$20 suggested donation; any amount appreciated Dave Tidball (clarinet, bass clarinet) Jim Dukey (clarinet, bass clarinet) Dick Mathias (clarinet, bass clarinet) Charlie Keagle (clarinet) With this concert, the Albatross Clarinet Quartet will present an array of new music, much of it recently conceived and arranged. Bebop to polytonal funk, musical commentary on classical pieces from the late 19th century  and some “free” improvisation. Everything is written by members of the quartet. Except what they steal to put to their good uses.

Here are the wrappers. Send me more tamales. — Esteban Lujan to Porfirio Díaz, January 2, 1911 Esteban Lujan’s EL RONDIN is his account of events leading to the suppression of General Pasqual Orozco, Jr.’s 1912 revolt against the Madera presidency in Chihuahua, Mexico.  It is perhaps the earliest written document about this important chapter of the Mexican Revolution, as Madera’s rule proved unsatisfactory to many who had pushed Porfirio Diaz from power two years earlier. Translated into English by Esteban Lujan’s great grandson, the military campaigns against Orozco’s forces by  Colonel Toribio Ortega and Colonel Jose de la Cruz Sanchez from the beginning of the uprising in Coyame on February 5, 1912 to Orozco’s defeat at Ojinaga on September 14, 1912. This republication of EL RONDIN also includes the original text, a modern Spanish version, photos, maps and chronology, giving new life to a little known treasure. Read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascual_Orozco

Guitar god Jinx Jones– twang & rockabilly monster, cover guy for numerous guitar mags, darling of North Beach, oft-featured star of music festivals throughout the western United States as well as the annual Glen Park Festival– has jazz chops to burn, and brings them to                   jazz club!                            when lights are low… with Kenan O’Brien on bass and Ken Owen on drum set & bongos         

$20 per set donation is much appreciated… whatever you can manage! Flat broke? No problem, pay what you will… Al Molina, trumpet Jerry Logas, reeds, flute & vocals Larry Chinn, piano Dean Reilly, bass Vince Lateano, drums   It’s loose, and it’s deep; at one and the same time. Come out and find out for yourself. Oh, but bring your own bottle! We’ve got water, thanks to your tax dollars! God helps the child… Oh, and speaking of dollars? These are five professional musicians, four with six decades under their belt, one with three. We’re estimating here. But the point being, this is how they make their living– playing for you! They call it playing, but it’s really a profession. Bring ten or twenty for the musicians. Until socialism comes to America, it’s up to the rugged individual to pay the piper. Love you madly. Thanks for being part of…

$20 cover charge; sliding scale available Italian jazz vocalist Valentina Ranalli, from Naples, is noted for her purity of tone, phrasing, intonation, and improvisational ability. Valentina sings in English, Italian, Neapolitan, French, and Portuguese. She studied singing, piano, and music theory, going though opera singing, gospel music, and jazz music since she was a child. With an MA in Jazz Music conferred by the famous Santa Cecilia music school in Rome, she has been touring around Italy for the past ten years, appearing on The Voice and performing in many prestigious jazz festivals. Valentina has recently released a new solo EP, “Oversea,” and this autumn is touring America for the second time this year. Bay Area jazz players Gaea Schell (piano and flute) and Peter Barshay (bass) complete her trio for this Bird & Beckett date.

Janice Shapiro lived her life with curiosity, joy, abandon and openheartedness. The 36 vignettes in Philly Girl speak of her deep, personal relationships spanning her early years in Philadelphia through her full and multi-faceted adulthood in San Francisco. With warmth and humor, her stories reveal the woman so many people loved, and the life she embraced passionately until her premature death at 68 from cancer. Free event. Refreshments will be served.  

Zinger Phillips is the brainchild of Grammy-nominated bassist Paul Knight who in the spirit of Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac named the band after two band members other than himself!   Among their recent shows the band backed up Peter Rowan at the 2019 annual Plumas Homegrown Americana Festival in the California High Sierra Mountains.   Mark Holzinger was inducted into the Western Swing Hall of Fame in 2016 for his 25 years as guitarist for the SF Bay Area based Lost Weekend. Mark has performed with Big Joe Turner, Rickie Lee Jones, Joe Williams, Big Mama Thornton, Vince Welnick and Peter Rowan to name a few.   David Phillips has played guitar and steel guitar in the Bay Area since the 1980’s, and has performed with the major Bay Area symphonies and has played and/or recorded with Metallica, Les Claypool, Peter Rowan, Tom Waits (Bone Machine), Charlie Hunter Trio (Bing,…

The threads out of which so much has been woven come from sources first charted by Walter Benjamin. A classic “vates,” in the old Roman sense — a wielder of insight amidst a plethora of forms and hidden values. A chronicler of his immediate age, which strangely resembles ours, as well as a perspicacious navigator of the seas of the psyche, in a searching critique of the sights and the shadows of all times.

$20 cover charge; sliding scale available Erik Jekabson is one of the most respected trumpet players on the local scene, known for his prolific and varied work as a composer and bandleader as well as for his nimble and creative work on the horn. His quintet for the occasion comprises top local players Sam Priven, alto sax; Keith Saunders, piano; John Wiitala, bass; and David Flores, drums.  

$20 donation requested; any amount appreciated, not to worry! The legendary Richie Cole returns to the Bay Area! Doors open at 8:30pm Richie Cole, alto sax Gaea Schell, piano Eric Markowitz, bass Peppe Merolla, drums If you don’t know, and just have a hunch, you’d do well to research Mr. Richie Cole! Come out! You won’t be disappointed; rather, you’ll be floored! We’re in the presence of jazz royalty tonight at Bird & Beckett!

$20 suggested donation; any amount appreciated On the fourth Friday of each month, our weekly jazz in the bookshop series features The 230 Jones Street, Local 6 Literary Jazz Band — a combo in direct line of descent from The Chuck Peterson Trio, which started our regular jazz programming 17 years ago. Comprising five musicians whose individual histories on the local jazz scene date back to the 1950s, the band features Ray Loeckle on tenor sax, Jerry Logas on baritone sax, flute and vocals; Glen Deardorff on guitar, Dean Reilly on bass and Tony Johnson on drums.

Denise Low, Kansas Poet Laureate 2007-09, is winner of Red Mountain Press Award for Shadow Light. Her memoir, The Turtle’s Beating Heart: One Family’s Story of Lenape Survival (U. of Nebraska Press) was a finalist for the Hefner Heitz award. Other recent publications are A Casino Bestiary: Poems (Spartan Press) and Jackalope (Red Mountain). At Haskell Indian Nations University she founded the creative writing program. Currently she teaches for Baker University’s School of Professional and Graduate Studies. She recently relocated to Sonoma County, California. Read her very recent assessment of the National Book Award poetry finalists here, as well as other musings: http://deniselow.blogspot.com/ Underground poet Joel Landmine was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. He got his start at the now-defunct Tenderloin Reading Series and has been a mainstay of the Anger Management & Revenge and Bitches’ Brew Reading series. He has been a featured reader at…

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).