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!
c’est franÏ‚ais! pretty fancy, non? Pardon our French, but do we have some shows for you! From pianist Tammy Lynne Hall on the 10th to poet Nicholas James Whittington on the 20th, and stops along the way that include Jerry Ferraz’s backyard party on the 11th and Scott Foster’s All-Star Septet on the 17th, we’ll have more than enough on offer to show that Bird & Beckett has tapped a rich cultural vein in the San Francisco cultural bedrock… And books! We’ve got books! There’s always plenty more of both at Bird & Beckett… & we’re in it for the long haul, with 20 more years to come here on Chenery Street in charming little ol’ Glen Park. You’ll want to pick up a schedule at the store, keep an eye on our events calendar at the link in the navigation bar above, and poke through the posts that follow to…
Read MoreWhen Gavin Newsom took the courageous and politically perilous step of declaring a moratorium on California’s death penalty, he gave Californians an unexpected chance to think about what having a death penalty tells us about ourselves as a society or even as human beings. Michael A. Kroll has spent a significant portion of his life opposing capital punishment. In his words, “I don’t know which I hate more, the fact that many states still execute their citizens, or the fact that so many of us still want it to happen.†On May 9, Michael Kroll will discuss the issues of capital punishment in California. He will read excerpts from his published pieces on the subject, and engage in conversation. He will also read from his memoir, Beijing & Beyond (subtitled: Eating (and spending) our way through China with personal reflections on China’s coming of age criminal justice system… and of…
Read MoreIt’s his birthday, and we’ll cry if we want too. You should too. But you won’t feel like it. Jerry!!!!
Read MoreHeikki “Mike” Koskinen: e-trumpet & piano Steve Heckman: saxes. flutes, clarinet ‘MONK MEETS NORDIC WINDS’. Heikki & Steve will present their latest material, ranging from Nordic traditional songs to straight ahead jazz. Their long collaborative history includes CD projects such as “Midnight Sunâ€, “Full Moon†and “Northern Winds & Voicesâ€. “Beautifully melodic, wonderful discovery†– Alisa Clancy / KCSM Radio “Full Moon takes the music to new and interesting heights! A match made in jazz and improvisational heaven!†– Melanie Berzon, Program Director, KCSM ” A delightful listening experience by two master musicians. Varied in mood and texture, this is a work of art full of surprises and adventures. Highly recommended.” – Dick Conte, KCSM Before his move to the Bay Area HEIKKI “MIKE†KOSKINEN was chosen as Finland’s top jazz trumpet player in “Rytmi†magazine polls. He left his native land to study…
Read MoreTodd Melicker regularly communes with the fog of San Francisco’s Outer Richmond. His most recent book, is this the body / if hovers is just out from lyric press. rendezvous, his first book, was published by Rescue Press in 2013 as the winner of the second annual Black Box Prize. He is the author of the chapbooks the immaculate autopsy (Achiote Press) and king & queen (LRL Editions). His work can also be found in VOLT, jubilat, Verse, and Tupelo Quarterly. Joseph Noble’s poetry has appeared in Hambone, OR, New American Writing, Five Fingers Review, The New Review of Literature, Eleven Eleven, and other journals. Three of his essays on the poet George Oppen have appeared in Talisman, Aufgabe, and Sagetrieb. He has published three books of poetry, An Ives Set (2006, lyric& Press), Antiphonal Airs (Skylight Press, 2013), and Within Hearing (2018, lyric& Press) and a chapbook, “Homage to…
Read MoreFrancis Vanek, saxophone Terry Rodriguez, piano Chris Amberger, bass Mike Quigg, drums Francis is a legend of the North Coast. His quartet this afternoon will be right in sync. He and Terry and Chris go back quite aways. Mike’s a young drummer whose reputation is rock solid in this town and he’s crossed the Bird & Beckett bandstand to great effect several times in the past couple of years. This is jazz. If you were here last Saturday night, you heard Francis in Grant Levin’s quartet. Come out and hear what Francis has in mind for you tonight. $20 cover, like most Saturday nights. BYOB, you’ll save some money there.
Read More$10 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…
Read MoreFrancis Vanek, sax Grant Levin, piano Giulio Xavier, bass Jeff Minnieweather, drums
Read MoreSLUGish Ensemble is an amoeba-like musical gathering of saxophones, trumpets, trombones, guitars & rhythm section. It’s music utilizes traditional acoustic instruments to create layers of pocketed-grooves and melodies that blur the lines between pop, rhythm & blues, jazz improvisation & minimalism.     Steven Lugerner – Bass Clarinet & Baritone Saxophone     Mike Gamble – Guitar     Justin Rock – Guitar     Maya Kronfeld – Piano     Tyler Harlow – Bass     Michael Mitchell – Drums Multi-instrumentalist // Composer, Steven Lugerner maintains musical ties between multiple music scenes including his home of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago & New York City. As a bandleader, Lugerner leads both SLUGish Ensemble, an amoeba-like group dedicated to original compositions & arrangements in addition to JACKNIFE, a hard-hitting post-bop quintet dedicated to the music of late alto saxophonist Jackie McLean. Lugerner has released multiple…
Read MoreTalk 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 — once known as The Chuck Peterson Quintet — five musicians whose individual histories on the local jazz scene date back to the 1950s. The quintet now comprises 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. $10-20 suggested donation; $2-10 for students, musicians, limited income.
Read MoreThe Agitator: William Bailey and the First American Uprising Against Nazism is Peter Duffy’s account of the 1935 action led by the young Merchant Marine Seaman Bill Bailey when the SS Bremen, the flagship of Hitler’s commercial fleet, arrived in New York Harbor flying the Nazi flag, just days after violent anti-Semitic riots rocked Berlin. Bailey and a few compatriots snuck onto the ship while a lavish party was in full swing, climbed its flagpole and tore down the Nazi flag. A brawl ensued, Bailey and his gang were arrested and acquitted in a trial that transfixed the nation and shed light on the swift and brutal rise of fascist Germany. A few years later, Bailey later fought against fascism in Spain with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, and during & after World War II he was a business agent for the Marine Firemen’s Union, until he was expelled from the…
Read MoreHomenagem Brasileira! sorry, this date has been postponed due to illness! a new date will be announced soon Vocalist Sandy Cressman leads a stellar band embracing the diversity of Brazil’s musical traditions. Featuring Jeff Cressman on trombone, Murray Low on piano, David Belove on bass and Dillon Vado on drums. Cressman is well known for her passionate and rhythmic singing of the repertoire of the great composers and performers of Brazilian Jazz, and for her two critically acclaimed CDs, “Homenagem Brasileira “and “Brasil-Sempre no Coraçãoâ€. In 2017, Sandy released a CD of all original Brazilian Jazz compositions, created in collaborations with such notable musicians as Jovino Santos Neto, SpokFrevo, and Ian Faquini. In 2015 and 2017, she was a featured vocalist on the main stage of Carnaval in Recife, Brasil. This Easter Sunday, bring your family, or find your family here! Enjoy a band that’s thrilled audiences at venues including SFJazz,…
Read MoreThe Dave Parker Septet performs three newly commissioned works by JAB, plus masterpieces by Charles Mingus, Ornette Coleman & more. View composer JAB’s CV at this link: http://heardmusic.com/bio/jabs_cv Jerry Logas, baritone sax Hal Richards, tenor sax Henry Hung, trumpet Charles Hamilton, trombone Karl Evangelista, guitar Pepe Jacobo, drums Dave Parker, bass JAB, composer Long-time Glen Park residents will remember the halcyon days of the Red Rock Lounge, Ric Lopez’s elegant little corner bar at Diamond & Chenery before Le P’tit Laurent took its place… and Friday nights in Glen Park always sizzled with jazz from a fiery quintet that featured Dave Parker on bass along with Jerry Logas on saxes and the late trumpeter Mike Pitre. Nowadays, besides a few choice farmers market gigs, they can be found regularly at Sheba Lounge on Fillmore and Barebottle Brewing Company on Cortland. Dave’s group has grown to seven and eight pieces over the…
Read MoreTrumpet player Kenny Warren touring from his base New York City is joined by San Francisco players Raffi Garabedian, sax; Miles Wick, bass; Jon Arkin, drums. $10-20 sliding scale cover charge. Kenny Warren has been active in New York’s improvised music scene since 2006. His quartet’s 2017 release “Thank You for Coming to Life” on Whirlwind Recordings has been hailed as “Boldly creative and superbly orchestrated… A masterful album… Stunning” by France’s Radio REC. He has released two LPs with his song-writing outfit Laila and Smitty which Bird is the Worm calls “massively genuine and unabashedly heart-on-the-sleeve open and honest.” He is a frequent collaborator/sideman in a number of NYC music circles. Kenny grew up in Denver, CO, a city with a rich tradition of creative trumpet playing. You can listen and buy Kenny’s music on Bandcamp. Raffi Garabedian (tenor saxophone) hails from Berkeley, California, and attended Berkeley High School,…
Read MoreTom Griesser on sax and clarinet Scott Foster on guitar Scott Chapek on bass Musical associations that date back many years for Scott… …as he says, it’ll be like old times, good times! $10-20 suggested donation
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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
