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!

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But nothing beats being in the room with the music & the musicians!

Sunday, November 4th – 7:30-9:30 pm
Reasons for Moving
which way west? Sunday concert series
  

$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 now by Johnston, Frith and Ochs will reform in 2018 for tours, live recordings and unchartered adventures in sound and space. In Europe the core players will be joined by Frith cohorts Samuel Duehsler (CH) on drums and Sébastien Jeser (FR) on bass.

“There are (bands) which you start listening to and you think “this is great, this is it!” and sometimes that’s a disappointing thought when the rest of the (music) does not meet the initial expectation, but that is definitely not the case with Reasons For Moving. …The great thing about it all is that the focus is never lost, all tracks speak the same musical language, with lots of variations, but with raw emotions always on the surface, varying between sad melancholic moments to agonizing angst. …these contrasting emotional fields are well brought up by this stimulating, creative, entertaining, and boundary-shifting music.” — Stef Gjissels, The Free Jazz Collective

“One of the great things about this (band) is that Darren’s trumpet and Larry’s saxes work so well together, in similar tonal areas. Fred Frith is the perfect middle man, balancing between the horns and rhythm team perfectly, whether dealing in dark colors and shades or occasionally soloing underneath or with the spinning horns. On a few of these pieces, Frith gets a chance to lead and stretch out and turn the quintet inside-out into a strange twisted (prog?) rock unit. These pieces fall somewhere between Massacre and Material, yet they are still unique in their own way.” — Bruce Gallanter, DMG Monthly

“(Reasons for Moving) stamp their class as improvisation and free jazz explode in aural splendor and imaginative propulsion in this collaboration. Each has established an undiluted reputation as a forward thinker in taking improvised music into new realms. Change for them is a constant challenge, one they meet on-the-go as they play with their own bands and with other musicians who answer to a similar calling. …Composition has a certain place in their vocabulary, but the larger attributes come when they work outside of the framework. Notation can be the bridge between improvised passages as much as it can herald the beginning or the end. Surprise is welcome, and adds to the impact, but the bigger bang comes from the interplay between the members.” — All About Jazz

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The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project

Our events are put on under the umbrella of the nonprofit 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 501(c)(3) non-profit...
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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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