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!

Saturday, October 13th – 7:30 pm
Matt Renzi Quartet
jazz club! when lights are low…

The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project & the Jazz Philanthropists Union, with the support of Jazz in the Neighborhood’s Guaranteed Fair Wage Fund and you!, present The Matt Renzi Quartet $20 cover charge; $10 for students / musicians / low income Matt Renzi – saxophone, clarinet Leonard Thompson – piano David Ambrosio – bass Russ Meissner – drums At Bird & Beckett tonight, Matt Renzi will be joined by pianist Leonard Thompson, bassist David Ambrosio and drummer Russ Meissner. Renzi’s jazz activity spans the country and the Atlantic. He maintains working trios in both New York (where his trio with Ambrosio and Meissner is based) and Rome. Renzi continues to work with both trios but is now based in San Francisco, where he was born and raised. Renzi’s father, the late Paul Renzi, was principal flautist with the San Francisco Symphony for 60 years, from 1944 when he was…

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Saturday, November 10th – 11:15am-1:00pm
Alphastare in the Audible Method Series

Ambient music while you browse the books… in the weekly series featuring and curated by Andre Custodio. This morning, an opening set by Andre followed by a solo outing by Alphastare. Audible Method concludes next Saturday, November 17th, with solo sets and a collaboration by & between Andre and LX Rudis   LX Rudis solo set and collaboration with series curator Andre Custodio on 11/17. Note that the 11/17 will be the final show in the series (11/24 canceled due to the holiday weekend).  

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Friday, October 12th – 9-11 pm – the late show!
Telepathy
 

$20 cover charge; $10 for students/musicians/low income. Patrick Cress – alto, tenor and baritone saxophones Michael Bello – tenor saxophone Peter Barshay – upright bass Jeff Marrs – drums Telepathy has carried the torch for original Bay Area jazz for 16 years and counting, since 2002, recording four albums, touring nationally and internationally and fearlessly committing to their original compositions. The band’s sound is inspired by Ornette Coleman’s keyboardless quartet with full-on commitment to their quest. Band members have come and gone, and their trajectory is irresistible. Check their soundcloud site at: https://soundcloud.com/mercury-falls/telepathy-gags-the-grass-isnt-always-greener-on-the-other-side . [arve url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbPi07lnISg” /]  

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Wednesday, October 10th – 7:30-10:00 pm
Celebrate Monk’s 101st Birthday with
The Hugh Schick/Danny Brown Quartet

Monk 101: Thelonious Sphere Monk, Genius of Modern Music. Born October 10, 1917! Ten Decades That Shook the World. An October Revolution in Jazz! Well You Needn’t. Rhythm-a-ning, Crepescule with Nellie, Pannonica, Coming Down the Hudson, Brilliant Corners, Round Midnight, Straight, No Chaser. Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Minton’s Playhouse. Paul Chambers, Charlie Rouse, Ben Riley, Bird, Diz, Max. Nellie. The Baroness. Mary Lou Williams. Lorraine Gordon. Danny Brown, Hugh Schick, Chris Amberger, Matt Buckner celebrate & we get to celebrate right along with ’em! Bring dough for the band, and celebrate the musicians inspired by Monk & his confreres all these years. Trying to will a decent world into existence by making art.

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Sunday, October 7th – 4:30-6:30 pm
Albatross Clarinet Quartet
which way west? Sunday concert series

preceded by:
2pm: Artist Richard Perri – “Numinosity”
11am: Jerry Ferraz, guitar

$10-20 donation requested; $5 for students / musicians / low income. Actually Strictly Clarinets! We’ve got nothing against bluegrass and its allied arts, but today we’ll stay sweetly oblivious to the throng in Golden Gate Park Sunday, listening to this conclave… We rather imagine they could kick ass on some bluegrass if they had a mind to. But we can’t tell these musicians what to do! Why would we? Come and be entranced, enthralled… well-entertained and thoroughly charmed, at the very least! Dave Tidball, clarinet and bass clarinet Charlie Keagle, clarinet Dick Mathias, clarinet and bass clarinet Jim Dukey, clarinet and bass clarinet The ACQ plays original compositions and arrangements by the quartet members for various combinations of soprano and bass clarinets, covering a wide range of styles from early jazz to contemporary concert music, with stopping points between. Original arrangements of: Bix Beiderbecke’s “Betcha I Getcha” Horace Silver’s “Moon Rays”…

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 Sunday, October 7th – 2:00-3:30 pm
Richard Perri: Numinosity

A book of paintings of gone and almost-gone south of market San Francisco icons by Richard Louis Perri, aka “Lucky” Perri Above portrait of Richard L. Perri by fellow artist Bob Gerbracht BORN - Rockville Centre, New York 1944 EDUCATION - College of Santa Fe 1963-4 Arizona State University 1967 BA San Francisco Art Institute 1977-78 VOCATION – Fine Arts Painter http://www.richardlperri.com/index.html   Visit Lucky’s website for some insight, take a spin through what used to be, then come down to the shop Sunday and hang out… he’ll talk a bit at you, and then with you.  

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Saturday, October 6th – 7:30–10:00 pm
Kat Parra Latin World Ensemble
$20 cover charge (students, etc. $10)
jazz club! when lights are low…

The Jazz Philanthropists Union presents… Kat Parra, vocal; Mas Koga, saxophone; Murray Low, piano; Aaron Germain, bass In addition to singing fluently in English, Spanish and Portuguese, Kat Parra sings also in the dying language of Ladino, or Judeo-Espanyol, which enables her to interpret Sephardic music (Music of the Spanish Jews) faithfully. “This is the language of the Spanish Jews, an antiquated form of Castilian that also includes words from Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish and many other languages. It is an amalgamation of the Sephardic Diaspora, and it is my small way of helping to preserve this language. It is still spoken, but in very few places and mainly by the older generations in Turkey, Israel and in homes across the globe.” http://katparra.com/musica/ Masaru Koga is a young Japanese-American saxophonist of extraordinary sensitivity and power; pianist Murray Low has been a key player in Latin and jazz music in this region for…

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Friday, October 5th – 8:30-10:30 pm – The Late Show!
Vocalist Kim Nalley with Tammy Lynne Hall, piano
 

[arve url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcPDCBwQO5Y” /]   $20 cover charge. $10 for students / musicians / low income. “GOD, CAN THIS WOMAN SING! It’s as if a vocalist from the great post-war blues and jazz combos had been transported to the end of the century.” Blues Access Magazine “Kim Nalley has pipes to burn and works the stage like she means it.” San Francisco Chronicle “If Dinah Washington had lived in the soul era, she’d sound like Kim Nalley” New York Press Magazine Kim Nalley exudes the aura of a diva from a by-gone era, and packs a 3-1/2 octave range that can go from operatic to gritty blues on a dime, with projection that can whisper a ballad and fill a room without a mic. She rivets audiences with blistering scat solos that swing with intensity like no other. She possesses an unforced instrument with unmatched clarity, jazzy musicality and effortless delivery, and sports a sensational…

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Friday, October 5th – 5:30-8:00 pm
Oop Bop Sh’Bam!
jazz in the bookshop every Friday since October 2002
$10-20 suggested donation; students $5
pay only what you can, but help us pay the band!

Al Molina, trumpet; Jerry Logas, reeds, flute & vocal; Jeff Burr, guitar; Dean Reilly, bass; Vince Lateano, drums. Swing to bop. They do it in three-month runs at B&B… September-October-November and March-April-May… Don’t miss out! Consummate musicians doing what they do so well! The heat will be on!

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Tuesday, October 2nd – 7:30-9:30 pm
Aloha Uke Squad Playalong!

Anybody can play uke! And it’s nothing but wholesome fun, that can be put into service to fight the power, relieve the stress of our times or just have a blast. It’s the latter that will be topmost on everybody’s minds Tuesday night! Bring your uke and join in on some simple tunes, or bust out a virtuoso piece of your own… or just come to sing or hum along… The Aloha Uke Squad is kindly organizing the festivities and collecting funds to benefit the bookshop. Throw in five or ten bucks if you can, or fifty if you’ve got the scratch. It all helps… Below, members of the Ukulele Resistance Brigade  at an in-store recording session of “Kids in Cages” and “You Poor Racist.” Marching on! [arve url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvZn1uf3FqE” /]  

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POETS! every 1st & 3rd Monday
Monday, October 1st – 7-9 pm
Paul Corman & Natasha Dennerstein
followed by an open mic
  

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Sunday, September 30th – 4:30-6:30 pm
Achyutan Quartet
featuring Barbara Hunter
which way west? Sunday concert series
$10-20 suggested donation

Barbara Hunter, saxophone Bliss Rodriguez, piano Richard Saunders, bass Achyutan, drums

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Sunday, September 30th – 2:30-4 pm
Walker Talks!

The soul of socialism.

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Saturday, September 29th – 7:30 pm
The Larry Vuckovich / Jeff Chambers Duo
jazz club! when lights are low…
 

$20 cover charge. $10 for students / musicians / low income. Pianist Larry Vuckovich and bassist Jeff Chambers often work in a duo format, producing a close jazz dialogue, infusing the music with soulful emotion, strong swing and sophistication, and playing with consummate craft. Vuckovich stresses that from the time jazz was first in its heyday, audiences knew the value of coming back repeatedly to hear the same musicians go deeper into the music and take it in new directions with each outing. By coming back, audiences knew they would keep on being uplifted. This duo works in that way, to uplift the spirit in today’s times. With fewer and fewer jazz veterans left on the scene today, it’s more valuable than ever to attend to their explorations and collaborations. Vuckovich and Chambers possess a wide-ranging repertoire that surprises, delights and enriches us at every turn.

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Friday, September 28th – 9:00-11:00 pm
The Late Show!
Muse and Music Series: Jill Tracy in Concert
featuring Randy Odell on Drums and
Special Guest Alex Nahas on Chapman Stick

$20 cover charge; $10 for students / musician / low income. Muse and Music Series: Jill Tracy in concert! Hailed by LA Weekly as ‘“the cult darling of the Underworld,” Jill Tracy’s seductive, shadowy compositions have become synonymous with the beautiful dark— featured on Showtime’s DEXTER, CBS-TV Navy NCIS; and movies like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and Other Madnesses. Her piano music and smoky vocals will transport you into an elegant netherworld full of hidden passageways, wonder cabinets, and opium dens. Of monsters, marvels and mayhem. You know it’s not safe here; but with Jill Tracy as your guide, you’ll be in no hurry to leave. Read more at:  http://jilltracy.com/jt/ Joined by master percussionist/drummer Randy Odell, and a rare appearance by Chapman Stick player Alex Nahas, whose unusual stylings appear on her acclaimed album “The Bittersweet Constrain.” The now NYC-based Brown (known for work in LaughingStock and Bright Brown) will…

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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.

Due to lapses in tax filings during and post-pandemic, the BBCLP's status as a registered nonprofit was suspended at the beginning of April 2024 while we reapply, which is expected to take about six months. Donations made after April 1st will not be tax-deductible until nonprofit status is restored.

However, we continue to present a full slate of programming live music and poetry, and producing literary chapbooks, and we seek and welcome your continued financial support in the interim. If a tax-deduction is not a major reason for your support to date, we hope you'll continue to ride with us while we navigate these next several months.

Click on "donate" in the navigation bar above, drop off a check at the bookshop, or drop one in the mail to:

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.

Sign Up for Our Weekly Emails!

TAKE OUR SURVEY

To take our SURVEY, click here, and help the BBCLP get to know you better! As Duke Ellington always said, we love you madly...

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

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