Max Perkoff, trombone and piano
Charlie McCarthy, tenor sax and flute
Chuck Metcalf, bass
Tony Johnson, drums

$20 suggested donation; byob

In the late 1950s and 1960s, 230 Jones Street in San Francisco was the headquarters of the San Francisco Musicians Union, Local 6 of the American Federation of Musicians, covering the counties of San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano and Sonoma, and parts of Trinity County. Local 6’s headquarters are now at 116 9th Street, and the struggle continues there to advocate for the interests of freelance, gigging musicians as well as those in the orchestras, theaters and recording studios who have more consistently enjoyed the benefits accruing to organized labor. At this juncture, it’s still more an aspiration than a reality, but the AFM is paying attention on the national level and Local 6 is making a good faith effort on the local level to achieve labor justice for freelancers, assisting and with the assistance of organizations like the Independent Musicians Alliance and the Whippoorwill Foundation in the Bay Area, Musicians for Musicians in New York City and other advocates throughout the nation.

Chuck Peterson,, center, with drummer Jimmy Ryan and vocalist Dorothy Lefkovits

The late tenor player Chuck Peterson, who established a weekly Friday evening jazz party at Bird & Beckett back in October 2008 that continues to this day, was a union activist. He named his band in honor of the labor rights efforts that allowed him to enjoy a career in music with the financial security necessary to raise his children to adulthood in this expensive region. At Bird & Beckett, we continue to honor those who join together in solidarity to protect their labor rights, by hiring professional musicians and making a good faith effort to pay them a consistent and fair guaranteed wage and by working together with the Independent Musicians Alliance to organize freelance musicians so that they can find a collective voice to advocate for themselves. It’s a travesty that even today, freelance jazz musicians are still asked all too often to play for tips or a percentage of the door, without any guarantee of a fair wage or adequate working conditions. We want to change that. Our patrons’ contributions at the shows and their donations to our nonprofit arm, the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project, underpin our effort to pay a fair guaranteed wage with the dignity afforded by the respectful provision of decent working conditions. Sadly, even today, this is an uphill battle! Thank you for lending your support!

The 230 Jones Street band carries on Chuck Peterson’s musical legacy with drummer Tony Johnson at the helm and a rotating roster of musicians that includes saxophonist/flutist Charlie McCarthy, pianist Si Perkoff, guitarist Glen Deardorff and bassist Chuck Metcalf. Si and Glen are out tonight, but Si’s son, Max Perkoff will fill in on piano and will also be featured on trombone.

This one’s dedicated to tenor player Ray Loeckle, who considered Chuck a mentor in his career as a jazz musician, shown here in an iteration of the band with Tony on drums, Dean Reilly on bass, Jerry Logas on bari sax and flute, and Glen Deardorff on guitar.