653 Chenery Street
in San Francisco's Glen Park neighborhood

1-415-586-3733
[email protected]

Open to walk-in trade and browsing
Tuesday to Sunday
noon to six

 

Live Streams every weekend!

Refresh your browser to catch a show in progress!
Visit our Facebook page or YouTube channel!
But nothing beats being in the room with the music & the musicians!

Saturday, November 28 – 7:30pm
New Squatoolas
jazz club! when lights are low…
every Saturday night at Bird & Beckett

Jim Peterson, saxophone Scott Foster, guitar Joe Kyle, Jr., bass Larry Vann, drums The New Squatoolas return to Bird & Beckett with their high spirited survey of the New Orleans jazz & funk scene of the 1970s and 1980s. 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. Or email us your pledge and drop cash or a check by the store in the coming days. We depend upon your generosity for our ability 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!

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Friday, November 27 – 7:30pm
Jones Street Irregulars
jazz streamed from the bookshop,
every Friday after work

Tony Johnson — regular drummer for Bird & Beckett’s 4th Friday anchor group the 230 Jones Street Local 6 Literary Jazz Band (aka, the Chuck Peterson In Absentia Band) — leads the Jones Street Irregulars tonight through a tight & swinging 90-minute set of bebop & standards! Bob Kenmotsu, tenor saxophone Jeffrey Burr, guitar Eric Markowitz, bass Tony Johnson, drums   Watch hopefully for the return of the 230 Jones Street band every 4th Friday starting January 22, 2021 — commemorating the Biden/Harris administration’ s third day in office! Take in our shows 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. Or email a pledge and drop cash or check by the shop in the coming…

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Wednesday, November 25 – 7:30pm
Walker Talks! on the radical politics of Romantic Era visionary William Blak2

William Blake is a towering and somewhat mystifying figure of the 18th Century Romantic Era in England, well known if scarcely understood for his visionary and unfathomable etchings and poetry. In parallel with his great artistic expression is a political sensibility that is at once timeless and immediate. Walker Brents III, in another of his legendary monthly talks at Bird & Beckett, will explore the arc of Blake’s politics tonight in a high wire feat of extemporaneous exposition. Says Walker, “I want to make an exploration with the theme of William Blake: Man of the Left. Maybe a corny title. Yet I find it suggestive–a visionary mystic nevertheless in intimate dialogue with the trends of his troubled times. How can it be that his point of view is so prescient? Could it be the times then are secretly connected with the times now? Industrialization, urbanization, tyranization, rumors of revolution. Mr.…

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Miss your evenings in the bookshop?

Live streaming from Bird& Beckett Thursday and Friday evenings at 7:30pm
right in your living room, but more than six feet away!

The live streams from Bird & Beckett all started in mid-March on Friday the 13th, when the towering saxophonist Michael Zilber brought his trio (Jason Lewis on drums and Tyler Harlow on bass) into the shop before a scant audience in the face of the exploding novel coronavirus crisis. Angela Bennett pioneered our broadcasting foray with these two tunes that ended the trio’s first set – Duke Ellington’s lovely “Sophisticated Lady” and a burning take on Cedar Walton’s “Bolivia.” Once you’ve taken that in, catch the video at this link from Friday, July 24th of a piano & bass duo performance by Javier Santiago and Giulio Cetto, engineered by Nico Mesa, who’s working assiduously to bring our technology up to the level it needs to be at to do some justice to the fantastic musicianship of San Francisco’s jazz community and the beauty of jazz itself. Michael Zilber Trio –…

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Saturday, November 21 – 7:30pm
Andrew Speight Quartet
live streamed

Andrew Speight – alto sax Keith Saunders – piano Essiet Essiet – bass Sylvia Cuenca – drums Bebop & Standards                 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 We guarantee a “fair” wage of $150 each tonight, supplemented as your contributions allow.

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Friday, November 20 – 7:30pm
Scott Foster Trio with David Boyce
jazz streamed from the bookshop every Friday

Scott Foster, guitar David Boyce, saxophones Cairo McCockran, drums   Guitarist Scott Foster has been a keystone of the Bird & Beckett jazz scene since it started in 2002. Every third Friday he puts together a fresh aggregation to explore and celebrate another rich vein in the jazz gold mine.   Tonight, the trio promises a boiling cauldron of jazz! People get ready!   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

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Saturday, November 14 – 7:30pm
Erik Jekabson Quartet
streamed live from Bird & Beckett

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!

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Tonight, Friday the 13th!
Get Lucky with Eric & the In Crowd
streamed live from Bird & Beckett on YouTube and Facebook

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

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Sunday, November 8 – 7:30pm
Americano Social Club
live streamed music
for la dolce vita

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…

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Saturday, November 7 – 7:30pm
from New York City
The Sylvia Cuenca Trio
featuring Peter Zak on piano
and Essiet Essiet on bass
live streamed from Bird & Beckett

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.…

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Friday, November 6 – 7:30pm
The Sanders/Larson Jazz Quintet
live streamed jazz every Friday
from Bird & Beckett

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  

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Thursday, November 5 – 7:30pm
Liza Silva & Voz do Brasil
live streamed from Bird & Beckett

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…

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Sunday, November 1 – 7:30 pm
Jose Simioni Trio
North Beach travels to Glen Park

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…

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Friday, October 30 – 7:30pm
Jeff Sanford Quartet
live jazz streamed from the bookshop
every Friday!

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…

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Thursday, October 29 – 7:30pm
Allegra Bandy Quartet
live jazz stream from the bookshop

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…

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SUPPORT BIRD & BECKETT - DONATE TODAY!

Your donation to the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project helps us pay for a multitude of operating expenses necessary to present, promote and preserve local music, poetry, and more.

Help us keep the arts alive and thriving!

The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project was created in 2007 "to present, document and archive the creative work of significant living writers and musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area, for a neighborhood audience and future generations," continuing the work we began when the store was established in 1999.

We continue to present a full slate of programming of live music and poetry readings, and produce a literary journal and poetry chapbooks, and we seek and welcome your continued financial support by way of donations.

Click on "donate" in the navigation bar above. Better yet, make a check out to the “Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project” and drop it off or mail it to:

Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project
653 Chenery Street
San Francisco, CA 94131

Call us at (415) 586-3733 to find out how else you might lend your support.

____________

We're immensely appreciative of Jazz in the Neighborhood for having stepped in as our temporary fiscal sponsor for a few months, while we straightened out some paperwork to get nonprofit status restored to the BBCLP. We're happy to say that's been done, and all past, present, and future donations made directly to the BBCLP are fully tax-deductible!

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To take our SURVEY, click here, and help the BBCLP get to know you better! As Duke Ellington always said, we love you madly...

The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project

Our events are put on under the umbrella of the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project (the "BBCLP"). That's how we fund our ambitious schedule of 300 or so concerts and literary events every year.

The BBCLP is a [Read More ]

 


The Independent Musicians Alliance

Gigging musicians! You have nothing to lose but your lack of a collective voice to achieve fair wages for your work!
The IMA can be a conduit for you, if you join in to make it work.

https://www.independentmusiciansalliance.org/

Read more here - Andy Gilbert's Feb 25 article about the IMA from KQED's site

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