A night of improvisation through known and unknown instrumentation, where electronics and mechanical forces connect and agree in creating chaotic sound space and serene landscape of noise.  

Eric Crystal, tenor sax John Wiitala, bass Smith Dobson IV, drums and alto sax Dred Scott, piano and drums Dred Scott, who arrived in the Bay Area in 1989 and co-founded the hip-hop jazz aggregation Alphabet Soup in San Francisco in the watershed year of 1991 (as acid jazz was making its mark at venues including the Up & Down Club, Cafe du Nord, Bruno’s, the Elbo Room), leads this all-star quartet homing in on the recorded output of the Los Angeles-based record label Pacific Jazz, whose stalwarts included Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, Shelly Manne, Russ Freeman, Lee Konitz, Bud Shank, Chico Hamilton and their legion of colleagues. Dred had the opportunity to spend time with Hamilton before he died. “What a cat!” says Dred. Hear what four top musicians glean from the recordings made by some of the most brilliant musicians of their time and place in the history of jazz.…

Flying Salvias is an alt-everything duo from Brisbane, CA– City of the Stars! A quintet for this appearance, with John LoGiudici on guitar, Dave Golia on bass and Paul Revelli on drums They’ve been characterized as everything from “Ameri-kinda Alt Everything” to “Alt Cabaret”. Henry is well known for his expressive piano style and impressive chops, and Kathleen’s voice can go from a whisper to a roar and back again with heartfelt emotional appeal. She is a musical gadabout. He is a musical sponge. Their backstory? She was in Classic Country Heaven in San Francisco. He was in Top 40 Hell in Detroit. She co-founded The Rayons, a new wave girl group, in 1982 and went on to help form the original progressive metal band Holy Mary. She also became a founding member of the Incredible 60’s Rock and Soul Review (IRS) with blues king Chris Cobb and the late…

A LaborFest Presentation: Loretta Starvus Stack, Communist Organizer, Community Gardener, and Her Fight for Rights of Free Speech Tucked away in a scenic cul-de-sac on on the crest of Glen Canyon Park Recreation Area sits one of the most charming community gardens in San Francisco. In this LaborFest presentation, Evelyn Rose, Director of the Glen Park Neighborhoods History Project, will share the significant life history of Diamond Heights resident and Communist organizer Loretta Starvus Stack, founder of Crags Court Community Gardens and wife of local icon and Marine, Fireman, Oiler and Watertenders Union member Walter Stack. At the height of the Cold War and McCarthyism, Ms. Stack played a key role in the clarification of the intent of the Alien Registration Act – also known as the Smith Act of 1940 – that originally denied First Amendment rights to those choosing to discuss the overthrow of the Federal government. At…

We’re pleased to enter our sixth year of Saturday night “jazz club” programming with a quartet led by the masterful saxophonist and composer James Mahone, with Grant Levin on piano; Giulio Xavier Cetto on bass and Malachi Whitson on drums. James Mahone has performed throughout the U.S., Japan and Europe over 30 years. In early 90s, he was the composer for popular jazz band, Black Note. Mahone has performed alongside Wynton Marsalis, Eric Reed, Billy Higgins, Gil-Scott Heron, El De Barge, Josh Redman, and Roy Hargrove, Reggie Workman, Billy Harper, Arnie Lawrence, and R&B band The Chesterfields. $20 cover charge; sliding scale available. This date is presented with support from the Guaranteed Fair Wage Fund, a project of Jazz in the Neighborhood.  The GFWF subsidy of 40% of the guarantee allows for a $150 per musician guarantee tonight, 50% higher than Bird & Beckett’s normal scale on Saturday nights. We…

Soulful, righteous and joyous, no one mobilizes such amazing musicians as Avotcja! Their devotion to her and her music and poetry speaks volumes. Avotcja, poetry and small multi-percussion Francis Wong, saxophone & flute Sandi Poindexter, violin Jon Jang, piano Sascha Jacobsen, bass Raul Ramirez, percussion Come out for one of the peak experiences you’ll have in America this July! And help us celebrate Avotcja’s 78th year on the planet! $20 suggested donation; sliding scale available.  

David Holper is a performing poet and Professor of English at College of the Redwoods in Eureka, California. He recently published his second book of poems, The Bridge, with (Sequoia Song Publishing). Many of the poems in that collection have already been published, and a number of have won prizes. Times Standard article, April 5, 2019 Jennifer Elise Foerster is an alumna of the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) and received her MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is the recipient of an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship (2017), a Lannan Foundation Writing Residency Fellowship (2014), and was a Robert Frost Fellow in Poetry at Breadloaf (2017) and a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford (2008-2010). She has also received fellowships to attend Soul Mountain Retreat, Caldera Arts, the Naropa Summer Writing Program, Dorland Mountain Arts Colony, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Hermitage Artist Retreat.…

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 $10-20 suggested donation. $5 for students/musicians/fixed income.

Drummer Jon Frank leads a quartet with Noah Frank, trumpet; Grant Levin, piano; Charles Thomas; bass.

Avant pastoralism in a chamber music mode Sheldon Brown (clarinet and bass clarinet) Joseph Noble (flute, alto flute, bass flute) Amber Lamprecht (oboe and English horn) www.echosbones.bandcamp.com.

The Jazz Philanthropists Union presents… the 5th Anniversary of jazz club!   Join us to celebrate five years of Saturday night jazz, when lights are low! Pianist Grant Levin has been on the date since the beginning, building an avid following and bringing to the stage some of the Bay Area’s most amazing musicians. Tonight, veteran saxophonist Noel Jewkes, and journeyman saxophonist Dave Ellis share the front line. And you won’t find a better rhythm section for the occasion than Grant, Greg and Genius. Grant Levin, piano Noel Jewkes, saxophone Dave Ellis, saxophone Greg D’Augelli, bass Genius Wesley, drums $25 cover charge tonight! BYOB. The food on the break is on us!

Noah Frank, trumpet Eli Maliwan, tenor sax Kai Lyons, guitar Curtis Aikens, bass Genius Wesley, drums With a sound and approach flexibly fitted to the space and the time, Sueños fuses hip-hop & R&B rhythms, blending modal with gospel harmonies, flowing with bebop-tinged horns over the top of a tight rhythm section that knows no boundaries. Original music and tunes by Roy Hargrove, Christian Scott, Kanye West, and J Dilla, alongside classic jazz standards, ballads and burners. Sueños has performed at the Fillmore Street Jazz Festival in SF and the PDX Jazz Festival in Portland, as well as at secret shows curated by SOFAR Sounds SF, SOFAR Sounds Portland, and SOFAR Sounds New York. $20 suggested donation; any amount, five to fifty, is very much appreciated and makes presenting music out here possible.

The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project in association with Jazz in the Neighborhood presents: Ray Skjelbred, piano Clint Baker, trumpet Riley Baker, drums A sublime stroll through the history of early jazz and the stride era.   Many have had good things to say about Ray: He plays so good it scares me. – Jess Stacy Tremendous ability and imagination – Turk Murphy Ray’s playing is the ultimate illustration of jazz as the “sound of surprise.’” – Hal Smith No money can pay your true value – Barbara Dane What an honor, Ray! I listen to this cd (Pass the Jug) so often and it gets better each time. How could it go wrong with the genius of Ray Skjelbred.- Ida Melrose, daughter of “Kansas City” Frank Melrose …the nearest to Art Hodes I’ve ever heard. – John G. Featherstone (Storyville Magazine) In Ray Skjelbred we have another two-handed pianist…

Right around the Fourth of July each year, we’re pleased to present the Buena Vista Jazz Band — a seven-piece trad jazz aggregation featuring the amazing vocalist Darlene Langston, with Noel Weidkamp, trumpet; John Hunt, trombone & vocals; Don Neely, clarinet & vocals; Si Perkoff, piano; Al Obidinski, bass; and Bill Belasco, drums  Apocryphally, Louis Armstrong always claimed July 4th as his birthday and that’s good enough reason for us to celebrate the New Orleans roots of jazz and its diaspora through Chicago, New York and other far flung outposts. The Buena Vista Jazz Band, based on the configuration of Eddie Condon’s hot jazz ensembles that lit up New York in the 40s and 50s, is always up to the task! $20 suggested donation – more if you can manage it for this seven-piece band! But pay only what makes you comfortable. BYOB!

  Editor Shizue Siegel presents a reading by Dee Allen, James Cagney, Francée Covington David Erdreich and Richard Sanderell, Norma Smith, Lyzette Wanzer, Avotcja  — all contributors to the just-published anthology Civil Liberties United: Diverse Voices from the San Francisco Bay Area (Pease Press, 2019) — 300 pages of poetry, prose and art from 100 writers and artists of color and white allies celebrating the rich variety that truly makes America great. Civil liberties matter—to everyone, not just those who are targeted now. Those who keep silent may be next. People of color are 60% of Bay Area population, yet we remain under represented and underpublished. In polarized times, democracy cannot be taken for granted. We need to reach within ourselves and reach out to others, moving forward together to create the society we want to see. Shizue Seigel is a third-generation Japanese American writer, visual artist, and community activist…