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!
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.
Read MoreLewis Jordan (saxophone and vocal) Sandi Poindexter (violin) Karl Evangelista (guitar) Erich Olen Hunt (bass) Jimmy Biala (drums and percussion) Lewis Jordan…plays a mean sax, sweet and mellow, sharp and staccato, richly complex, as the mood demands.  Jordan is a triple threat– a virtuoso on alto saxophone, a deft and ingratiating comic actor and a poetically humorous writer. — Robert Hurwitt Music at Large is Lewis’ vehicle for jazz expression.  Much can be learned about the man and the artist from his website at www.lewisjordan.com. Saxophonist Lewis Jordan writes: I began Music at Large in 1976, dedicated to interdisciplinary and multicultural productions, with presentations incorporating music, theater, dance, poetry and visual art. Since that time, Music at Large has been a vehicle for producing musical performances of my own and others’ work, plays, and panels. The genesis of the Music at Large is the commitment to bringing people together by bridging arbitrary distinctions that…
Read MorePublisher Lucille Lang Day and poet Joan Gelfand are joined by several Bay Area colleagues who are among the 150 contributors throughout the state whose poems make up Fire & Rain: Ecopoetry of California (Scarlet Tanager Books, 2018). Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California, edited by Lucille Lang Day and Ruth Nolan, is not only a beautiful and thorough anthology but an homage to California, its varieties of landscapes, and the amazing poetry it has evoked. Like no other collection in its focus, it presents for the reader experiences of life and personal perspectives on the region while also providing an invaluable resource for teachers of creative writing and literature and the ecology, habitats, and species of the state.†— Pattiann Rogers, recipient of the John Burroughs Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Nature Poetry
Read MoreJames Mahone Quartet James Mahone, saxophone Grant Levin, piano Aaron Cohn, bass Hamir Atwal, drums Two sets of jazz standards by four of the Bay Area’s best
Read MoreEach year since his death in 2011, Eddie Marshall’s working band has reunited to play his compositions, with his son, Alcide, in the drum chair. This year the group will be presenting a treasure trove of “new” gems, tunes Eddie left behind when he passed. The group has been decoding, reconstructing, and rehearsing them, and is thrilled to present them to the public – some for the first time!
Read MoreGrant Levin, piano Chris Amberger, bass Mark Lee, drums
Read More2nd year! Students in the SF Conservatory of Music’s “Roots, Jazz & American Music” BMUS degree program host their peers from Bay Area colleges and high schools. No cover charge. Donations to support the bookshop that supports the students are very much appreciated.
Read MoreBrittany Biala, saxophone, leads a trio featuring Helen Orzel, keyboard, and Jonny Kaminek, bass. With 14 years of experience, Brittany graduated with a BM in Jazz Studies on tenor saxophone in 2017. Her sound has been uniquely shaped by her father’s vast collection of vintage American horns and early exposure to funk, as well as her abiding love for Dexter Gordon and John Coltrane and the influence of Chris Potter and Joel Frahm. She currently performs with many ensembles, including the 7th Street Big Band, Bitches Brew, Amy Unauthorized, the Brittany Biala Jazz Combo and many freelance jazz combos. Helen Orzel, the secret love child of Wonder Woman and Ludwig Van Beethoven, was raised by a pack of lions and a piano. She studied classical performance at CSU Northridge then later in Germany and Serbia, played and toured, but alas… classical music wasn’t her destiny. The answer came to her in a bar.…
Read MoreWhat is poetry? What is the poet’s role? Is there a future for this ancient art? Does poetry constitute an ideology? Poet Neeli Cherkovski will talk on these and other issues in a provocative evening in Glen Park.
Read MoreThe Jazz Philanthropists Union presents… Erik Jekabson, trumpet Kasey Knudsen, saxophone Keith Saunders, piano John Wiitala, bass David Flores, drums
Read MoreAl Molina, trumpet; Jerry Logas, reeds, flute & vocal; Larry Chinn, piano; Dean Reilly, bass; Vince Lateano, drums. Bop & swing from five solid senders. The long-running Friday after work jazz party at Bird & Beckett has never paused since it started 17 years ago! Contribute what you can to help us pay the musicians!
Read MoreThree Heads Gone is a collaboration among three poets long associated in the San Francisco swirl of words & music & art. A serial poem, they call it… a Two Way Mirror Book hot off the press. Ava Koohbor is a native Farsi speaker poet and visual artist who now lives in San Francisco. During the last couple of years, many of her poems appear in various publications. Her chapbook, Triangle Squared, has been published by Bootstrap Press. She appreciates whatever art offers to her in any and all forms. She believes that each artist is a medium to transfer the world of possibilities to what is. Patrick James Dunagan lives in San Francisco and works at Gleeson Library for the University of San Francisco. His latest books are Three Heads Gone w/ Ava Koohbor & Marina Lazzara (Two Way Mirror) and Sketch of the Artist (fmsbw). Marina Lazzara holds an MA…
Read MoreUkulele Jam Fundraiser for Bird & Beckett Books and Records Bring your uke and come on out to strum, jam, and just enjoy ukulele music! All levels are welcome. Play at your own level and sing along. Or just come and listen to everyone else! Aloha Uke Squad is accepting song requests, from the community, for the April 2 fundraiser jam! Please contact us, in advance please, to let us know your song choice, and if you are willing to lead your song at the jam! Mahalo!!!!! Facebook: @alohaukesquad Instagram: @alohaukesquad Email: [email protected]
Read MoreA Night Horn Press celebration… On April 1st, poet and Night Horn Press publisher Robert Anbian joins poet Michael Koch to recite verse and celebrate Night Horn’s most recent release, Koch’s poetry collection Street Theology. The featured readers will be followed by the usual Monday open mic.
Read Morewith Kirk Harwood, drums Takezo Takeda, guitar
Read More
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SUPPORT BIRD & BECKETT - DONATE TODAY!
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
