Drummer Tony Johnson anchors Bird & Beckett’s jazz scene on the fourth Friday of every month. Hear him tonight in the company of one of the great veteran saxophonists on the scene, Charlie McCarthy, guitarist Glen Deardorff and bassist Jeff Saxton. Guaranteed swinging bebop & bossa.

Tony hit San Francisco in 1959, fresh off the boat from his native Australia, ready and raring to go. He got busy in the North Beach clubs right away, recorded in 1960 with vocalist Bev Kelly in a combo with legendary saxophonist Pony Poindexter, pianist Flip Nunez and bassist Johnny Allen at the Coffee Gallery on Grant Street, played behind Bobby Short at the Hungry I. Tony played on the Ed Sullivan Show with the Vagabonds (the house band of the Tropicana Hotel in Vegas), toured the country with George Shearing, backed Peggy Lee, recorded in the Claude Williamson Trio alongside bassist Don Prell in 1994, to this day drives the rhythm of the Smith Dobson Quartet and Swing Fever. He gigs constantly at venues throughout the Bay Area and Northern California, including Bird & Beckett, where he’s been featured on our bandstand for years.