San Francisco’s own Phillip Greenlief, a tenor saxophonist of immense talent and scope whose career in music takes him to major venues worldwide, returns to Bird & Beckett with a quartet anchored by Swedish drummer Kjell Nordeson, now a Bay Area resident. At the core of the group, two traveling musicians whose collaborations stretch back two decades — Detroit-born and -based baritone saxophonist Alex Harding and Transylvania-born, New York-based pianist Lucien Ban.  Together, Harding and Ban have appeared on a number of albums for American and European labels and in countless concerts and tours. Their travels this fall celebrate the Sunnyside Records release of a long-awaited duet recording, “a unique amalgamation of original pieces and improvisations informed by traditions of jazz, blues, and European chamber music.” You’re in for a fascinating and beautiful night of music played by four master jazz musicians. $20 cover charge / sliding scale available.

$20 suggested donation; any amount appreciated Valerie Jay, hailing from Yorkshire, England, brings her all-star band to Bird & Beckett for two sets of originals and country classics. Rob McCloskey on bass Jeanine Richardson on percussion Joe Goldmark on steel Todd Swenson on guitar The youngest of five children, Jay picked up the guitar at fifteen and founded her first band Skyline, performing her own material. Drawing influences from great country performers such as Patsy Cline, Emmy Lou Harris, Linda Ronstadt and k.d. Lang, Jay fronted the hottest band on the country circuit, playing festivals and country music clubs all over England. Nashville beckoned, but in 2001 Valerie headed for San Francisco instead, where she formed the Americanos, a country-based, roots-rock band that plays Jay’s original songs next to classic Americana favorites. Bay Area rock and pop audiences are being converted right and left by the beauty and depth of…

Aileen Cassinetto hosts a reading and conversation involving two Bay Area poets, a writer from New York and a writer from Mumbai, all featured in the anthology Humanity “In HUMANITY, one is presented with humanity’s explorations, often struggles, with itself in a variety of contexts. From the anthology’s contributors—poets, environmental advocates, an ethnomusicologist, a physician, an ethnoecologist, a music minister, a clergywoman, a fictionist, and multiculturalists—one glimpses an overall picture of strength and fragility, of empathy, and myriad hopes.” Joining Aileen, San Mateo County Poet Laureate, are Eileen Tabios (St. Helena-based poet whose most recent collection is Witness in the Convex Mirror), Murzban Shroff (Mumbai-based author of Fasttrack Fiction) and Robert Cowan (New York-based author Elsewhen).

$20 cover charge; sliding scale available Akira Tana, drums & leader Masaru Koga, saxophone, shakuhachi, flute, percussion Grant Levin, piano Ken Okada, bass “Akira Tana’s wonderful group is truly doing something very special here and it is a fine example of how music can break down cultural barriers and expose the commonality within us all.” — Jazz Inside “The quartet has created a gorgeous body of music interpreting traditional and contemporary Japanese melodies through the lens of jazz.” — San Jose Mercury News “Performance seemed love-filled and compassionate. At times it felt like a lullaby; no wonder the children slept. It was exquisite.” — San Jose Mercury News   On the eve of a fall tour of Japan, their fifth, Otonowa comes to Bird & Beckett! The name Otonowa comes from the title of a recording made 25 years ago by Akira Tana with bassist Rufus Reed and pianist Kei…

Scott Foster on electric guitar Spencer Murray on electric bass Ricky Carter on drums           Scott Foster has been a keystone of Bird & Beckett’s Friday-after-work weekly jazz party ever since it started, way back in October of 2002!           This time out, as we mark the 17th birthday of the series, Scott’s planning to take the opportunity and the  latitude he enjoys at Bird & Beckett to reunite with two old friends and explore an eclectic mix of styles and compositions on electric guitar, electric bass and drums.           It’ll be a stretch from some of our more traditional programming, but will definitely fall under the Scott Foster umbrella of jazz and improvised music, and, says Scott, will include familiar melodies and elements for all listeners.           Plus a whole new set of…

Free Litquake event! Salon magazine founder David Talbot is not only a bestselling author of books like Season of the Witch and The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA and the Rise of America’s Secret Government; he’s also a great defender of San Francisco in all its glories and disappointments.  In conversation with writer and journalist Denise Sullivan, Talbot offers his takes on The City’s literary and political scenes, as well as his son Joe’s acclaimed debut film, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, and a sneak preview of his forthcoming memoir, Between Heaven and Hell: The Story of My Stroke. David Talbot is an author, journalist, media entrepreneur, and book publisher. He is founder and former editor-in-chief of Salon.com, and is author of the bestsellers Season of the Witch and Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years, The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise…

3rd year! Students in the SF Conservatory of Music’s “Roots, Jazz & American Music” BMUS degree program host their peers from Bay Area colleges and high schools. No cover charge. Donations to support the bookshop that supports the students are very much appreciated.

$20 suggested donation; any amount appreciated Coltrane, Dolphy Monk. Billy Higgins, Shirley Horne, Billie Holiday, Sun Ra, Nina Simone and more geniuses of jazz are evoked in a newly published book that combines the poetry of Genny Lim and the linocuts of artist Nina Mera. This afternoon will feature a performance of the material by Genny Lim, poetry and vocals; Francis Wong, reeds; and Jon Jang, piano. Equipto Sato, emcee and rap artist, will open the afternoon’s program. Tone Poem For Cecil Taylor (March 25, 1929-April, 2018)   A new poetics of sound A raw, invented syntax from the realm of chance melodics No two stars alike No two notes alike No two moments alike For those who want to go back to the beginning, back to the ark of all things, there is no return No time to cover sleeping ears No time to resume games of true or…

$20 cover charge; sliding scale available Gail Dobson, vocals and percussion Chloe Scott Jones, flute Luis Salcedo, guitar Matt Montgomery, bass Eric Garland, drums/percussion plus some of Gail’s amazing vocal students   The Gail Dobson’s Vocals for Kids with the Gail Dobson Band is a remarkable group of young singers and musicians who will feature the music of Gershwin, Lennon, Sting, Pharoah Sanders, Todd Rundgren, and even a taste of Jay Hawkins, and more! Native born San Franciscan, Gail Dobson, is an endearing jazz vocalist with a smoky, amber contralto, who traces her performance history to the Purple Onion, the Hungry i, the Jazz Workshop, and the Bach, Dancing, and Dynamite Society in Half Moon Bay. For 23 years, she was the featured vocalist for horn player Ray Brown’s Great Big Band, recorded and toured for three decades with her late husband, the pianist/singer extraordinaire Smith Dobson, and with her…

$20 suggested donation; any amount appreciated Paul Mindrup – piano Scott Chapek – bass Tom Hassett – drums Times Three has been a unit since the late 1990s, releasing their debut, eponymous cd in 2006 and a second cd, entitled “Off the Grid” in 2014. Their long association has allowed them to develop a high level of group chemistry and musical interaction, and has also allowed them to cultivate their love for lesser-known jazz compositions and non-standard time signatures. They dig deep into unusual arrangements of some of the greatest jazz compositions you’ve never heard!           Pianist Paul Mindrup is the group’s most recent arrival in San Francisco (some 25 years ago). Born in Dallas, he began classical piano studies at the age of 6, but defected to jazz shortly thereafter. Paul can also be heard on the Michael Gold album, Personal Standards.           Bassist and…

Ron Johnson, whose most recent collection is  White Ghost Dance (Wasteland Press, 2018), has taught at CCSF and once had a bookshop in the Haight. He holds an MFA in creative writing from Bowling Green State University (1972).  His books include DNA Poems (Black Book Press, 1979), Once Upon a Time in Babylon (Wasteland Press, 2012) and, most recently, White Ghost Dance, which was “begun in Philadelphia in summer 1976 & expanded & revised intermittently during the intervening 42 years. It hangs upon the spine of a journey begun by a Conestoga wagon train in July 1975, from San Diego to Philadelphia, reversing the path of European imperialists: across the continent, across time, across boundaries between myth, history, and the astounding physical beauty of our vast, misshapen political fantasy. Memories, various & contradictory, seep from the landscape, & lead backward & inward to the moment of America’s inception. At the periphery,…

$20 suggested donation; any amount appreciated A Guaranteed Fair Wage Fund Date! The Zan Stewart Band! Zan Stewart, saxophone Keith Saunders, piano Peter Barshay, bass Ron Marabuto, drums Zan’s band will play engaging originals as well as gems from the jazz and pop repertoires from the 1930s through 1960s–music that swings, that has a feel-good vibe and that’s listener friendly. Selections will range from his originals such as “Gals ‘Round the ‘Hood” and “One Family” to classics like “You Stepped Out of Dream,” “Second Balcony Jump,” and “Stella by Starlight,” the latter with a unique and vibrant beat. All told, mainstream jazz with that feel good vibe. Zan, a top drawer jazz journalist for decades, will also offer stories from the jazz lore and from a life spent in jazz. What’s the Guaranteed Fair Wage Fund? You have no conception how little most venues pay the incredibly talented musicians who…

Disruptive Play is all about tricking power into performing acts of love. Shepherd Siegel will be talking, listening, singing, dancing, appearing and disappearing at Bird and Beckett  on Sunday, October 6th at 2 p.m. Siegel is the author of the mind-bending book, Disruptive Play: The Trickster in Politics and Culture. Disruptive Play journeys from ancient folkloric appearances of Tricksters such as Raven and Èṣù-Elegba, to their confined role in Western civilization, and then on to Trickster’s 20th century jailbreak as led by dada, the beats and the hippies. Disruptive Play bears witness to how this spirit informs social progress today, whether by Anonymous, Banksy, Bugs Bunny, or unrevealed mischief-makers and culture jammers. Such play is revolutionary and lights the path to a transformed society. For additional information, log on to shepherdsiegel.com  Dr. Shepherd Siegel is a writer, a rock and jazz musician, and an educator. He is a former resident of the Bay Area, with degrees from…

$20 cover charge; sliding scale available Jules Broussard, reeds Grant Levin, piano Chris Amberger, bass Al Marshall, drums Grant Levin’s legion of fans know him as a fantastic pianist who plays with incredible brio and unbelievable chops — which almost, but not quite, masks the fact that he’s an unmatchable ensemble player, digging deeply into his collaborations with the talented musicians he selects for his groups in a way that makes them all shine ever more brilliantly as the music flows from bandstand to audience. The quartet Grant has assembled for tonight’s performance features three musicians whose individual talents and experience are hard to overstate. Bassist Chris Amberger took to jazz in the late ’60s in the streets and community colleges of Oakland, went to Berklee School of Music on a Downbeat scholarship, toured the eastern seaboard and Europe with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and still drives a lot of…

$20 suggested donation; any amount appreciated Al Molina, trumpet; Jerry Logas, reeds, flute & vocal; Larry Chinn, piano; Dean Reilly, bass; Vince Lateano, drums. Bop & swing from five solid senders. The long-running Friday after work jazz party at Bird & Beckett has never paused since it started eighteen years ago! Contribute what you can to help us pay the musicians!