Just wear a mask and there won’t be no trouble!

World class in your neighborhood jazz joint. What’s not to like? $20 cover — cash if you please! BYOB, and enjoy the music! Call for a reservation: 415-586-3733. Masks required while inside Bird & Beckett, regardless of vaccination status. Thanks for keeping each other safe. Can’t make it down to the shop? Take in the show through the live stream on YouTube or Facebook, and donate to help us cover the musicians’ guarantees and the costs of streaming to you wherever you are. We do recommend you access the best speakers possible!

Darren Johnston, trumpet Kasey Knudsen, saxophone Jon Arkin, drums As Darren says, “While we’ve played together in various contexts over the years, this will be the first time for this particular ensemble.  Please join us as we freely frolic through some swing, grooves, abstractions, and surprising new takes on bebop standards.” $20 cover charge; cash please. BYOB Masks are required inside, except for horn players when performing and imbibers while imbibing. Please protect each other. Also live streamed on YouTube and Facebook. At show time, search either platform for Bird & Beckett to find our channel/page and locate the event. Your donation (instructions on the screen) help us compensation the musicians and maintain the live stream function. $10 is nice. Donate what you can. Please join us anyway you care to!

Avotcja – poetry and small percussion Francis Wong – saxophone Sandy Poindexter – violin Heshima – bass Myron Cohen – drums Avotcja digs deep in her poems and the band takes it to the outer limits of joy. Years and years of musical collaboration have yielded more ecstatic moments than we can count. To preserve Avotcja’s health as she turns 80, this show will be LIVE STREAMED ONLY. You can view it live on Facebook       YouTube $20 cover charge requested to help us pay Avotcja and the musicians. Send your contribution by paypal, venmo, cash app or drop it by the shop, or mail us a check. It all works and the love of Avotcja is well deserved! Thanks for supporting the musicians! Avotcja’s group Modupue was named best jazz group of the year twice, in 2005 and again in 2010, by the Bay Area Blues Hall of Fame. Avotcja…

Last date in our three week residency for Patrick Wolff’s quartet… don’t miss it. Patrick Wolff, tenor sax Keith Saunders, piano Eric Markowitz, bass James Gallagher, drums Guest musicians on the second set 7:30-10pm, $20 cover. Musicians, $10 ($5 back if you play) BYOB. Masks, please. Enjoy the music!

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…