Kim Shuck, poet & artist, conducts Bird & Beckett’s virtual poetry series twice a month. 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. Zoom link, click here Google Meet, click here On the 2nd Monday, there are featured poets in addition to the open mic.

“With its intimations of primal sacred cries, HowellDevine embodies elemental blues and boogie like juke joint prophets. Featuring Eli’s Mile High Club-honed Joshua Howell on slide guitars, harmonica, and vocals, percussion expert Roll ’Em Pete Devine on drums and washboard, and the relentlessly propulsive Joe Kyle Jr. on bass, the combo taps into red clay Delta roots while embracing fierce grooves that speak to urban realities. ” –Andrew Gilbert, East Bay Express Powerful music from a trio that’s the toast of venues up and down the coast and all around the festival circuit. It’s always a pleasure to have them back to Bird & Beckett. Nobody’s who heard HowellDevine is likely to have forgotten the experience. $20 cash cover charge. Audience capacity is 20, so call for a reservation! 415-586-3733. Doors open at 4:45 for the 5pm show. Proof of vaccination & masks required. BYOB. Take in our shows on…

Marco Diaz – trumpet Charlie Gurke – saxes Julio Perez – percussion Saúl Sierra – bass. $20 cash cover charge; BYOB; proof of vaccination & masks, please. Doors open at  7:20 for the 7:30 show. Audience capacity – 20. Call for reservations (415) 586-3733. Also viewable live streamed on the Bird & Beckett Facebook page or YouTube channel. Your donations are appreciated. Bassist, composer, arranger and educator Saúl Sierra, born and raised in México City, began playing professionally in 1990 and graduated from the Berklee School of Music in Boston before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1999. He has performed, toured or recorded with Poncho Sanchez, Paquito D’ Rivera, Zakir Hussain, Arturo Sandoval, Jerry Gonzales, Jerry Medina, Walfredo de los Reyes, Peter Erskine, Donny McCaslin, Charlie Musselwhite, Pete Escovedo, Ernesto Oviedo, Steve Turre, Ray Vega, Hector Tricoche, Paquito Guzman, Antonio Sanchez, Arturo O’Farrill, Larry Harlow, Bobi Céspedes, Jimmy Bosh,…

Come along on a journey to the center of the jazz, a deep dive into the dark caves of improvised music in search of the music’s inner light. The expedition has been conceived and rehearsed and is ready to descend. Come cheer them on as they don the requisite gear and visit a mysterious interior never yet explored by jazz musicians! Bruce Ackley, reeds Scott Foster, guitar Pete Schmitt, bass David Brandt, drums Scott Foster has been bringing us fresh projects on the 3rd Friday of the month for years now, and has never yet run out of prospects. We’re always the richer for it. This time he’s mining for beatcoin. Please bring $20 in cash for the cover charge so we can pay these musicians a guaranteed fair wage. Also bring proof of vaccination and a mask, and something to sip. If you can’t get to the shop or…

Publisher and researcher Tate Swindell hosts author Thomas Antonic, offering a presentation, with audio & visuals, from his book Amongst Nazis: William S. Burroughs in Vienna 1936/37. An onstage Q & A between Antonic and Swindell with audience participation will follow.  A live stream of this event can be found on the Bird & Beckett Facebook page or YouTube channel.

The Jinx Jones Trio, with Angeline Saris, bass & Ken Owen, drums. Two sets of instrumental exotica and jazz! One of America’s finest guitar stylists & an intrepid explorer, dedicated to the psychotropic extremes of rockabilly, surf and your more august & happy traditions. Live streamed and live in the shop to an audience of 20. Call 415-202-4870 to reserve. Bring $20-30 cash for the cover charge to help us pay these fine musicians. Also BYOB, and the usual: keep that mask up, except when sippin’, and bring that card. Tuning in on YouTube or Facebook? Contribute per the instructions on the video screen! It’s on you, too, to make this culture work! And make it work, we shall! Down in Glen Park, with the…    

Larry Vann has long been the Groove Merchant! He brings it again with his long-time working trio, with Michael Warren on bass and Tim Landis on guitar, for two sets of jazz, soul, blues and funk. Larry has performed with Curtis Mayfield, Elvis Bishop and Charlie Musselwhite, among a raft of superstars, and he’s played the Bird & Beckett stage many times, with this trio and with the New Squatoolas and Todd Swenson’s This Side Up. He’s a cornerstone of the Bay Area music scene and has been for decades! Catch his New Squatoolas turn just this past Thanksgiving weekend at this link! Take in our shows on the Bird & Beckett Facebook page or YouTube channel. $20 cash cover charge at the door or $20 suggested donation at this link in the stream. Pay what you can. Masks and full boosted vaccination please. Do take a rain check if you have any…

Three New York-based jazz masters take the stage at Bird & Beckett Tuesday, January 11 at 7:30pm for two sets of jazz! $20 cash cover charge. BYOB. Vax. Masks. Audience capacity is just 20 seats. For a reservation, call 415-586-3733! Also streamed on the Bird & Beckett Facebook page and YouTube channel. Oakland-born tenor saxophonist Craig Handy will share the bandstand with Omaha-born bassist Essiet Okon Essiet and San Jose-born drummer Sylvia Cuenca. Handy and Essiet are both alumni of the last iteration of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in years leading up to Blakey’s passing in 1990. Sylvia’s credits include four years with Joe Henderson and seventeen with trumpeter Clark Terry. Handy and Essiet both put in time with Joe Henderson as well, along with a raft of other major talents. Handy’s memorable performance as tenor sax giant Coleman Hawkins in the 1996 Robert Altman film “Kansas City” made that…

Want a taste right now of their fine elixer? Check out the December 12 show on our YouTube channel or Facebook page! We’d suggest you pick it up at the 14:48 mark, when the mix has settled in and the band is tooled up for pure honky tonk magic. Click through to the full post, and click here!

4tet Apocalyptique Filling a need for comfort music since 2020 R&B, jazz, samba, pop Sharman Duran (piano) Salvador Aguilera (saxophone) Rick Brown (trombone) Pepe Jacobo (drums) Reservations encouraged (call 415-586-3733), as audience capacity is limited to 20 during the present phase of our little apocalypse. Doors open at 7:20 for the 7:30 1st set and reservations will be held only until 7:30 Seats often open up for the second set at about 8:30 $20-30 cash cover charge at the door, please! Pay only what you can, but do what you can. Proof of vaccination and a mask are required. BYOB, and please leave your mask in place except when taking a sip. Thanks! Your cover charges and online donations help us pay the band’s guarantee and are very much appreciated. Bird & Beckett proudly adheres to a guaranteed fair wage standard for the musicians without regard to audience size or…

The Jon Frank Trio, with Sam Cady on piano and Chris Amberger on bass, has been honing its repertoire, including a number of  tunes penned by the pianist, in anticipation of a recording session soon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKBjiDQqs88[/embedyt The leader of the trio, drummer Jon Frank, sends this biographical sketch: I started playing drums in garage bands at age 12 in the East Bay, playing mostly blues and Jimi Hendrix as well as the usual SF Psychedelic groups.  Jazz hit me hard in high school, when I would travel to Moe’s Books in Berkeley and get amazing records like “Miles Smiles”, featuring Tony Williams on drums. An advanced musical friend introduced me to John Coltrane on “My Favorite Things” featuring either Roy Haynes or Elvin Jones on drums.  We would have jazz listening parties all the time. My first live concert was in 1970 at the Fillmore West on Van Ness, featuring…

On the first Thursday of each month, Jerry Ferraz and Michael Koch host a poetry reading with a couple of headliners and an open mic. Thursday, January 6, 2022, at 7pm Judith Ayn Bernhard and Silvi Alcivar are the featured poets Reservations are encouraged, as audience capacity is limited to 20 during the current uncertainty. To reserve, call 415-586-3733. Proof of vaccination and a mask are required. BYOB, and please leave your mask in place except when taking a sip. Thanks! Can’t make it to the shop for the reading? Catch the live stream on Bird & Beckett’s YouTube channel or Facebook page. Donations to help us pay a small honorarium to the posts and hosts are very much appreciated. You’ll see information on how to donate on the video screen. Thanks so much for supporting the culture, the poets and Bird & Beckett. Judith Ayn Bernhard is a poet, prose writer…

Celebrate 2022 with our annual first Sunday booking of Avotcja with her supergroup Modúpue featuring Sandy Poindexter, violin; Francis Wong, saxophone; Heshima Mark Williams, bass; Val Serrant, steel pan drum & percussion. _____________________________________ Live stream only for this show, to preserve the continued good health of Avotcja, a Bay Area cultural treasure! Avotcja is a recipient of the JaZzLine Institute’s Bay Area Jazz and Blues Artist (BAJABA) Lifetime Achievement Award and her five- to ten-piece ensemble Modúpue was named Jazz Group of the Year in both 2005 and 2010 by the Bay Area Blues Society Hall of Fame ________________ To help us pay Avotcja and her musicians a guaranteed fair wage for their work, please donate online or drop off a check! $10 to $30 suggested donation Paypal – send to [email protected] Venmo app – @birdandbeckett Cash app – $BirdBeckett Check/Cash – Bird & Beckett, 653 Chenery Street, San Francisco…

Poets Francisco Orrego and Maria Serafin on December 2nd December 3rd, Destiny Muhammad, harp; Chico Lopez, bass; Tarika Lewis, violin December 4th, the quartet of guitarist George Cotsirilos, with Keith Saunders on piano, Robb Fisher on bass and Ron Marabuto on drums December 5th, student combo followed by a jam session hosted by the Terrence Brewer Trio, with Eric Markowitz, bass and Mark Lee, drums ___ December 10th, 7:30pm – $25 – the John Calloway Quartet , with Ken Cook, piano; Marcus Shelby, bass; Brian Andres, drums; and guest vocalist Angie Doctor December 11th, 7:30pm – $25 – the Sam Cady Quintet, with Noel Jewkes & Charlie McCarthy, saxophones; Sam Cady, piano; Joe McKinley, bass; Akira Tana, drums; Jeffrey Gaeto, arranger.     December 12th – 10am – Tiny Gray-Garcia in conversation with Denise Sullivan (live stream only) December 12th – 2pm – It’s SUPER GREAT while  you browse! December…