Catch some jazz on the eve of the 4th!

San Francisco’s august Mission District institution, the Community Music Center, is sending a group coached by reed player Charlie Gurke for a 5pm set on Sunday July 3rd, to be followed at 6pm with a jam session open to students and budding professionals led by famed drummer Akira Tana, with Keith Saunders on piano and Eric Markowitz on bass.

The Community Music Center has been a font of great local jazz musicians for generations–and has been teaching San Franciscans of all ages from all walks of life for one hundred years.

The CMC ensemble, coached by reed player Charlie Gurke, on July 3rd will include:

Next month, on August 7th, another CMC ensemble will take the stage. That one is coached by Max Miller-Loran, with neighborhood musicians Ellen Rosenthal on bass and Elizabeth DiCarli on tenor sax; plus Robert Goodwin, alto sax; Louis Ahtty, piano; and Fumio Wada, guitar.

No cover charge, but your donations are welcome and appreciated to help us pay a small stipend to the student musicians and to pay a fair guaranteed wage to the musicians in the trio hosting the jam session. Operating overhead for the series is provided by the many generous donors to the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project, a 501(c)3 nonprofit that puts on all the great concerts and poetry readings that happen week in and week out at Bird & Beckett through the year.

Can’t make it to the shop to hear the ensemble? You can catch it live on our YouTube channel or Facebook page.

Bird & Beckett is proud and pleased on the first Sunday of each month to host a jazz combo comprising students from a local college or high school opening the program, followed by a student jam session led by a professional trio.  Co-produced and underwritten by Jazz in the Neighborhood and Bird & Beckett, the students in the combos receive a small stipend and the professional musicians receive a guaranteed fair wage. Your contributions are much appreciated. Your ears as well!

All young (or youngish) students aspiring to a career in jazz — including those who are learning on the bandstands and public squares — are encouraged to turn out for the jam session that concludes each outing. No advance sign up required, but feel free to call the shop for information — 415-586-3733. Ask for Eric.

Educators! Call us if you want to bring a combo to our stage! We’re all ears here!

Patrons of the arts & philanthropists! Each of these sessions costs Jazz in the Neighborhood and Bird & Beckett about a thousand dollars to produce. You can help us meet those costs and serve the yearnings of the youth for a future in which jazz is more than just a dream of lost opportunity. Give us a call and lend your support!