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…

Master storyteller, able interlocutor of literary ancestors, Walker Brents III delves into Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s fairy tale, groping in its lessons to get inside what it teaches, exploring the formative affinity he senses in it to the way consciousness actually goes along, seeking once again the place to which he’s always returned. Corollary themes of this endeavor, says Walker, include anthroposophy, Schiller’s insights into the education of the aesthetic sense, and the French Revolution, and some flashes of the Illuminati as well, prior to their being stirred so deeply into the collective cultural soup. Walker’s talks, monthly but for June and July when he travels the west once again, have been delivered only in our live stream since the beginning of the “special period” we have endured so long. Now, we can host a small audience in the shop. Call for a reservation: 415-586-3733. Or just grab a friend…

San Francisco Poet Laureate Emerita Kim Shuck conducts a poetry reading on Zoom twice a month. Second Mondays include two featured readers and an open mic. On the fourth Monday of each month, the format is all open mic.  Zoom in and add your voice! Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84350265713?pwd=eE84V3BYdWxiSFBHNHhmdUt1WTUzdz09 Meeting ID: 843 5026 5713 Passcode: 244211

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.

From the high deserts of western Colorado comes Danny Rosen, a poet, publisher, and bookseller after our own heart, whose Lithic Press has published a wealth of fine poetry, prose and art books in recent years, and whose bookstore and gallery of the same name in Fruita, CO has been the site of many great readings and exhibitions. Joining him on the Bird & Beckett stage will be the inimitable wordsmith and drummer Clark Coolidge, and writer and City Lights editor Garrett Caples, as well as poet, biographer, and emcee for the day, Neeli Cherkovski. More about the poets: Each morning Danny Rosen pees on the bank of the largest unnamed tributary to the East Branch of Big Salt Wash which flows into the Colorado River several miles below Fruita, Colorado. Early on he learned to swing a hammer and that changed everything. He has been a poet, publisher, teacher,…

Dave Tidball, alto sax. Charlie Keagle, tenor sax. Henry Hung, trumpet. Peter Barshay, bass. David Rokeach, drums. $25 cover charge / byob. reservations: call the shop at 415-586-3733. Tidball5 plays three-horn arrangements of alto player Dave Tidball’s compositions that he’s arranged for an ensemble with no chord-playing instrument (such as piano or guitar). Soloists are accompanied and supported by textures and lines of the non-soloing horns, along with the rhythm section. More from Dave: “I had a seven-piece band in Boston which was fun – I enjoy writing for multiple horns. In the 90s I formed Threedom, a trio which included bassist Bill Douglass and drummer Robert Kaufman, reveling in the freedom of that format. This new group is like an amalgamation of those two worlds” Dave, a multi-reed instrumentalist, arranger and composer born in Wales, became active in the London jazz scene in the 1970s, recording two albums and…

three avatars of the san francisco cultural stew invite you to come browse the stacks and buy some books. it’s the only way we’re going to dig out of this mess, and the plumping of the cash drawer is their intent in gathering you here today. we ourselves will content ourselves with ringing up the sales, humming along quietly, nodding sagely at the wisdom of their observations. know thyself, they say, but we say we’ll leave that to them what’s got a better perspective. we’ll take the sally field position on the matter. we’re just happy to be an outpost on the city’s cocktail circuit, where one relaxes on the axis of the wheel of life, to get the feel of life… the fray can wait.

Come out for the funkified soul of Jairo Vargas, Eli Goldlink, Bil Hagar and Pat Korte Rojai in the Pocket! $20 cover / byob  

It all started back at the turn of the century… we fell into conversation with the bassist John Clark, flipping through the jazz record bins, and the next thing we knew, we’d agreed on presenting a trio on a Friday evening a few weeks hence. John arrived with veteran drummer Vince Lateano and the pianist Lee Bloom, who brought along an electric keyboard… A few weeks later, one of Lee’s piano students, Jon Anderson, assembled a trio with his buddy Andrew Kelsey, George & Evelyn’s kid from up on Miguel Street… Not long after that, Eric Shifrin set up his keyboard with a trio. The neighbors clamored for more, especially Blanche Bebb’s friend Mary Goode… The proprietor told ’em, we gotta pay the musicians,  you know…  and that got serious when a retired tenor sax player from up on Martha Street, Chuck Peterson, heard from Mary that Bird & Beckett…

RDL+ celebrates the release of their five-album CD set “Bay Area Bridges” with an intimate concert at Bird & Beckett. Ruthie Dineen (piano) Doug Lee (bass) Luis Salcedo (guitar) $20 cover charge (cash, please); byob To reserve a seat, call 415-586-3733 RDL+, conceived and developed its “Bay Area Bridges” series in a 4-year residency at Studio Grand in Oakland as an evolving encounter with guests artists focused on original composition and collaboration, spanning jazz, classical and many other influences, moving from solo to trio and up to large ensemble based on the individual and collective artistic inspiration of the musicians. Tonight, they perform with special guests to celebrate that project and the resultant, newly released five-CD set. “We are interested in being creative and full musicians, both on on our own and as a group. When we come together, it feels right; seamless, exhilarating and meaningful all at once.” Beginning…

Patrick Cahill (The Machinery of Sleep), Gerald Fleming (The Choreographer), Carolyn Miller (Light, Moving), Eliot Schain (The Distant Sound) read poems from their Sixteen Rivers Press titles and new work.  

Vince Lateano has been a key musician in San Francisco jazz since the mid-1960s. Every third Sunday, you’ll catch his trio at Bird & Beckett– and on the last Sunday of each month, serious jazz musicians, accomplished and aspiring both, are invited to a jam session led by the trio. Either way, byob and a twenty for the band if you’re able. No one turned away for lack of funds, but check between the seat cushions and bring what you can. We’ll make sure the trio is paid, ‘though as Slim will attest, it’s even better when you help.

And yes, it’s a benefit for your beleaguered tho’ resurgent ‘n re-emergent jazz ‘n literary lounge, so bring yr checkbook! Whether it’s $10 you can contribute or $100, be the icing on this particular little birthday cake… Bird & Beckett’s music programming is 21 years old this year! Peter Case lit out from Buffalo, New York in 1973, age 18, in a blizzard, on a midnight bus headed west. That spring in San Francisco, you’d find him among the brilliant street musicians of the city, day and night, wailing on his guitar, singing with a voice that ricocheted off the storefronts and across the traffic lanes. You’d see him and hear him all over town, in the Mission, in the Tenderloin, and for a good, long stretch on the southeast corner opposite the Condor and City Lights every night of the week, busking alongside scuffling players and sterling veterans like…

duo B. vs. SPELUNKER enter the Bird & Beckett arena Saturday, August 19th at 5pm! $20 cover charge, byob. Reservations – 415-586-3733. New original trio music and covers by creative music heroes Threadgill, Braxton and more! The Bay Area improvising drums and bass duo of Jason Levis and Lisa Mezzacappa, as duo B., joins forces with Italian saxophonist Piero Bon Bittolo, aka SPELUNKER (boasting a new album by that name). Together, they’ll whip up a program of new compositions composed by members of the trio, plus new arrangements of music by creative jazz luminaries. As duo B., Mezzacappa and Levis have explored the farthest reaches of wide-open improvisation and gnarly composition for more than 15 years, immersing themselves in the music of Anthony Braxton, Henry Threadgill, Cecil Taylor, Wadada Leo Smith, and others, and releasing three records. They are a first-call rhythm section backing up local jazz heroes such as…

Saxophonist Marcus Stephens is picking the tunes for your happy hour jazz pleasure, fronting the combo Scott Foster has assembled especially for the occasion, with Matt Montgomery on bass and Michael Mitchell on drums. You’re in for two generous sets of music for a mid-August minute before school’s back in session. BYOB and a twenty for the band! Whatever your wallet will allow! Take a quick break when they finish at 8, and then hurry back at 8:30 for Mean to Me, a Bird & Beckett favorite, with Scott joining vocalist Judy Butterfield, pianist/saxophonist Ben Slater, bassist Tom Edler and drummer Cairo McCockran performing tunes from the ’20s to the ’40s mixed with bop, soul & latin jazz. Bring a twenty for each of these fine bands, and something to sip, and kick back for a Glen Park pause before the world starts down that road back to the salt…

A fantastic variety of music to choose from. You’ll most always be on the mark if you byob and a twenty for the band. And you can call to reserve a seat for any of these shows – 415-586-3733. Coming off our Thursday benefit thrown by nine stellar classical musicians (if you count Yuzoh the singing dog who, truth be told, sings along only to bluegrass), we have a cavalcade of six dates over the next three days! Our Friday happy hour show this week (5:30-8pm) is Eric Shifrin’s second Fridays residency, with the In Crowd comprising a trio this time out, and what a fun & fantastic little trio it is — Eric on piano, Ari Munkres on bass and Mark Lee on drums. Guaranteed pleasure! Bring a twenty for the band and something to sip! If you’re squeezing every dollar ’til the eagle grins, then just bring what…

San Francisco Opera & Ballet Orchestra Musicians & Friends Ride to the Rescue! When Bay Area woes reach operatic dimensions of impending tragedy, a batch of hardy musicians who know all about operatic dimensions grab their tools of the trade and come calling! Bird & Beckett is just the latest cause to grab their attention and garner their support. Thursday, August 10th at 7:30pm, come out to Bird & Beckett to enjoy the musicianship of ten stalwart music makers, San Francisco Opera & Ballet musicians, both active and retired, and friends, performing in various aggregations and all together on the Bird & Beckett stage. They’re planning a program of classical pieces and more, celebrating the connections between classical, pop and folk music. Bird & Beckett is honored to be just the latest beneficiaries of the largesse of these musicians and colleagues. The list includes concerts to benefit Ukraine, the Food…

Hafez Modirzadeh, saxophone Tim Volpicella, guitar Stan Poplin, bass Keshav Batish, drums $20 cover charge (cash, please) BYOB For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733 This quartet reaches the Bird & Beckett stage just one day after performing at the Hammer Museum at UCLA. From the Hammer Museum’s write up: Commanding saxophonist and expansive musical thinker Hafez Modirzadeh brings a new quartet of Northern California improvisers to explore his latest set of compositions. Modirzadeh has spent decades bridging jazz vocabulary with the sonorities and syntax of non-Western musics. His work is influenced as much by the tuning systems of Persian and Turkish music, Filipino kulintang, and Indonesian gamelan as it is by the harmolodic lyricism of Ornette Coleman and the gritty chromaticism of Thelonious Monk. On a mission to liberate musical expression from the homogenizing influence of equal temperament, Modirzadeh pursues a music of liberation through personal resonance discovered…

Diane di Prima was a towering figure in American poetry, and is sorely missed. Her passing in 2020 at the age of 86 has had to wait ’til now to be fully memorialized. There is no admission charge for our reading on Saturday nor for the grand event at the Castro on Sunday, though donations at both events will help the di Prima family cover the considerable expenses involved. There’s precious little time before the Castro Theater as we know it is reconfigured, and it would be a great mistake to miss this gathering to celebrate an individual whose position in San Francisco’s cultural history is impossible to overstate, and whose work, practice, influence, generosity and friendship have shaped generations the world over. (note that our address is misstated in the flyer reproduced above. That’s the address where Diane first read for us, though, and where she brought her students…

Mr. Lucky https://vimeo.com/261190051/3340b6b191 “The dean of postmodern lounge jazz swing singers…” & The ‘Intimate’ Cocktail Party! “A veritable super-group!”  20th Century Influenced… 21st Century Influencers… Entertaining Jazz! Ellington, Mancini, Bacharach, Withers…!? The unexpected rules…! In 1998, Mr. Lucky & The Cocktail Party grabbed manic energy and tuned up the Great American Songbook with a big +plus.  J. Raoul Brody and Ralph Carney assembled an amazing set of jazz musicians to create a fresh, exciting, jazzy sound….  Over one hundred performances later the band continues to evolve— every show is guaranteed dynamic and…entertaining!    Featuring these outstanding, top Bay Area musicians… Joshua Raoul Brody: ‘The Maestro’ on piano, Michael Groh: humming on guitar, Joe Quigley:  eclectic bass (Lisa Loeb’s ‘Stay’), Mr. Lucky: vocals, etc. Our extravagant and exceptional genius and friend, Ralph Carney remains on stage with us in spirit.  Mr. Lucky has appeared at an amazing array of venues— from Bimbo’s 365…

Charles Thomas, bass with Rob Zuckerman, saxophone Sam Cady, piano Michael Spencer, drums $20 suggested donation; pay what you can to support the musicians and the store! There’s no minimum on Friday evenings for these 2-1/2 hour happy hour shows. On the other hand, there’s no maximum either! BYOB Charles has a long history on the Bird & Beckett scene, playing bebop, bossas and standards as well as originals with any number of combos, and often leading his own. His performing career has run the gamut from R&B to funk to hard bop and more.  Tonight, it’s jazz in a straight ahead mode while he contemplates next steps in the music. We suspect there will be hints abounding about the directions he’ll take. His colleagues on the bandstand this evening are wonderful players, all. All are well suited to Charles’ purposes!

Jerry Ferraz has been the cornerstone of Bird & Beckett’s poetry scene since its inception back in 1999. He was on the first bill of poets that we presented shortly after we opened the store. His poems contemplate the eternal mysteries and verities of the human and natural spheres, with a sensibility that’s both ironic and generous. His good friend Jane Rades writes poems of disarming simplicity. She’s the one who taught Jerry how to sing, back when they often crossed paths and sometimes performed together on the 1970s coffee house poetry scene. An open mic follows the featured poets. Michael Koch and Jerry share the honors in booking and conducting our monthly first Thursdays poetry series.

The last Sunday of each month, veteran drummer Vince Lateano is at the center of a dynamic and easy going session at Bird & Beckett that attracts old hands and young pups alike, aided by bassist Peter Barshay and pianist Ben Stolorow. Bird & Beckett’s Doggone Session is just the latest iteration of sessions Vince has been renowned for over the decades at venues including Pier 23, the Dogpatch Saloon, the Seven Mile House (which Vince dubbed the Doghouse Jam) and Sweeties. And while some talents, characters and devotees show up pret’ near every time at these Bird & Beckett sessions, the churn and evolution is constant, and legendary players you’ve never heard of turn up with regularity, drawn by their history and friendship with Vince, a swinging force on the San Francisco jazz scene since he hit North Beach in the mid-1960s.  

Dewayne Oakley, bass and vocals Ralph Nelson, guitar Anthony Peagram, drums $20 cover charge (cash, please) byob The Dewayne Oakley Blues Ensemble returns to play soul satisfying sets of blues, calypso and jazz. Dewayne has brought the pleasure and joy of the music to audiences all around the bay for five decades or more. For the better part of the 1980s, he was a fixture on the blues and jazz scene in Nagoya, Japan, and returned with his own record label, Naki-Do, and the Blues Ensemble. Dewayne has been a Bird & Beckett favorite and close collaborator since last March, when vocalist Jazzy Raja first brought his Blues Ensemble to our stage. Tonight’s trio date is his fifth Bird & Beckett engagement in as many months. Here’s video from his latest outing on July 8th. Plus a little something extra.

Prepare to be mesmerized by the captivating musical stylings of Kenya Moses; an extraordinary Afro-Brazilian American vocalist who effortlessly blends cultures, genres, and languages with her enchanting voice. Kenya Moses is a true musical nomad, fearlessly traversing boundaries and embracing the diverse influences that shape her artistic identity. With every note she sings, she seamlessly fuses the rhythmic beauty of Brazilian Bossa Nova with the soulful expressions of American jazz and Classical music, creating a harmonious tapestry that resonates with audiences around the world. As a vocalist, Kenya possesses a remarkable ability to captivate listeners with her storytelling prowess. With each lyric she delivers, she weaves a narrative that touches the depths of emotion and paints vivid pictures in the minds of her audience. Her voice, warm and heartfelt, invites listeners to embark on a journey that transcends time and space. Kenya is joined by an incredible ensemble of musicians…

Bob Kenmotsu, tenor sax Keith Saunders, piano Eric Markowitz, bass Tony Johnson, drums Bebop, hardbop, soul jazz and standards. Always swinging, always impeccably played, always with pleasure BYOB and a twenty for the band, or any amount large or small you can manage! A guaranteed fair wage starts with the revenue that can be gathered from those who enjoy the fruits of the musicians’ labor. That includes those who prefer to stay home to enjoy the live stream, naturally! If you’re in that number, pony up if you possibly can! We can tell you how, if you can’t quite figure it. This quartet represents the long run of jazz that spilled out the Haight Street bar called the Club Deluxe, lovingly run for decades, hands on, by the raconteur and singer Jay Johnson and then continued for another decade much to our delight, filling the night, and sometimes the noonday,…

Marlina Teich, guitar and vocals; Rob Zuckerman, sax; Richard Saunders, bass; John Fisher, drums. $20 cover charge; byob. Reservations, call 415-586-3733. Marlina Teich brings an eclectic blend of bebop, swing, blues, and Latin music to Bird & Beckett this evening. She’s a San Francisco-based guitarist/vocalist specializing in swing, show tunes and jazz standards. Marlina has performed internationally at Sandals resorts in Jamaica; wineries in Sonoma County, California; and in hotels, including an engagement in Ben Swig’s Penthouse Suite at the Fairmont Hotel for the Italian Consulate. Along the way, she’s performed in countless clubs and restaurants and for private parties. She has worked a number of California prison tours with jazz bands, was a music instructor at San Quentin prison, and taught in summer sessions for the California Jazz Conservatory. She’s done studio work for radio commercials, and has played and recorded with a variety of renowned musicians including: Richie…

Charlie McCarthy,  saxophone & flute Sam Cady, piano Joe McKinley, bass Alexie Berlind, drums $20 cover charge (cash, please); byob A band of veterans, giants of Bay Area jazz. The epitome of what the music has to offer those who take the time to partake.