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…

  Transition Party!  Originally scheduled last May as a farewell concert after 35 years in the San Francisco Unified School District, this live stream performance will be a celebration-transition concert as John Calloway continues his work as an artist/musician as well as a 20 years-plus faculty member at the School of Music and College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University. Saul Sierra – bass Murray Low – piano John Calloway – flutes and percussion Guest vocalist Angie Doctor ______________________________________________________________________ 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 Bird & Beckett pays a guaranteed “fair wage” for this weekend’s shows of $150 per musician. This is made possible by your donations earmarked for these shows! We have neither grants nor deep pockets for these…

MUSIC FOR OUR TIMES: Revisiting old jazz tunes that bring consolation, courage and conversation to our present time. Doug Goodkin (piano) is most well-known as a music educator, an internationally acclaimed teacher of Orff Schulwerk and teacher of children for 45 years at The San Francisco School. He is the leader of Doug Goodkin & the Pentatonics, whose CD Boom Chick a Boom and Family Concerts at SF Jazz, Stanford Jazz, the New Orleans Mint and more has brought jazz to people of all ages. Guest artists who have visited his courses/ SF School classes include Milt Jackson, Stefon Harris, Bobby McFerrin, Herlin Riley, Regina Carter and more. Marty Wehner (trombone) is a Bay Area treasure, having worked as trombonist, composer, arranger and educator for over four decades. He played in the Mingus Amungus band and accompanied such notables as Natalie Cole, Pete Escovedo, Rebecca Mauleon, Carlos Santana and more and recorded with some of jazz’s…

Lyle Sheffler returns with a program including works by Alonso Mudarra, Manuel de Falla, Augustin Barrios, Dietmar Ungerank, Isaac Albéniz, Leo Brouwer, George Frideric Handel and Fernando Sor.   ______________________________________________________________________ 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 Bird & Beckett pays a guaranteed fair wage of $150 per musician, for which we appreciate your support! Subscribe to our newsletter Subscribe to our YouTube channel ______________________________________________________________________ Lyle began playing classical guitar at the age of seven and made his first public appearance at the age of eight. Acclaimed for his artistry, warm tone, and captivating programs, he has played at Carnegie Hall and The Tilles Center in New York, at the Hanoi Opera House and numerous other concert halls around the globe, and in Bay…

Three expert hot jazz practitioners join forces for a sizzling set or two of gems from the early decades of jazz music! Cornetist Clint Baker has led the Cafe Borrone All-Stars for 16 years or more, also playing — among other instruments — trombone, clarinet, bass, drums and vocalizing as the circumstances demand. He’s played the Monterey Jazz Festival twice and the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee countless times. He’s an inveterate musicologist and a KCSM dj. He’s been a bandleader since 1984, produced his first record in 1991 and has seven recordings to his credit. Jeff Hamilton, at the piano tonight, is most renowned as a trad drummer of impeccable credentials. There’s another jazz drummer that shares that name, but this Jeff is ours and possesses talent and a self-effacing charm that make his appearances here a solid delight every time out. We’re crazy for his piano! Young Sam Rocha fell…

Two duos in one program of classical & other musik! SF Opera Orchestra cellist Emil Miland is joined by pianist, Jerome Lenk, organist of Mission Dolores. Tuba player Zachariah Spellman, of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, performs with pianist & accordionist Karen Hutchinson. Miland and Link will offer a program of old favorites by Mendelssohn and Faure, 20th century hits by Scott Joplin and local luminary Ernest Bloch and a new work by Michael Hoppe.  Ernest Bloch’s Jewish Song will be dedicated to the memory of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Spellman and Hutchinson note that “Our program will open with our version of San Francisco, written by Bronislaw Kaper and Walter Jurmann with lyrics by Gus Kahn made famous by Jeanette MacDonald in the 1936 American film, San Francisco. It may be considered an anthem for the survivors of the 1906 earthquake and fire. Following that will be An Alte Yiddish…

Beau Beausoleil reads his poems written in reaction to the murder of George Floyd and addressing Beausoleil’s whiteness in this racist landscape. Beausoleil’s poems stand in solidarity with the demonstrations against systemic racism around the world.  You can find these poems on the website of Moving Parts Press: https://movingpartspress.com/publica…/poems-for-george-floyd Please use either of these links to attend the reading:  YouTube  or  Facebook

Two dissenting sisters, estranged, entrenched in their positions, every bit as emotional and polarized as counter-demonstrators yelling at each other outside an Israeli embassy.  Leslie Simon reads from her new novel The Divine Comic (Spuyten Duyvil, 2020) on Saturday, September 26th at 2pm. Please RSVP at tinyurl.com/divinecomicRSVP to receive the zoom link for the reading.  

Born in Manhasset, New York, pianist David Udolf moved to the Bay Area in early 1991. A sought after sideman, he has played with Terri Bryant of the Fifth Dimension, saxophonist Herb Geller, R&B legend Bo Diddley, and toured nationally for six years with San Francisco’s own legendary New Pickle Circus. Local artists he has worked or recorded with include: Jules Broussard, vocalists Opie Bellas (with whom he did a concert tour of South Africa), Sherri Roberts, Lavay Smith, Diane Witherspoon and Kenny Washington, Hal Stein, trumpeter Warren Gale and the Joe Henderson Memorial Big Band. David has worked extensively with vocalist Mary Stallings, performing at international festivals and concert venues in Switzerland, Prague, Melbourne, and Tel Aviv as her accompanist and music director. Bassist Ron Belcher played or recorded with such international stars as Branford Marsalis, Regina Carter, Rodney Franklin, John Handy, and Pete Escovedo, as well as a…

Brandon Farmer, Drums Curtis Aikens, Bass Kai Lyons, Guitar Noah Frank, Trumpet Sueños is a high energy group fusing jazz with elements from hip-hop, R&B, gospel, neo-soul and indie rock in tunes penned by trumpeter Noah Frank, improvising and exploring as they go. View the live stream on our YouTube channel or our Facebook page. Jazz in the Neighborhood’s Guaranteed Fair Wage Fund helps us meet a $600 guarantee for the quartet this evening, and your contributions during the live stream do the rest of the work! Thanks for supporting local professional musicians playing world class music. Donate by PayPal or Venmo at this link – https://www.tinyurl.com/Donate-B-and-B www.suenosjazz.com   suggested cover charge — $20 sliding scale — $2 to $200 Support live music & the musicians who play it!  Use the links below: Take in the show on YouTube  or  Facebook Pay your cover charge / make your donation Subscribe…