$20 suggested donation; any amount appreciated Jazz Messenger Chris Amberger joins Grant and the drummer Michael Mitchell for two sets of bebop, hard bop and jazz standards. Exquisite piano trio jazz in San Francisco’s premier jazz listening room. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Michael Mitchell grew up behind the drums. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, Michael has taught in Bombay, at India’s True School of Music, as well as the Stanford Jazz Workshop. A recent move to Oakland, California has afforded Michael the opportunity to continue learning and teaching, and to build a strong bi-coastal musical community of students, educators, and professional players.

$20 suggested donation. $5 for students/musicians/fixed income. The Seducers have had a monthly gig at Bird & Beckett for three years, playing classic, outlaw and honky tonk songs by the likes of Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, Hank Williams, Bobby Bare, plus originals and a few from left field. Look for the Seducers every second Sunday in San Francisco’s premier little bookshop/listening room. Bring a beer if that’s your inclination, but for one outing a month you’ll get a nice break from the barroom clatter that can sometimes obscure the beauty of these fabulous bits of American genius. You won’t regret it for a minute. BYOB and kick back. It all makes for a lovely way to spend a Sunday evening before returning to the working grind. Joe Goldmark, pedal steel guitar Mitch Polzak, lead guitar and vocals Hank Maninger, bass guitar and vocals Kenny Owen, drums

San Francisco Poet Laureate Kim Shuck and Bird & Beckett’s Troubadour in Residence Jerry Ferraz host poetry every first and third Monday, with an open mic to follow the featured readers. THIS WEEK, no featured readers due to the poets’ very understandable hesitation in this uncertain time. We’ll reschedule; meanwhile, the open mic is here. But, that said, capacity is 15 people, so come early if you want to be assured of admission.     Watch for a new date for poet Kirk Lumpkin with The Word-Music Continuum [Paul Mills (electric guitar), Mark Wieder (acoustic bass)] plus Chris Olander, Poet Laureate of Nevada County, who will also be backed by The Word-Music Continuum plus Brian Bond (harmonium). Chris Olander is Nevada County Poet Laureate; he’s a powerful performing poet with ecological concerns front and center. He is a bio-educator and Poet/Teacher with California Poets in the Schools since 1984. Chris…

$20 cover charge; sliding scale available Russian Telegraph is the brainchild of Beth Custer (Trance Mission, Club Foot Orchestra) and David James (Afrofunk Experience, Spearhead, The Coup), who had the inspiration to merge a couple of their separate bands into one! It’s a blend of Beth Custer Ensemble, with their Art Song, their clarinets, and their trumpet; David James’s GPS, with it’s quixotically “political” instrumentals; mixed with a dose of Curtis Bumpy’s uniquely funky bass and soulful keyboards. Russian Telegraph plays music from the catalogues of each of these entities, along with originals written expressly for this group, and choice covers of music from composers ranging from Nelson Cavaquinho to Chris Cornell. Russian Telegraph Beth Custer – Clarinet, Voice David James – Guitar, Voice Diana Mangano – Voice Chris Grady – Trumpet Jordan Glasgow – Keyboards Keith McArthur – Bass John Hanes – Drums

$20 suggested donation; any amount appreciated Once again, the voice with a heart, Denise Perrier, graces the Bird & Beckett stage in the company of some good old friends, Al Molina and Jerry Logas on horns, Larry Chinn on piano, Dean Reilly on bass and Vince Lateano on drums. A rich tapestry of San Francisco jazz, classic, timeless and divine. Join us for some standards, some classics old and new, some bebop and some swing. This is why you live in San Francisco. Don’t ever forget that you reside in one of the great cities of the world. This is what your city has to offer you.

Kai will play solo for a live stream this Saturday, March 21 at 7:30pm. In his place on Friday, March 20, Gaea Schell and John Wiitala will play in a duo context, also for a live stream. $20 suggested donation for either show; but any amount is appreciated and those in economic straits should use their funds where they’re most needed at this perilous time. Please enjoy this much with our best wishes. www.kailyons.com

$20 cover charge / sliding scale available Adrian Areas, percussion Dan Neville, vibes Jordan Brysk, bass Brian Andres, drums Adrian Areas is a percussionist from the San Francisco Bay Area. He was born with music in his blood, since he is the son of founding member of the Santana Band, musician and composer, Jose Chepito Areas-Timbalero and Conguero. Adrian has played the drums, timbales, bongos and tumbadoras since he was 1 year old. Adrian’s earliest achievements are playing for the opening of Cow Place in 1976 with Santana at the age of 3, playing drums for the Just Kidding program channel 4 as well as playing timbales with his dad at the 15th anniversary of the Santana band. Adrian has a unique style while giving voice and life to his instruments and spice to any melodies. He has played and performed with Tito Puente, Carlos Patato Valdez, Jerry Gonzalez, Santana,…

Two powerful performers, jessica Care moore and Tongo Eisen-Martin have staked out their ground decisively, neither likely to step back any time soon. Eisen-Martin, a child of the region, seemed to emerge full blown on the Bay Area poetry front in 2015 with his debut Someone’s Dead Already from Bootstrap Press and a cascade of uncanny readings, hands in pockets, gaze fixed in the middle distance of his mind. But by that point he had already achieved deep hip hop/spoken word credibility and had gone full on into prison work that had taken him nationwide for years. City Lights’ Pocket Poets series followed up with Heaven is All Goodbyes in 2017, #61, and as a brilliant poet he’s been a presence to be reckoned with nationally since. jessica Care moore has taken on the world on her own terms in just a few short years. She’s the founder and CEO…

$20 suggested donation; any amount appreciated Wendy Dewitt With Boogie Woogie legend Ricky Nye – part of the Hella Piano Tour! Wendy says: “Ricky is in the Boogie Woogie Hall of Fame and is another of the international boogie woogie artists. We’ll have a ball.”

Call us if you want to be notified when a new date is set. Poet, educator, humanitarian Jorge Argueta, a proud son of El Salvador and San Francisco, has dozens of books to his credit — books of his poems, books of poetry, culture and life philosophy for children… He also operates Luna Books in the Excelsior. And he maintains a safe space, a library for children, in San Salvador, traveling incessantly in all directions, delivering messages of love and hope to children and their families. He is one of the greatest treasures of our time.     His new book, a book for children — Caravan to the North: Misael’s Long Walk, with art by Manuel Monroy — is a beautiful book, full of humanity and hope. Yuyi Morales, acclaimed author and illustrator of Dreamers, has said, “I was sitting next to Jorge as he was finishing Caravan to…

“The only war is the war on the imagination” – Diane di Prima Tehmina Khan, Priscilla Wathington, Farzaneh Safavi, Beau Beausoleil, Walker Brents III and Jerry Ferraz read poems in commemoration of the March 5, 2007 destruction by car bomb of Al-Mutanabbi Street, Baghdad’s bookseller’s street, named for the 10th century Iraqi poet. This tragedy, in which 26 died and a great many bookshops and stalls were decimated, marked a sad and vivid turn in the second Iraq war, which began with the American invasion in 2003. Ever since that event, with the motto “Al-Mutanabbi Street starts here,” poets, writers and artists across the world have sought to show solidarity with the Iraqi people by endeavoring to keep the memory of that terrible event alive through their words and art. Readings are being staged far and wide on March 5th and the days immediately around it, in which many of…