Joe Goldmark, pedal steel guitar Mitch Polzak, lead guitar and vocals Hank Maninger, bass guitar and vocals Kenny Owen, drums

Michael Zisman, mandolin; Jason Vanderford and Scott Foster, guitars;Joe Kyle, Jr., bass. Certainly the darlings of all San Franciscans who’ve ever witnessed their family ruckus at the Deluxe, the Americano Social Club is led by Michael Zisman on mandolin and features guitarists Jason Vanderford and Scott Foster and bassist Joe Kyle, Jr.   They play music for “la dolce vita”: a mix of romantic and eclectic melodies from all over the world. Charming and fantastic, both!   Visit their website!  https://www.americanosocialclub.com  

$25 cover charge. $10 for students, musicians, low income. Jeff Sanford leads a madcap batch of nine fine musicians through the music of Raymond Scott, John Kirby and other geniuses of mid-20th century classical cartoon compositions — with some works that spring from more modern-day classics as well! Presented by the Jazz Philanthropists Union and the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project with support from Jazz in the Neighborhood’s Guaranteed Fair Wage Fund!  There’s no bar and no tip jar tonight! Just pay your cover and BYOB, and with that help from you and Jazz in the Neighborhood, we’ll pay out $900 to this nine-piece band! It’s not a fortune for them, but it’s a sign of our appreciation and it ain’t Peanuts! It’s Merrie Melodies & Looney Tunes, though, for sure! Click on the graphic below and enjoy some music from way back then! [arve url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3FLN0iQ9SQ” /]

With a lot of help from you, the audience, from neighborhood donors to the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project, a 501(c)3 organization, and from  Jazz in the Neighborhood’s Guaranteed Fair Wage Fund, we’ll pay this quartet a “living wage” of $150 per musician this evening! That’s a lot of heavy lifting for the bookshop on a Friday evening, even with the help of Jazz in the Neighborhood… so dig deep if you believe jazz music should be heard live in Glen Park and if you believe our local professional jazz musicians should be paid more than peanuts for their prodigious talent, experience & effort! But the doors are open to all regardless of their bank accounts–we want everyone to enjoy this music and support it with your ears–so don’t pay more than you can afford! Tonight, bandleader Kurt Ribak brings a program of originals for your listening pleasure! Lincoln…

Preeti Vangani is an Indian poet & essayist. She is currently an MFA candidate at the University of San Francisco. Her work has been published in BOAAT, Noble/Gas Qtrly and Juked, among other journals. She is the winner of the Raedleaf Poetry Prize and has a debut book of poems titled Mother Tongue Apologize forthcoming in early 2019. Loa Niumeitolu is a Tongan poet working with the East Bay Ohlone community. Robert Anbian has been described as “a passionate virtuoso steeped in these times and deep with tradition,” according to Richard Hack, “[whose] poetry crackles with currency – hiply linguistic turns of natural originality, rhythmically brimming with a tempestuous taste of ecstasy, reason, and love.” Dusty Dog Reviews declared him “a genius or a Venusian.” This series, active for nearly twenty years, is currently curated and co-hosted by San Francisco Poet Laureate Kim Shuck with Jerry Ferraz. An open mic…

$20 cover charge Darren Johnston, trumpet Larry Ochs, saxophone Fred Frith, guitar Jason Hoopes, electric bass Jordan Glenn, drums Many will remember the music Reasons for Moving made when they played Bird & Beckett with Allison Miller on drums this back in January. In early November, Johnston, Frith and Ochs, with bassist Jason Hoopes and drummer Jordan Glenn, are back for two sets of music on the eve of their departure for a European tour that will take them to the Music Unlimited 2018 Festival, Wels, Austria on November 11th, followed by: November 13 – Festival Jazzdor, Strasbourg // Nov. 15 – Porgy and Bess, Vienna // Nov 16 – Alte Gerberei , St. Johann-in-Tirol, Austria // Nov 17 – Argo 16 in Marghera, Venice // Nov 18 – Area Sismica, Forli, Italy. Initiated by Darren Johnston and imagined originally as a one-off recording project, this uncategorizable quintet spear-headed collaboratively…

The danger with expressions like “Why do bad things happen to good people?” is — always viewing ourselves as the good people, when sometimes we are the bad things. Comfort is always good, but at times we need to change. As writers, Andi Frederick & Joseph TinGin seek to be honest in their compositions, to look objectively at their own human experiences, and to tell the truth about them. Sometimes there are no clear heroes or villains, but real humans, each with their own stories to be told. It was by no means of predestination, divine intervention, or even serendipity that Frederick and TinGin happened to have crossed paths in San Francisco in the fall of 2016, but rather a series of whelming events and decisions. However, a shared method of songwriting as self-medication, a means of processing life’s experiences, became the catalyst for a collaboration that would eventually come…

This ‘sampling’ from the work of 2nd century AD Roman poet Martialis covers some of the usual suspects, epigrams, verse tags, scurrilous and otherwise, but it also includes a number of poems from the Liber Spectaculorum, the Book of Spectacles, devoted to poems on the Games at the Colosseum and, often, in praise of Caesar. Martial’s themes can make the modern reader very uncomfortable, as well as make them laugh, even 2,000 years after his death. Neeli Cherkovski and Paul Fericano will participate with Art as interlocutors and poets. Read more on Art Beck here.

$20 cover charge; $10 for students/musicians/low income.   San Francisco Bay Area bassist, composer and bandleader Lisa Mezzacappa and her band, the Lisa Mezzacappa Six, premiere a new suite for jazz sextet, “Cosmicomics 2018,” inspired by Italian novelist Italo Calvino’s beloved “Cosmicomics” stories, which humanize various scientific, astronomical and biological phenomena into poignant and playful fables. The Lisa Mezzacappa Six, featuring tenor saxophonist Aaron Bennett, guitarist John Finkbeiner, vibraphonist Mark Clifford, electronic musician Tim Perkis, bassist Lisa Mezzacappa and drummer Jordan Glenn, developed Cosmicomics 2018 during a four-concert residency at Bird & Beckett Books throughout 2018, where Mezzacappa and her musicians performed works-in-progress, discussed aspects of the stories motivating the musical composition, read from Calvino’s work, and experimented with new musical ideas and structures before an intimate and engaged literary audience. The Lisa Mezzacappa Six was formed in 2014 as an expanded version of Mezzacappa’s longtime quartet, Bait & Switch. The…

https://jackhertz.com/ byoc (bring your own coffee!)

Great jazz music from the traditions of New Orleans, Chicago, New York and San Francisco. Al Molina, trumpet Jerry Logas, reeds & vocal Jeffrey Burr, guitar Dean Reilly, bass Vince Lateano, drums Al Molina was born to a musical family in San Francisco in 1935. He made his mark on the local jazz scene in the early 1960s, first heard on vinyl in the 1966 release, “Jazz from San Francisco,” and named Best Jazz Trumpet in San Francisco by the Bay Area Jazz Society in 1983. Along the way, Al has released three records as a leader, including the great “Amigos Todos” in 2003. He’s toured internationally twice and has appeared at the Monterey, Russian River and San Jose Jazz Festivals over a long and beautiful career.

Johnny Escobedo – guitar & vocals Mario Vega – flute & sax Norman Downing – percussion & vocals Cuban son, boleros y guajiras, the sounds of Havana and the Cuban countryside–and more!  El Guajiro plays the gamut of popular music from Latin America. With this personnel, the same configuration as heard at Bird & Beckett this past February, El Guajiro’s music is beautifully represented on the 2017 cd entitled… “El Guajiro!” In stock at Bird & Beckett! Read more on El Guajiro on their site:  click here!  

Lovely jazz trio led by one of San Francisco’s foremost jazz bassists, with guest pianist Phillipe Villa of Nice and drummer Aaron Kierbel, in one of San Francisco’s best listening venues… lovely acoustics, lovely books, lovely musicians. Lovely all ’round… do come! $15 cover ($10 for students/musicians/low income).  

Terese Taylor joins Andre Custodio Saturday morning through the noon hour to create a tapestry of improvised ambient sound.  $5 suggested donation if you come for the music. A buck or two is nice if you just happen to be browsing & don’t mind supporting the arts. Saturday mornings through November 24th, Andre Custodio presents a series of performances of textured sound utilizing electronics and other instruments for a bookstore environment. While it’s not a concert setting, you’re welcome to find a seat — whether to listen more closely or to peruse a book. Mostly, it’s desired that you’ll feel free to wander and browse. Andre won’t be easily distracted and he’s not seeking to distract you. The series begins Saturday, August 25th and continues through Saturday, November 24th. Andre will be performing solo for most of these Saturdays, but will occasionally invite others to fill in. Audible Method was established in 1997 in San…