Lyft, documenting…

Wendy brings her trio back to Bird & Beckett for a fresh take on the boogie woogie. Guaranteed pleasure & good times! With Takezo Takeda on guitar and Kirk Harwood on drums. Come down to Bird & Beckett for a grand time. Doors open at 7:20 for the 7:30 show; be sure to byob (and glass) and take your empty with you when you go, if you please. Masks optional if you’re vaccinated. $20 cash cover charge requested View our live streams on our YouTube channel and our Facebook page. $10 to view the show online (or pay what your economics allow) at this link We pay a “guaranteed fair wage” of $150 to each musician performing in our Friday and Saturday evening live streams and you are the first ones we look to in order to get that money together, so please do what you can! We are extremely grateful as well…

Poet/Educator/Activist Tongo Eisen-Martin, San Francisco Poet Laureate, hosts six individuals who we’re proud to present in the shop tonight. Audience welcome. A live stream will carry the event for those not comfortable venturing out, whether due to dark of night, lack of transit or any other reason. But rest assured, the in-person experience will be rewarding indeed, for you and for the artists. View the live stream here! ——————————- $10-20 sliding scale cover charge cash at the door byob&glass: please pack it in/pack it out. please wear a mask if you’re unvaccinated, otherwise, relax and know you’re welcome here! $5-10 donation requested to view the livestream: youtube / fb no one turned away for lack of funds, but please do what you can to help us compensate the artists and sound engineer! donate here ——————————- jxtheo (j-thee-o), also known as Jean (JT) Teodoro, is an environmentalist, proletarian internationalist, poet and…

Pepe Jacobo Quartet Bob Crawford, piano Jason Muscat, bass Carlos Caro, congas Pepe Jacobo, drum set and percussion Doors open at 7:20 for the 7:30 shows. $20 cover, cash, payable at the door. BYOB and BYOglass, and please pack out what you bring in! No masks required if fully vaccinated. Pepe Jacobo is an ebullient master of many musical genres, as reflected by the diversity of the groups he plays with including the Jorge Santana Band, the Latin Funk band Mas Cabeza, the Latin jazz group Caliente 2000 and the world music group Volcan. He holds a Diploma in Music from the University of Costa Rica, has studied with Stewart Mars, and has taken private classes with Antoni Saroni, Pete Magadini and many others. Pepe creates and performs original music on guitar and percussion; his teaching emphasizes the mathematics of time signatures, music therapy, scales, chords, open tones and fun.…

Avotcja’s Almost 80 Birthday Concert 2 sets of poetry and music Set 1: Avotcja with Carlos Reyes on Paraguayan Harp & Flute Set 2: Acotcja with the Genius Wesley Trio LIVE STREAMED FROM THE SHOP — NO AUDIENCE TONIGHT A major poet and writer in many genres. A devotee of beautiful music, particularly from the afro-caribbean traditions. A long-time dj on KPFA & KPOO. A champion of culture and 2015 Jazz Hero.   12th ANNUAL BERKELEY POETRY FESTIVAL LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 2014 S.F. FILIPINO AMERICAN JAZZ FESTIVAL LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 2014 JAZZ JOURNALISTS ASSOCIATION “JAZZ HERO” AWARD 2015 PEN OAKLAND LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 2015 BLACK MEDIA APPRECIATION NIGHT LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 2015 “THE JaZzLine INSTITUTE” BAJABA (Bay Area Blues & Jazz Artists) AWARD 2015 BAY BLUES SOCIETY HALL OF FAME JAZZ GROUP OF THE YEAR for her group, Modupue, twice: in 2005 and 2010 PEN OAKLAND “ADELLE FOLEY AWARD” for…

Larry De La Cruz, saxophone Jim Peterson, saxophone Scott Foster, guitar Decades of shared history on the San Francisco jazz scene Good times, great music Doors open 7:20pm Music at 7:30pm $20 cash at the door BYOB / BYOGlass Pack it in / Pack it out No food in the shop just yet, thanks! Also live on Facebook   and   YouTube $10 donation for the live stream