Jerry and Josiah fix trumpty in their sites as 2020 commences and the battle for sanity is waged. You can contribute in the open mic.  Kim Shuck, San Francisco’s Poet Laureate, presides. No charge, but bring a few bucks for the featured poets if you can.

Mystery writer Bevan Atkinson ~~perhaps better known to you as Susan McGowan, a Chenery Street neighbor for many years~~ presents The Hierophant Card the sixth in her projected 22-book series of “Tarot Mysteries” entertaining and intriguing with the Tarot as Sue Grafton has done with the alphabet & as Cara Black has done with the neighborhoods of Paris

$20 suggested donation; any amount appreciated   Modupue! Bay Area Blues Hall of Fame Jazz Group of the Year 2005 and 2010 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

$20 cover charge; sliding scale available The supremely charming and talented vocalist Lavay Smith returns to Bird & Beckett with her merry crew of skillet lickers, Danny Armstrong on trombone, Ron Belcher on bass and Chris Siebert on piano, for two sets of small combo jump blues and hot jazz!

$20 suggested donation; any amount appreciated   Keith Saunders, piano Ollie Dudek, bass Myron Cohen, drums horn player tbd

As the solstice leads to the new year, may we all find the kindness to love those we meet along the way. Photos by Michael Hacker, Los Angeles, December 13, 2013

Turtle Point Press, an independent publisher that has wedded literary excellence to superior design for thirty years, is very excited to bring out a new work of fiction by (former) San Francisco author Jonathan Tel, Scratching the Head of Chairman Mao. Join us for this pre-publication reading and celebration! Read a quick rumination by the author on his book here. Jonathan lived in San Francisco for many years, attended Stanford and now teaches at Stanford Berlin.

Come out and have some fun with us and a mighty little trio! Locomotive Sunflower Darren Johnston, trumpet Wil Blades, organ Jon Arkin, drums 7:30-10pm $30 cover charge

Seven events in the six consecutive days leading into 2020… Thursday, the 26th, saxophonist Dan Blake from Brooklyn with his East Coast collaborators Jarrett Cherner on piano (a transplanted San Franciscan) and the Israeli bassist Haggai Cohen-Milo, plus local hero Hamir Atwal on drums.  Esperanza Spalding has praised Blake for “un-packaging the avant-garde gracefully and soulfully.” Visit his website at http://danielblake.net/. 7:30-9:30pm, $20 cover, BYOB. Next, the 230 Jones Street Band closes out the year’s Friday-after-work “jazz in the bookshop” parties. They’re our sweet and swingin’ legacy band with roots in the Chuck Peterson Trio, which got the ball rolling 17 years ago, in the fall of 2002! We’ve never missed a Friday in all those years, and don’t intend to miss any going forward. Come hear what it’s all about. By donation, contribute what you can! 5:30-8pm. Then, Saturday night, when lights are low, we proudly present pianist Grant…

$20 cover charge; sliding scale available. jazz, as it’s played in San Francisco at the end of the decade! Grant Levin, piano; Danny Brown, tenor sax; Aaron Cohn, bass; Pepe Jacobo, percussion; Mark Lee, drums. Five players among the very best in the business.

Ghost Tour: San Francisco memorializes collective memories of the City’s neighborhoods as an antidote to its rapid gentrification. It aims to rally a community around remembrance and in this way keep “the old San Francisco” alive. Elina Ansary has created two sections so far: one for Dolores Park and one for Bernal Hill. Each section consists of a small sculpture and an accompanying zine, an illustrated anthology of memories about the place on which it centers. Elina was born and raised in Bernal Heights. She now lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Learn more here.

  $20 suggested donation; contribute what you can. 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 — comprising five consummate jazz musicians whose individual histories on the local jazz scene date back to the 1950s & ’60s. Ray Loeckle, tenor sax Jerry Logas, baritone sax, clarinet, flute and vocals Duncan James, guitar (subbing this evening for Glen Deardorff) Dean Reilly, bass Tony Johnson, drums 230 Jones Street carries on a jazz tradition at Bird & Beckett that began in 2002 when these players’ long-time friend and bandstand colleague, Chuck Peterson, inaugurated our weekly Friday-after-work jazz party. 17 years now, with never a missed Friday! Chuck’s in retirement now up in Santa Rosa, but this is his legacy band, and it swings on mightily every fourth Friday at Bird…

$20 cover charge; sliding scale available ($10 suggested for musicians, students, limited income) From New York, Daniel Blake, saxophone, leads a quartet in an NYC-SF Jazz Summit, with Jarrett Cherner, piano & Haggai Cohen Milo, bass also traveling in from the east, joined by our own Hamir Atwal, drums. Read Dan’s bio and hear samples of his music on his website. Esperanza Spalding has praised Dan for “un-packaging the avant-garde gracefully and soulfully.” A much admired composer as well as bandleader, collaborator and soloist, he has played internationally with Spalding, Julian Lage, Anthony Braxton, Kenny Werner, and many others, and has released several albums, starting with “The Party Suite” in 2006 and including acclaimed “The Aquarian Suite” (2012) and “The Digging” (2016). Here’s an August 2018 performance in Mt. Kisco, NY, an hour north of Manhattan, by Dan with The Digging, his working trio with bassist Dmitry Ishenko and drummer…