Guitarist Tom Lander brings in a quartet including saxophonist Charlie McCarthy, bassist Chuck Bennett and drummer Tony Johnson for two sets of jazz standards and originals.

All this other stuff this weekend?  Wonderful indeed.  Way beautiful!  But this Tom Lander date is as good as it gets!  If you’re seriously appreciative of small combo jazz, you should make this date.  You know the way you spend ridiculous amounts of time at the International Film Festival?  That should be how you regard the offerings here at B&B, it we do say so ourselves!.

Tom was playing blues and rock in Madison, Wisconsin during college in those heady mid -60s before coming out to San Francisco in 1969.  He continued in that vein here until digging into music he couldn’t just pick up off records, starting a development in jazz advanced significantly by studies with influential guitar teachers like Davis Ramey and Jerry Hahn.

For decades, Tom has played with many of the finest jazz players in the region, covering a variety of styles in all sorts of venues from bars and clubs to small halls and the private circuit.  You can hear him the second Friday of each month leading a trio at the Atlas Cafe.  But first you should hear him in the environment of Bird & Beckett on Sunday, November 9th, from 4:30 to 6:30 pm.

As for Charlie McCarthy, he’s played and recorded with Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Henderson, Sarah Vaughan, Bobbie Hutcherson, George Shearing, Madeline Eastman, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Wilson, Lena Horne, Stan Getz and Joe Williams.  Need we say more?  Oh yeah, he’s a lovely human being and plays great!