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!
Aural Monsoon is a trio ensemble seeded by inaugural conjunction of first notes. To paraphrase Cecil Taylor find a note you like and conjunct it with another that then ignites spontaneous aural intelligence. Subconscious harmony then transpires amongst the sound magicians at hand, which results in the immediate aural field igniting by means of the unpredictable. This being not unlike the early Paris drawings of Joan Miro where immediate praxis subsumed all cultural super-imposition. —Will Alexander A bit more from Will: https://entropymag.org/translucence-as-superior-distillation/
Read More$20 cover charge; sliding scale available. Charlie McCarthy, tenor sax and flute Michael Greensill, piano John Clark, bass Jack Dorsey, drums Consummate musicians and good friends playing jazz standards with decades of experience.
Read More$20 suggested donation; contribute only what you can Q.R. Hand     Nina Serrano     Thomas Stanton Three distinguished poets perform short solo sets and together perform an unpublished piece by Diane di Prima LITANY  (FOR KATHY ACKER) Di Prima, a native New Yorker born in August 1934, emerged as a central voice, intellect and organizing figure among the 1950s Beat era literary figures, and moved with the times, changing coasts along the way, through the revolutionary 1960s and the emerging consciousness of the 1970s. Her major work of the ’70s, Loba, and her exploration of magick, esoteric and hermetic traditions found public expression in the Poetrics program she co-founded in 1980 at New College of California with fellow poets Robert Duncan and David Meltzer and the San Francisco Institute of Magical and Healing Arts (SIMHA), where she taught Western spiritual traditions into…
Read More$20-25 suggested donation; contribute only what you can. Tonight, the great San Francisco singer Denise Perrier joins the band! Oop Bop Sh’Bam plays jazz from the traditions of New Orleans, Chicago, New York and San Francisco each 1st Friday in September, October & November, and March, April & May. Mark your calendar! Al Molina, trumpet Jerry Logas, reeds & vocal Larry Chinn, piano Dean Reilly, bass Vince Lateano, drums with special guest Denise Perrier, vocals Vocalist Denise Perrier was born in Louisiana, and moved with her family to the Bay Area at the age of five. She’s had a thirty-year career performing locally and touring Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Along the way, she’s been dubbed “The Voice with a Heart.â€Â Jazz Times magazine reviewer Harvey Siders — speaking of the record she recorded with sax legend Houston Person and Tammy Hall on piano — noted that “Ms Perrier boasts a gorgeous…
Read More$20 cover/sliding scale available. Lyle Link, saxophone Brian Ho, organ Mike Scott, guitar Lorca Hart, drums Lorca Hart grew up in Taos, New Mexico in a musical family. He was exposed to a variety of instruments and musical styles as a child but early on it became clear that the drumset was his passion. In high school he started to perform and focus on Jazz. He attended California Institute of the Arts from 1992-96, studying with Albert “Tootie†Heath, Joe La Barbera, Charlie Haden, Wadada Leo Smith, and many others. Since that time Lorca has worked consistently in a variety of musical situations, performing with many of the West Coast’s (and beyond) finest artists including : Bobby Hutcherson, Stanley Jordan, Ralph Moore, Carmen Lundy, Freddie Hubbard, Calvin Keys, Craig Handy, Kyle Eastwood, Herman Riley, Azar Lawrence, Red Holloway, Plas Johnson, John Heard, Danny Grissett, Justo Almario, Bennie Maupin, Phil Ranelin,…
Read More$20 cover charge/sliding scale available. Practitioner, the duo of Ben Goldberg and Michael Coleman, explores the music of Steve Lacy. Their first cd came complete with a set of jazzball cards! What’s not to like? This time out, they drill one right through the gap into the outfield that is Lacy’s Book of H! Says Michael, “We’ll be playing the mysterious and quixotic Book of H by Steve Lacy. We’ve been working on this music for 5 years (!!) and it just keeps getting hazier. A dream come true.” Take a stroll through Ben’s discography at this link. Pay particular attention to the graphic at the top, and when you get to the same graphic as an album cover, well then take a minute and “read more.” I mean click on through and read the whole thing. Then you’ll have a pretty good feel for how Ben feels about Steve…
Read MoreNo charge; but if you can spare a few bucks to help us reward the featured poets, that would be great. Jeanne Powell’s latest collection, TWO SEASONS: STORY-POEMS, has just been brought out by Taurean Horn Books. Along the way, her poems have appeared in several print and online journals, including Essence Magazine, Haight Ashbury Literary Journal and the tenth anniversary issue of Drumvoices Revue from SIU-E. Jeanne Powell’s poem, “Next Time” won first prize from the Detroit Writers Guild in 2002. Three poems were selected for the Creative Justice Art Show at the University of San Francisco, 2006: “If The Shoe Fits,” “Next Time,” and “Making Amends.” Early collections of her work included February Voices (1994), Cadences (1996), and Tangerine Dance (1999) and were reprinted in 2003 as CELEBRATION OF THE WORD. MY OWN SILENCE (poems and haiku) was a finalist in national competition in 2002, shortlisted for the…
Read More$20 suggested donation; any amount appreciated. Join us in the velvet lounge… for Social Stutter Beth Schenck – alto sax, compositions Kasey Knudsen – alto sax Phillip Greenlief – tenor sax Cory Wright – tenor and baritone saxes Social Stutter, comprised of some of the Bay Area’s most unique voices — Beth Schenck, Kasey Knudsen, Phillip Greenlief and Cory Wright, blurs the line between strictly written chamber music and soaring free jazz. Solos emerge from the natural order of intricately written lines that, although begin simply in structure, twist and distort themselves into surprisingly complex shapes and forms. Unlike traditional saxophone quartets, some of the pieces are composed for two altos and two tenors, which leads itself to denser harmonic territory and a uniquely homogenous sound. Masters of texture and nuance, the quartet has a keen awareness of how to support and push one another’s creative boundaries. Social Stutter is…
Read More$20 cover charge/sliding scale available. Tim Lin, saxophone Joe Gilman, piano Shempei Ogawa, bass Curran Sinha, drums Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Tim Lin is a Taiwanese American jazz talent whose progressive sound comes from his appreciation of the bebop jazz tradition. During his junior year in high school, Tim was mentored by bay area saxophonist and educator Dann Zinn. Guided by Zinn’s inspirational teaching, Tim discovered his passion and calling for jazz. Attending the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, Tim received a scholarship to study with the world-renowned jazz recording artist Bob Sheppard. Tim was a member of the award winning USC Thornton Jazz Orchestra directed by Bob Mintzer in addition to the USC Honors Combo directed by Jason Goldman. In his twenties, Tim has performed as a sideman with jazz luminaries such as Kenny Burrell, Tootie Heath, Russell Ferrante, Carl Allen,…
Read MoreOn Sunday, July 28th, San Francisco lost one of its greats, an artist, poet & translator and also promoter of the arts, especially in North Beach where the Beat legacy hangs by a thread, but a golden thread. And Ron was a great part of that work to keep bohemia alive sans politics, sans “career,” and sans celebrity. He will be remembered not only for his masterful painting and collage work, but also for his surreal but deeply human writing and laser-sharp criticism of everything from lame liberalism to fascist communism, and especially as far and away the best and funkiest translator of Baudelaire, bar none; also for his unmerciful humorous family portraits, inventing new forms of modern disfunction for the professional psychologist and lay reader alike. Together with his partner Rebecca Peters, another master collagist in her own right, worker of magic champaign cork wiring and editor of Off…
Read More$20 suggested donation; contribute only what you can Christian Tumalan, piano Aaron Germain, bass Brian Andres, drums Brian notes that a trio is a much more intimate, yet demanding musical setting for musicians to explore. There is no place to hide, no weak link allowed. In such a small setting, the dynamics must become more acute, the musical idea that much more clear, the technique that much more precise. It is in that context that the Brian Andres Trio Latino thrives. Three musicians making a statement within the freedom of Jazz and the cultural richness of the Afro-Latino diaspora. Featuring original compositions and exciting new arrangements of jazz and Latin standards, Brian Andres Trio Latino went into the studio to record their debut album earlier this year, and release is imminent! In Trio Latino, bandleader and drummer Brian Andres features: PIANIST Christian Tumalan was born in Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico. His…
Read More$20 cover charge/sliding scale available. “Kiah is a master on the looper and multi-instrumentalist who takes things to new heights as a sound scientist! You’d have to come to a show to fully grasp what wonders she is capable of. Her ability to switch from one instrument to the next (ahem..like 12 of them), write songs, sing harmonies all while keeping an unassuming smile on her face is as noteworthy as can be.” -Charity Ann, singer-songwriter Come at 7 to mingle & visit. Music starts at 7:30!
Read More$20 suggested donation; any amount is appreciated Among the most delightful dates we host at the bookshop are the occasional appearances of Friends of Old Puppy, playing from their eclectic bag of tunes. By popular demand, here they come again! Just the thing for a Sunday afternoon in the late summer. Steven Strauss, ukulele Greg Pratt, guitar Ed Johnson, washtub bass Cynthia Wilson, drums
Read More$10 suggested donation; any amount appreciated Kabir, 15th century mystic poet. Rural visionary, satirist, improviser, weaver, lyricist, heretic before there was even a word for it. Encompasser, dramatizer, transcender of all known religious dichotomies. Electrifying, re-vivifying, calming, startling. Egalitarian. Inspiring. Walker Brents III addresses topics philosophical, poetic, and never pedantic on the last Sunday afternoon of the month.
Read More$20 suggested/sliding scale available. Talk about your San Francisco jazz… On the fourth Friday of each month, our weekly jazz in the bookshop series features The 230 Jones Street, Local 6 Literary Jazz Band — in direct line of descent from the Chuck Peterson Trio, which started the whole “jazz in the bookshop” thing 17 years ago. These five musicians — Ray Loeckle, tenor sax; Jerry Logas, bari sax, clarinet, flute, vocals; Glen Deardorff, guitar; Dean Reilly, bass; Tony Johnson, drums — have all put in decades of work on the local jazz scene, dating back to the early 1950s. The band was originally formed by multi-instrumentalist Chuck Peterson (tenor sax, baritone sax, flute), who was a union activist particularly in his prime years (the 1950s and 1960s) and throughout his career, hence his nod to the address of Local 6 of the American Federation of Musicians, where he and…
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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." We've been doing that very thing for more than a decade and a half, 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 through our fiscal sponsor, Jazz in the Neighborhood.
Click on "donate" in the navigation bar above. Better yet, send or drop off a check made out to our fiscal sponsor, Jazz in the Neighborhood, with BBCLP in the memo line. Our mailing address is:
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.
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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