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

Sunday, November 25th:
jazz writer Paul de Barros
presents his new biography of
pianist Marian McPartland

Sunday, November 25th — 3:00 p.m.
Shall We Play That One Together?
The Life and Art of Jazz Piano Legend Marian McPartland

A book event with biographer Paul de Barros.

Marian McPartland at the piano with “the lady who swings the band”, Mary Lou Williams!

Marian McPartland has done more to edify jazz lovers than anyone alive, we’d have to say, with her radio interviews — collaborations, really — with jazz pianists heard weekly around the world through the magic that is NPR (one more reason we’re ecstatic that President Obama romped to victory on Nov. 6!).

McPartland is a very fine pianist and has an insatiable thirst for insight into the work of her peers, with whom she has ceaselessly and eagerly interacted in her 65+ years in the business. The young, proper, ambitious and talented English pianist Marian Page met and married Chicagoan Jimmy McPartland (a key American “trad” jazz cornet player 11 years her senior) while barnstorming with the USO through the war-torn WWII European terrain entertaining the troops.  Ever since, she’s explored, absorbed and brilliantly played jazz of all styles with an ear that gets her right to the heart of the music. No sheet music needed for this pianist! Just sit her down on the piano bench next to another of the greats in the music, and marvel at the transmission of musical knowledge from one set of hands to another…

De Barros has written a terrific book, brimming with detail but sailing along through eras and milieus without bogging down for a moment. He paints a vivid and full picture of the pianist, the formation of her art and the accomplishments of her career.  In addition, de Barros obviously has a deep affection for and knowledge of the early jazz that Jimmy McPartland embodied, and a thorough appreciation for the transformation of jazz that began in the late 1940s.

Come to the shop November 25th to hear jazz writer Paul de Barros, whose deep research has led to a marvelously detailed biography of the first lady of the jazz piano!

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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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