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!
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But nothing beats being in the room with the music & the musicians!
Bob Kenmotsu, tenor saxophone Keith Saunders, piano Matt Montgomery, bass Tony Johnson, drums $20 suggested donation, byob. Teens and music students, $5-10 sliding scale Kids free Australian native Tony Johnson arrived on these shores in 1959, sneaking into the U.S. from British Columbia and quickly becoming a fixture on the North Beach jazz scene. He was first heard on record on an album recorded live at the Coffee Gallery on Grant Avenue in 1960 by vocalist Bev Kelly with Pony Poindexter on saxophone and Flip Nuñez on piano, produced for Riverside Records by Orrin Keepnews. Not a bad start! He’s been swinging ever since. Habitués of the legendary Club Deluxe well remember the countless nights in the first couple of decades of this century when he ruled the venue’s bandstand from behind the drumkit, carrying all the City’s best young jazz players to ecstatic levels of performance. This evening, Tony’s…
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In This Ravishing World (Regal House Publishing, 2024) Winner of the W.S. Porter Prize and Winner of The Prism Prize for Climate Literature, Bay Area novelist Nina Schuyler’s latest book, her fourth, takes her writing to a new level of engagement and artistry. “In this ravishing book, you will find stories that lift your heart and stories that break it. Powerfully beautiful and beautifully powerful, Schuyler has written exactly the book this moment needs.” Karen Joy Fowler In This Ravishing World is a sweeping, impassioned short story collection, ringing out with joy, despair, and hope for the natural world. Nine connected stories unfold, bringing together an unforgettable cast of dreamers, escapists, activists, and artists, creating a kaleidoscopic view of the climate crisis. An older woman who has spent her entire life fighting for the planet sinks into despair. A young boy is determined to bring the natural world to his…
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Fabiana Cozza, vocals. Annette A. Aguilar, drums. Ricardo Peixoto, guitar. Brian Moran, cavaco, bass & guitar. Ricky Aguilar, percussion. $25 cover charge. Cash or Venmo at the door, please. We’re flexible on the cover charge, but please do consider that with the addition of percussionist Ricky Aguilar we have five mouths to feed tonight! For reservations, call 415-586-3733. Byob! Annette A. Aguilar, New York-based bandleader, drummer and educator, brings her West Coast quartet featuring guitarist Ricardo Peixoto, Brian Moran on cavaco, bass and guitar, and Ricky Aguilar on percussion to present the renowned Brazilian vocalist Fabiana Cozza on the Bird & Beckett stage. Fabiana is said to have one of the most stunning voices to emerge from Brazil in recent years, and is considered by her countrymen to be one of the nation’s leading interpreters of Afro-Brazilian music, beginning with samba! Fabiana’s repertoire reflects a deep knowledge of the many…
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Ben Stolorow, piano Peter Barshay, bass Vince Lateano, drums Special guest, guitarist Brad Buethe $20 suggested donation Teens, music students – $5-10 sliding scale Kids free One of the great pleasures in jazz is the piano trio. Vince, Peter and Ben — three talented veterans spanning three generations — have been working together in a third Sundays residency at Bird & Beckett for two years now, and it’s been wonderful to hear the delight and ease of their collaboration. Lately, the trio has been inviting a guest to join them on their dates to add an extra dimension and this Sunday, it’s Brad Buethe — a guitarist with a complex harmonic bent that will be interesting to hear intertwined with Ben Stolorow’s open, economical and lyrical approach to the piano with his own keen ear for harmony. Brad has been on the scene with Vince and Peter at least since…
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Come celebrate the release of Dharma Pharmacy & Surf Shop, by Kevin Opstedal, the latest publication from Bird & Beckett, a knock-out pamphlet by the Venice-born and -raised, and long-time Santa Cruz-based poet, publisher, and documenter of the dream. Opstedal’s history of Poetry, Poets and Community in Bolinas, from 1967 to ’80, Dreaming as One, is essential reading, as are the many magazines (Gas: High Octane Poetry, plus various one-shots) and small books he has edited and published for decades (Blue Press, and other shorter-lived imprints). Opstedal’s poems have been collected over the years in myriad small pamphlets, and thicker volumes, Like Rain (Angry Dog Press, 1999), California Redemption Value (Uno Press, 2011), and Pacific Standard Time (Ugly Duckling, 2016). Duncan McNaughton writes: “Reading the swells, reading the sets—everse bathymetric with the words of The Poems given him in good faith. No one else in my acquaintance—other than Herman Melville, Joseph Conrad, Hart Crane, Charles Olson—has done so as finely than has Kevin Opstedal.” “For…
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George Cotsriilos, guitar Robb Fisher, bass $20 cover charge (cash or venmo at the door). byob Reservations, call 415-586-3733. George Cotsirilos is a uniquely talented jazz guitarist, composer and bandleader, with countless club and concert performances to his credit as well as seven cds (eight, if you count the Nighthawks quintet date from 1995 that he organized, which featured drummer Eddie Marshall along with Robb Fisher on bass, Paul Nagel on piano and Wayne De Silva on saxophone). His duo project with Robb Fisher has produced beautiful music for years, and this date is not to be missed. Robb worked with Cal Tjader for a half-dozen years in the late 1970s, and recorded at least three albums with him, including a live album recorded at the Great American Music Hall in 1977 and released in 1979 (“Here”), the Grammy Award winning album, “La Onda Va Bien” and Grammy Nominee album,…
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Jon Raskin, saxophone. Scott Foster, guirar. Matt Montgomery, bass. Tim Bulkley, drums. $20 cover charge (cash or venmo at the door); byob. Reservations, call 415-586-3733 Marking the ascension of John Coltrane on July 18,1967, the quartet will draw on Coltrane’s work in the 1960s as he began to leave song form and flowed into more open improvisation leading up to the watershed album called “Ascension.” Recorded by Coltrane on June 28, 1965 with a large ensemble of players deeply committed to the free jazz discipline, “Ascension” came on the heels of “A Love Supreme” and was the next giant step by the saxophonist, setting the course for his final years. ROVA, the saxophone quartet of which Jon is a founding member, reimagined “Ascension,” expanding their conception of Coltrane’s late work and its implications for free improvisation. Jon, Scott, Matt and Tim are continuing that exploration on July 19th at Bird…
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Larry Vann, drums Tim Landis, guitar Richard Cruze, keyboards A. J. Joyce, bass with Scott Foster, guitar Drummer Larry Vann, the Groove Merchant, has brought his flawless funk to Bird & Beckett through the years with his trio and in other combos including the New Squatoolas and This Side Up. This evening, guitarist Scott Foster has invited Larry to bring his band to the 3rd Friday Jazz Happy Hour for two sets of soul, funk and jazz. Scott Foster has been a cornerstone of the Bird & Beckett jazz calendar for 21 years-plus, ever since our weekly bookings began in late 2002. These days, the third Friday of each month is his to do with as he pleases; it varies every time out and it’s always a pleasure. It pleases Scott this month to sit in with drummer Larry Vann’s band! You’ve heard Scott and Larry together here in the New…
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Mohalla Films (Community Films) proudly presents BHATTHI (THE KILN, 2023), an ecofilm short based on the life of a 21st century potter family who make bhar (earthen teacups) in India. The clay teacups are used once, discarded, retrieved, remade and sent out again to the tea stalls in a generations-old cycle. Will this craft survive the onslaught of plastic cups, the No. 1 source of soil and marine pollution? click through to read a great article from Al Jazeera on bhar in contemporary Kolkata Mohalla Films is a family-run film collective by San Francisco filmmakers and educators Abhijeet Paul and Rebecca Whittington. The collective wants to bring global ecocinema to San Francisco in the belief that it is important to learn about how people in other parts of the world are dealing with deep environmental crises in traditional and innovative ways every day. Mohalla Films is returning to South Asia…
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Honky Tonk Showman Mitch Polzak plays a mean guitar and raises a ruckus like no one else! This second Sunday summer afternoon, he brings us his famous Royal Deuces — Tim Wagar on bass and Paul Revelli on bass — with pedal steel master Joe Goldmark. He’ll thrill you and seduce you with two sets of rave up country music. You don’t want to miss this! BYOB and a twenty for the band!
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Larry Tye has published books on the Pullman Porters, Satchel Paige, Bobby Kennedy… The Jazzmen (Mariner Books, 2024) is “the story of America in the twentieth century,” says Ricky Riccardi. It’s told through the stories of “three men who are not only the most important men in American music, but (who) changed the whole world,” says New Orleans bandleader and trumpeter Wendell Brunious. It tells “an uplifting and unifying story that is especially important now, when times are so fractured,” says Sonny Rollins. It’s a book we need now. And it’s brilliant. Larry Tye brings his new book, in conversation with Greg Stern, CEO of SFJAZZ. The Jazzmen is the story of three revolutionary American musicians, the maestro jazzmen who orchestrated the chords that throb at the soul of twentieth-century America. — Duke Ellington, the grandson of slaves who was christened Edward Kennedy Ellington, was a man whose story is as…
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Henry Salvia, piano and vocals. Kathleen Salvia, vocals. Alex Baum, bass. Kenny Owen, drums. John Pearson, percussion. $25 cover charge; byob. reservations, 415-586-3733. Welcome to Henry’s Hideaway… it might be a dive on the Embarcadero, a concrete bunker or shaky wooden shack of a bar… maybe it’s the sixties, maybe the fifties… maybe it’s the forties… long before the freeway came down and the roller skaters came out. The dim light makes it impossible to discern the poisonous glow of doctored drinks, but no matter, love’s afoot, lust set loose, just enough… worry later, your cares are dead on arrival. Push open the squeaking door and join the party. It’s a tableau of friendly chaos, a population of denizens each with a story to tell, and everybody’s listening… Julie London, Ricky Ricardo, Joe Sample, Peggy Lee, a cat they call Laufey… they’re all there, as are you… The Flying Salvias… …
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Jean Fineberg, sax & flute. Marlina Teich, guitar. Carla Kaufman, bass. Joyce Baker, drums. $20 cover charge; byob. reservations, call 415-586-3733. “The warmly sensuous flow of music Marlina sends forth moves me into a groove I hate to leave when I go back to my day job.” – Nat Hentoff. Marlina Teich will be performing soulful and swinging jazz and Latin standards with her new quartet featuring Jean Fineberg on sax and flute, Carla Kaufman on upright bass, and Joyce Baker on drums. Guitarist/vocalist/bandleader Marlina Teich has been playing in hotels, clubs, bars and restaurants, as well as recording, in and around San Francisco for decades, also taking her music to hospitals, prisons, psychiatric institutions — anywhere the music can thrill, sooth and please! Saxophonist/flutist Jean Fineberg leads her own original music octet JAZZphoria. She has recorded on more than 40 albums, and can be heard on radio…
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Check our calendar for details on these events from mid-July to the end of August: Thursday 7/18 at 7pm, join filmmaker Abhijeet Paul and editor Rebecca Whittington for a screening of BHATTI, their Mohalla Film Colletive’s 29-minute documentary being readied for release, about the life of a 21st century potter family who make bhar, earthen teacups. in India. The clay teacups are used once, discarded, retrieved, remade and sent out again to the tea stalls in a generations-old cycle. Will this craft survive the onslaught of plastic cups, the No. 1 source of soil and marine pollution? Mohalla Films is returning to South Asia in late July 2024 to work on a narrative ecofilm, BISHTEL (POISON OIL) based on a short story by a marginal Muslim farmer and writer, Ansaruddin. The fillm shows Goni, a marginal farmer, fighting to keep his patch from getting contaminated by fertilizers and toxic sprays…
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Eric Shifrin, piano. Ollie Dudek, bass. Mark Lee, drums. $20 suggested donation per adult. Kids free. Teens and students – $5-$10 The In Crowd’s 2024 second Fridays residency is dedicated to the 20th century songwriters behind so many tunes we know as jazz standards. This month, it pleases Eric and his trio to spotlight the work of Jerome Kern and Frank Loesser. Jerome Kern (1885-1945) wrote 700 songs used in 100 musicals, including chestnuts like A Fine Romance, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, The Way You Look Tonight and All the Things You Are. Frank Loesser (1910-1969) is well loved for Baby It’s Cold Outside, Luck Be a Lady Tonight, Let’s Get Lost and Never Will I Marry. Eric Shifrin has been bringing the In Crowd into saloons and salons, dens and dives, high-toned places and low-down spaces, boites and ballrooms, clubs and concert halls for decades, and they never…
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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
