Two sets of standards and originals from four premier Bay Area jazz talents Erik Jekabson, trumpet Dave Mac Nab, guitar John Wiitala, bass Hamir Atwal, drums Catch the show on Bird & Beckett’s  Facebook page or YouTube channel. $20 suggested donation ~~pay what you can ~~ at this link you can also simply go to PayPal and send your donation to [email protected] or use the Venmo app  and send to @birdandbeckett your generosity allows us to guarantee a “fair” wage of $150 per musician with revenue sharing of excess funds This pandemic period is a time of few gigs and sparse gig income. Thanks for supporting the musicians!

Lucky us! Catch the show on Bird & Beckett’s Facebook page or YouTube channel. $20 suggested donation / pay what you can at this link you can also simply go to PayPal and send your donation to [email protected] or use the Venmo app on your smartphone and send to @birdandbeckett your generosity allows us to guarantee a “fair” wage of $150 per musician for our live stream concerts during this pandemic period of few gigs and sparse gig income

The Americano Social Club reminds you to wear your mask, and minimize your riskier impulses… they do the same… but remind you also that you’re free in your hearts and souls, and for the very lucky ones, in the company of your very significant others… they’re pleased to offer up their music for the present occasion. You know the one we mean. Michael Zisman, ringleader of this private club with a generous membership policy, has had a long and distinguished career as a jazz bassist; for all that, this project on mandolin may be closest to his heart. At the core of the Americanos are Michael, guitarist/vocalist Jason Vanderfort and bassist Joe Kyle, Jr., with guitarist Scott Foster and the extraordinary vocalist Emily Z on board with great regularity, particularly when it comes time for the long-running monthly “Family Ruckus” at Club Deluxe, a raucous affair that prominently features two…

Drummer Sylvia Cuenca brings pianist Peter Zak and bassist Essiet Okon Essiet to Bird & Beckett Saturday evening for two sets of jazz trio work. Sylvia’s career has included four years in the Joe Henderson Quartet and eleven years in trumpeter Clark Terry’s band. All three musicians are New York-based, in the midst of major careers in the music. Family connections bring them all to the west coast on occasion and we’re the lucky musical beneficiaries of that situation. Our first encounter with Sylvia and Essiet was six years ago when they came to Bird & Beckett to play in the late, great guitarist Eddie Duran’s sextet, celebrating Eddie’s 90th birthday. In a number of configurations, Sylvia has brought groups into Bird & Beckett well over a dozen times in the past six years; and under Peter’s leadership, this trio played Bird & Beckett in the late summer of 2018.…

A throwback to the great small jazz groups of the early 1960’s, the Sanders/Larson Jazz Quintet is a mainstay of the San Francisco jazz community, honed in countless nights on the bandstand of Club Deluxe and other great Northern California venues. The quintet’s sound and style is rooted in the 60’s Blue Note era, the heyday of small group jazz. Original compositions by quintet members fit snugly with tunes by jazz legends like Hank Mobley, Miles Davis, Horace Silver and Donald Byrd. You can get a taste of the quintet’s sound at this link: https://www.clubdeluxe.co/sanderslarson-jazz-quintet Jay Standards – trumpet Scott Larson – trombone Keith Saunders – piano Eric Markowitz – bass Evan Hughes – drums Catch the show on Bird & Beckett’s Facebook page or YouTube channel. $25 suggested donation / pay what you can at this link  

Sao Paolo-born Liza Silva with her band Voz do Brasil has supercharged the Sunday night revels at Haight Street’s Club Deluxe for more than a decade, creating magic week after week. That’s been on pause for reasons of which you’re well aware, but performing tonight with her long-time colleagues Ray Scott on guitar, Alex Baum on bass and Pepe Jacobo on the drum kit & percussion, Liza will take you right back to that sweet spot! Voz do Brasil will draw from a huge repertoire of samba, bossa nova, forro and other afro-brazilian tunes famous and obscure, keeping spirits high — something we’ve craved like crazy in these tumultuous times. Liza toured internationally for years with organist Walter Wanderley–the man who popularized bossa nova in America and around the world in the 1960s with his huge hit “Summer Samba.” She’s also shared the stage with such Brazilian greats as Joao…

Jose Simioni came out to San Francisco from Washington D.C. for a couple of days a couple dozen years ago, with “a guitar, an amp, a sleeping bag and a few clothes” and figures he was playing The Saloon on Grant Avenue within a year or so. Since then, he’s played every imaginable venue in town, and for years now has held down weekly gigs at The Saloon, Tupelo and Belle Cora. We’re pleased to lure him out to Glen Park Sunday evening for a couple of sets. Help us pay the trio! We’ve set the hurdle high, and rely on you to stake us to their guarantee. If you’re broke, don’t worry, just come and enjoy the music. But if you’re doing ok, $20 is the cover charge. Somewhere in between? There’s a sliding scale. Somewhere over the top? Again, there’s a sliding scale.  $2 to $2,000, we’ve got…

Multi-instrumentalist Jeff Sanford leads a talented quartet of merrie melodions at Bird & Beckett this Friday,  playing sublimely cheerful and deeply poignant music offered up in the face of our current time of massive smoky virusy political madness. Favorite standards and a few tunes Jeff has written this month! ~~ Links to the live stream can be found below ~~ Jeff Sanford  reeds and flute Andy Ostwald  piano Simon Planting  bass Mark Rosengarden  drums Jeff has been well known and wildly acclaimed in these parts for decades for his large and madcap “Cartoon Jazz” ensembles. For this intimate live stream — from our little stage through the ether into the vast global ear — he and three colleagues will prove that a few sympatico individuals can create a wide aural world of ecstatic and profound emotion. We’re so happy to welcome Jeff back to Bird & Beckett! Take in the…

Allegra Bandy – vocals Scott Larson – trombone Keith Saunders – piano Eric Markowitz – bass   Allegra Bandy and Scott Larson have been playing music together for over a decade in many different settings, from jazz standards, ska and reggae to big band soul.  As husband and wife, they share a love for playing classic jazz, a love for the brilliance of good songwriting and a devotion to sharing these classics with the world.  Each of them has played stages all over the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia. They look forward to continuing building a legacy of jazz performance in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Read more on Allegra here: https://allegrabandy.com Take in the show on YouTube  or  Facebook Suggested cover charge — $20 Pay your cover charge / make your donation Please donate only what you can: $2 to $200 sliding scale available! On the…

Walt Whitman saw it coming!  The basic themes are nothing new, no less perplexing, no less calling for creative resolution. Imagine him saying now what he has already said:  “In politics–just as it is in religion–some people get an idea of the necessity of believing certain things, not so much from weight of evidence, out or in,–but from mere mental and emotional set-ness:  they intend believing–and that is all there is about it!” And yet we contain multitudes, each of us, individually.  “To me there is something curious, indescribably divine, in the compound individuality that is in everyone.  I suppose there are four hundred leaves of grass, one after another, contradictory, held together by that iron band–individuality, personality, identity.” “I have great faith in the masses–beneath all the froth, illiteracy, worse, there is something latent–now and then to break forth–which cannot be defied, which saves us at last.” An optimist? …

Joe Warner, piano James Wiley, bass Deszon X. Claiborne, drums Consummate piano trio work for today! Jazz in America, 2020 live streamed from Bird & Beckett Joe Warner, by dint of massive talent and tireless engagement in the art and beauty of jazz, has taken up permanent residence deep in the heart of America’s classical music. James Wiley, a young up-and-coming bassist from Oakland, is a classically trained pianist and graduate of Oakland School for the Arts who has received dual musical training as a bassist within the Black church. His professional career of over four years has been grounded in performance with such legendary artists as The Dynamic Miss Faye Carol. Deszon X. Claiborne sits solidly astride the traditions of jazz, driving the music from his kit. “Deszon paints a sonic canvas connecting melody and time.” –Haroun Serang Take in the show on YouTube  or  Facebook Suggested cover charge…

Take in the show this evening on YouTube  or  Facebook Donate to help us reward the musicians with a decent payday     DONATE     in challenging times and just ’cause they’re worth it! Jim Peterson brings guitarist Scott Foster and bassist Aaron Germain to Bird & Beckett tonight. Jim has played and taught saxophone and woodwinds in the Bay Area for more than 25 years. He picked up the sax in his teens and went on to study with Ed Tomasi, Randy Feltz and Joe Viola at Berklee School of Music in Boston, and locally with Bill Bell and Bill Trimble. Since settling in San Francisco, he’s been a freelance musician and side man with bands and ensembles including Beaufunk, Mitch Woods and His Rocket 88’s, Steve Lucky and the Rumba Bums and President’s Breakfast.  He’s a founding member and composer for MoFone, Giant Trio, Mumbo Gumbo and The…

Guitarist Scott Foster is joined by Adam Shulman on organ and Dan Foltz on drums, offering up two sets of music to bring you joy and uplift the spirit. Says Scott, “It’s clearly a time when we all can use a couple hours of uplift and a chance to lose ourselves in music that soothes the soul.” Take in the show on YouTube  or  Facebook Suggested cover charge — $20 Please donate only what you can $2 to $200 sliding scale available! Pay your cover charge / make your donation Dig the music? Help us provide a decent payday to gigging musicians in a time of few gigs and little gig income! 45 of you donating $10 each will get us there. 23 at $20 gets us there quicker. More’s the better! Subscribe to our newsletter Subscribe to our YouTube channel As Duke Ellington always said, “We love you madly.”…

Jinx Jones and Angeline Saris bring their jazz duo to Bird & Beckett. Both musicians are enthusiasts of the luxurious jazz guitar and bass duos of the hard bop and soul jazz era. This special event celebrates the instrumental stylings of artists like Grant Green, Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell, and Charlie Christian. Jinx and Angeline weave their sound together in jazz improvisation that draws from the golden era of the 20th century, while sounding advanced by today’s standards. Jinx Jones has been twice nominated for Male Rockabilly Artist of the Year by the Ameripolitan Music Awards, has received gold and platinum record awards for his work with R&B divas, En Vogue, has won songwriting awards and has been recognized as one of the hottest acts on the San Francisco music scene. In Jinx Jones’ impressive musical career he has visited nearly every conceivable style and genre of the electric guitar.…

To order Margaret’s book, email us at [email protected] Margaret Randall, whose memoir  I Never Left Home: Poet, Feminist, Revolutionary was brought out this past March by Duke University Press, will focus for this talk on the just-released book My Life in 100 Objects (New Village Press), in which she takes an anecdotal excursion through items, places and art that serve, each in its own way, as signposts along her journey as poet, essayist, translator, photographer and committed agent of social and political change — from her youth in Scarsdale, New York through Mexico, Cuba, Nicaragua, Viet Nam and many other countries in six decades. She has published many dozens of books of original work and translations between her first book of poetry in 1959 and the present day, and co-founded El Corno Emplumado, a bilingual journal that published over 700 writers from 35 countries between 1962 and 1969. Her many…