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!
Visit our Facebook page or
YouTube channel!
But nothing beats being in the room
with the music & the musicians!
Francis Vanek, saxophone; Randy Vincent, guitar; Chris Amberger, bass. The Jazz Happy Hour, 22 years running! Every Friday save two since 2008! $20 suggested donation for adults. Kids free — teens/students $5-10. Francis Vanek is a legendary North Coast tenor player who hails from Pittsburgh, PA. There, he cut his teeth as a youth with such masters as the 1940s tenor player Carl Arter, himself a peer of Mary Lou Williams, Ahmad Jamal and Billie Eckstein, as well as the drummers J.C. Moses and Roger Humphries. Francis holds a masters degree in music and taught at the University of Nevada, Reno, and performs regularly at the Mendocino Music Festival, the historic Benbow Inn, and various venues and wineries from Sonoma to Del Norte county. Francis asserts that he always enjoys bringing some North Coast vibes to Bird & Beckett. His friendship with bandstand mates Randy Vincent and Chris Amberger, major…
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Macy Blackman, piano and vocals; Bing Nathan, bass; Jon Otis, drums. The late show! $20 cover charge cash or venmo at the door for a reservation, call 415-586-3733 Macy Blackman has been steeped in rhythm & blues since he was a youngster in Delaware. Born in 1948, by his high school years he was leading a local combo that touring vocal acts including the Orlons, Lee Andrews and the Hearts, and The Tymes hired for their local appearances. Throughout his career, Macy has ranged far and wide musically — you’ll hear evidence tonight! Says jazz writer Andrew Gilbert in Berkeleyside, “Macy is as comfortable rockin’ Ellington and Gershwin as he is swingin’ Joe Turner and Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson.” New Orleans R&B has been his beating heart since the late ’70s, when he formed a tight bond of friendship with one of its masters, drummer Charles “Hungry” Williams. Tonight,…
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Jinx Jones, guitar; Kurt Ribak, bass; Rob Hart, drums. Jazz club! when lights are low… Saturday nights at Bird & Beckett! $20 cover charge cash or venmo at the door reservations, call 415-586-3733 Jinx Jones is a titan of rockabilly guitar, a virtuoso of twang and surf, but he’s also long been drenched in the beauty of the jazz guitar as it’s traveled from the fingers of Charlie Christian through the hands of sublime musicians including Django Reinhardt, Les Paul, Tal Farlow, Wes Montgomery, Grant Green, Barney Kessel, George Barnes, Emily Remler and a constellation of others. As heard at Mr. Tipple’s, The Dawn Club, Jupiter, Local Edition, Blush and Rigger’s Loft, with less clatter, more books and rich acoustics, and with Kurt Ribak on bass and Rob Hart on drums–both musicians of vast experience in a wide spectrum of music and a deep engagement in jazz, Jinx’s trio will…
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Bird & Beckett makes way for the next generation on the first Sunday of each month! On the first Sunday of each month, you’ll hear what youth well schooled in jazz can do. The musicianship on display is always amazing, delightful and fills us with confidence in the future of the culture. This time out, the jazz program at Ruth Asawa School of the Arts will field two combos, and drummer Akira Tana will lead the jam session to follow, with the able assistance of pianist Parker Grant and bassist Heshima Mark Williams on bass — three first-call musicians of the highest caliber, all well attuned to the tradition by which those finding their way in jazz learn the intricacies of playing in the moment with others they have often just met, speaking a common language and developing a conversation that has depth, joy and profundity that’s inclusive of the…
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Friday 5/10, 6-8pm: Eric & the In Crowd The Composers Series. This month, the focus is on the music of Richard Rodgers. The In Crowd is: ~~Eric Shifrin, piano and vocals; ~~Chuck Bennett, bass; ~~Mark Lee, drums. The Jazz Happy Hour, 22 years running! Every Friday save two since 2008! $20 suggested donation for adults. Kids free — teens/students $5-10. Eric Shifrin has been entertaining the swells and the swindlers in the bars, boites, salons and saloons of San Francisco for decades, with a vast repertoire drawn from the American Songbook, the pearls of early New Orleans, jazz chestnuts and any number of musical curios he’s found along the way. His monthly, 2nd Fridays residency at Bird & Beckett in 2024 finds him digging into the compositions of some of the great talents behind the tunes that everyone whistles, with lyrics that make up a good part of the American…
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Hungry to hear some of Bird & Beckett’s past live streams? On the home page you can scroll down to read the individual posts for the shows we’ve mounted in the past several months, a hint of what’s gone down since the pandemic lock-down began. In more amazing times, it would take you right back to the very first show of the current period, back on March 12, 2020, but that beautiful skein is no longer quite so easily accessed. Still, the evidence is there for those who dig. The March 12, 2020 show that signaled the shift was a Thursday evening performance by New York saxophonists Jessica and Tony Jones, both alumni of the Berkeley High jazz program, with NYC bassist Stomu Takeishi and local hero Deszon X. Claiborne on drums. The quartet’s booking for the night before at the Backroom over in Berkeley had been cancelled. A few…
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Bird & Beckett’s events open to the public have been back since mid-June 2021. Mask up if you’re inclined, and do come in! (Not vaxxed? Please get vaxxed and be safer!) Jazz, poetry & more live in the shop and live streamed Come to 653 Chenery if you’re in town! Doors open at 7:20 for our 7:30 shows. $20 cover for trios and quartets $25 for quintets, $30 for sextets, etc. Cash at the door please! BYOB and BYOglass, and pack out what you pack in! Please feel free to wear a mask in the shop. We trust the science and its processes, and we trust SF’s DPH to keep us up to date on best practices! Advised best practices as of early September 2021 was to wear a mask indoors around people. If that makes you a little more comfortable being inside this winter, then do feel free. Sure…
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The posts that follow show you what’s come and gone. Search the videos on our youtube channel or facebook page to find evidence of what you remember, or what you missed! Then, make sure you catch the next thing that catches your fancy. The live streams are great, but live music in a room with folks you know or ought to get to know, that’s irreplaceable…
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Thursday 5/2 at 7pm: Poets James Cagney and Thomas Dunn, followed by an open mic hosted by Jerry Ferraz and Michael Koch. Featured poets and an open mic presented monthly since 1999. Free to all, though donations are always appreciated. James Cagney is the author of Black Steel Magnolias In The Hour Of Chaos Theory, winner of the PEN Oakland 2018 Josephine Miles Award. His newest book, Martian: The Saint of Loneliness is the winner of the 2021 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets. For more information, please visit JamesCagneypoet.com Thomas Dunn is a multi-media artist, poet, and experimental filmmaker from Midland, Michigan. A proud graduate of Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Thomas is a Cave Canem Fellow and is completing his MFA in Writing at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. _______ Friday 5/3, 6-8pm: The Francis Vanek Trio. ~~Francis Vanek, saxophone; ~~Randy…
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Join the precociously talented undergrads from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s B.Mus. “Roots, Jazz & American Music’ program to help celebrate the end of another semester. Some will be back next year, some will head for the bright lights of another big city… it’s the now that counts! Bring a donation to help us cover some expenses! The evening starts at 5pm with a jam session led by drummer Vince Lateano with pianist Ben Stolorow and bassist Fred Randolph. At 7pm, several ensembles from the Conservatory will each play a set, with the music and party continuing to 9pm. Thanks for being in our corner all these years. In a few days, the 25th anniversary month begins!
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30 years of spontaneous collaboration! No reason to stop now! $20 at the door. Doors open at 7:15pm. Showtime 7:30. BYOB. Scott Amendola and Phillip Greenlief celebrate 30 years of collaboration with the release of STAY WITH IT on clean feed records. The two musicians began playing together when Greenlief moved back to the SF Bay Area in 1993. They experimented with a variety of approaches, but soon dedicated their work in the tradition of free improvisation for drums and saxophone. Their first release on 9 Winds Records, COLLECT MY THOUGHTS (1995), garnered international acclaim and offered the push they needed to begin touring and deepening their musical relationship. 30 years later, the sound of the duo has changed. Greenlief’s sound palette has expanded to create a theater of the unexpected, and Amendola has integrated live electronics; the duo now moves easily between free jazz and electro-acoustic improvisation traditions with…
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Jason Friedman has lived up the way for quite a few years, but hails from Savannah, Georgia, and when he and his partner Jeffrey bought a flat in a building on Liberty Street in Savannah a few years ago, Jason began to dive into the archives to see what he could learn about the family who built and owned the property. A tale ensues! Come out to hear Jason tell a bit of it, and celebrate with us!
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It’s always a good idea to
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With its roots in the Friday-after-work jazz party started by veteran tenor player Chuck Peterson as a trio back in 2002, the 230 Jones Street, Local 6 Literary Jazz Band is the legacy band at Bird & Beckett. It’s been led in recent years by drummer Tony Johnson, with pianist Si Perkoff joining up a few years ago. Tonight, the combo, with Max Perkoff on piano and trombone, celebrates the late, much missed Si! Max Perkoff, trombone and piano Charlie McCarthy, sax and flute Glen Deardorff, guitar Chuck Bennett, bass Tony Johnson, drums Here’s video of Si’s first appearance with the band, a sextet date in October 2022, with reed players Noel Jewkes and Charlie McCarthy in the front line, Glen Deardorff on guitar, Chuck Bennett on bass and Tony Johnson leading the band from the drum kit.
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Sundered Sound is a multi-genre event showcasing SFSU students of the arts, aiming to force music and words into collision to create fresh experiences. It’s a series dedicated to the wide range of emotions that sounds can strike. The evening will include segments by writer August Edwards; a duo comprising poet Elodie Townsend and electronic musician Nathan Ho; a quartet comprising rai, Kara, Leo and Alder Duan Hurley; writer Tadeh Kennedy; and Quinn Rennerfeldt. Evan Burkin, who has organized the event, will host. August Edwards is a nonfiction writer. She is lucky in cards and in love. She listens to desert rock. You can find her work in Albuquerque Green Room, Word West Revue, Mulberry Literary, and Hard Noise. ElodieTownsend (she/her) is a poet from San Francisco. She holds a B.A. in English jiterature from U.C. Berkeley, and is set to receive her M.A. in Creative Writing from San Francisco…
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Students frame the pros this weekend, with a cavalcade of SFSU creative arts students converging for a poetry and music revue Thursday evening and a gaggle of jazz students from SFCM celebrating the impending end of the semester Sunday evening. In between, on Friday and Saturday, we present three significant jazz concerts and a book launch! Friday at 6pm, the 230 Jones Street band celebrates the memory of veteran pianist Si Perkoff, and at 8pm we present Seattle avant guitarist Mike Gamble’s trio with bassist Lisa Mezzacappa, herself a key figure in the Bay Area avant garde. Saturday evening, two giants of the music, Phillip Greenlief and Scott Amendola, get in a few final duo licks as Phillip prepares to decamp with his wife for Maine this summer! Catch this one, and mark your calendar now for two nights of shows with Phillip’s long running Lost Trio on June 14…
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Ben Stolorow, piano Peter Barshay, bass Vince Lateano, drums $20 suggested; pay what you can. b.y.o.b. Bebop to bossa. A delightful trio with a long-running third-Sunday-of-the-month residency at Bird & Beckett.
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Saturday’s jazz club date, 7:30-9:30 pm, features a superb quartet on the Latin side under the leadership of Marco Diaz, piano, with bassist Steve Senft-Herrera and percussionists Julio Perez and Ahkeel Mestayer. Top players doing what they do so well. Bassist Saúl Sierra was set to lead this group, but air travel delays have him stuck in Dallas, arriving too late to make the date. We’ll get him back on the schedule down the line apiece. BYOB and a twenty for the band.
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Independent reporter Denise Sullivan brings the SFLives series back to Bird & Beckett for a Sunday morning livestream. You can find it in the video screen at the top of this website, or watch it later on our YouTube channel or Facebook page. In Marxism & Witchcraft (“A Marxist Theory of the Apocalypse & and Ecological Critique of Marxism”), author David Kubrin examines how Marx and Engels’ repudiation of religion blinded them to the critical role played by curanderismo and shamanism in the resistance to colonialism which ultimately led the movement along a trajectory that was racist, Eurocentric, antagonistic to workers and married to programs of industrialism without any regard to environmental consequences and weakened the communist fight against encroaching fascism. By examining the ideological foundations of Nazism, Kubrin brings to light the cultural, strategic and spiritual terrain on which it’s critical to do battle in today’s struggle against neofascism…
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Next weekend kicks off early, with a Thursday 4/18, 7:30pm live stream of Walker Brents III’s monthly excursion into topics in poetry, philosophy, mythology, literature and other areas of interest… this time out considering the poet Jack Spicer and “the Quest for Meaningful Speech,” a personal response to the compelling challenge of a cryptically precise poet. No matter how austere, how stripped and futuristic the language of the poetry, Spicer had an appreciation for the human community that was prescient, astringent, dangerously rich, and generous. The sources of his fascination are hydra-headed. Understanding him is akin to defending ancient springs. Jazz music ensues! Scott Foster invites Darren Johnston and Heshima Mark Williams back to the Bird & Beckett stage for a further musical excursion on Friday, April 19 at 6pm — building on a date a few months back. It’s our Friday-after-work jazz happy hour, the one that started in…
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Kim Shuck’s B&B-sponsored online poetry series has been going strong, on Zoom and Google Meet, for several years now and attracts a broad community of poets. 2nd Mondays, Kim hosts two featured readers and conducts the open mic that follows. 4th Mondays, it’s all open mic. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84350265713?pwd=eE84V3BYdWxiSFBHNHhmdUt1WTUzdz09 Meeting ID: 843 5026 5713 Passcode: 244211 The featured readers this time out are Norma Smith and Ellyseo Metcalf. Read on! Norma Smith has lived in the East Bay for more than half a century. She has worked as a journalist, a translator-interpreter, community scholar-educator, event and conference organizer, and as an editor, writing coach, and workshop facilitator. Norma’s book of poems, HOME REMEDY, is available at https://blacklawrencepress.com/books/home-remedy/ Ellyseo (el-LEE-see-oh) Metcalf is another lost soul that read The Stranger in high school and never recovered. Unable to find meaning within the Marine Corps, religion, or education, he now scribbles pretentious blasphemy…
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The first Sunday of the month is a set aside for a jam session for young jazz musicians hosted by a professional trio, with a student combo from one of the area’s fine jazz programs opening the evening with a 45 minute set. This month, Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland sends us another great band, bursting with young talent. Then, drummer Akira Tana leads a jam session with his trio, open to student musicians from all directions. The art of the session is a key skill that aspiring jazz musicians take to with astonishing results. Always a pleasure to hear! No charge to attend, but audience donations at the show or sent to the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project, our 501(c)3 nonprofit, help us keep this series going. Use the “Donate” button on this website or bring a check to the store! Be sure to let us know…
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Harvey’s back, and Bird & Beckett’s got him! The Los Angeles Times noted many years ago, that “Harvey Wainapel can be judged by the company he keeps.” He toured the world for a year as a member of Ray Charles’ group. Two of Brazilian jazz’s brightest stars, Airto Moreira and Flora Purim, kept him traveling with their group on and off for six years. And modern sax master Joe Lovano utilized Harvey’s talents for tours in Europe and North America. He’s also performed and/or recorded with pianists Dave Brubeck, Kenny Barron & McCoy Tyner, drummers Mike Clark (Herbie Hancock) & Billy Hart (everyone!), the hr-Bigband (German Radio Big Band in Frankfurt) and Holland’s Metropole Orchestra. Wainapel has also presented his OWN work in clubs, festivals, workshops, and studios in 17 countries. Sax master Joe Lovano states “It’s a pleasure to listen to Harvey’s soulful interpretations.” Japan’s JazzLife calls Wainapel “a musician with his own unique and deep sound.” “The room is warm, the audience…
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Join us for an unforgettable evening of jazz with drummer Sheldon Alexander’s quartet. A sought-after sideman for many, many gigs, he’s also passionately developing his own unique projects. This night at Bird & Beckett will feature an exceptional combo, with the renowned guitarist Ilya Lushtak straight from New York City, alongside two musicians who have been key players in these parts for decades, Adam Shulman on the organ and Erik Jekabson on the trumpet. Prepare to be captivated by this extraordinary ensemble under the leadership of a rising star of the Bay Area music scene.
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Chinese American revolutionary feminist poet Nellie Wong, a Glen Park resident, grew up in Oakland’s Chinatown and came of age working in her parents’ restaurant there. Tracked into a working class path and following business classes at Oakland High School, she went to work as a secretary at Bethlehem Steel. In her 30s, in the late 1960s, Nellie enrolled at San Francisco State University, taking creative writing, ethnic studies and feminist studies classes and joining the Freedom Socialist Party and Radical Women, lifelong associations that continue to this day. Her development as a poet and her dedication to the struggle for radical social change took on a focused momentum in those years at San Francisco State which has continued for six decades. In her mid-80s, in tribute to her engagement in poetry and political struggle, students at Oakland High successfully petitioned for a building at the school to be named…
Read MoreNot a chance that we’ll cease and desist!… Tuesday to Sunday, we sell books noon to six each day… And along the way… Friday, April 5th, the weekend’s jazz begins! At 6pm, Zoot! a Sam Cady joint. With Charlie McCarthy, Ollie Dudek and Tony Johnson. Just great jazz, the monster under the bed! Zoot alors! And at 8:30pm, the Sheldon Alexander Quartet, with yet another great guitarist from NYC, Ilya Lushtak, plus trumpeter extraordinaire Erik Jekabson and the great Adam Shulman on organ! Sheldon is a young drummer with an incandescent future ahead of him and a great presence in the present that is Bay Area Jazz! Saturday, April 6th, 7:30pm, the fabulous Harvey Wainapel, from whom we’ve heard far too little since the events of early 2020, brings a fabulous quartet — reasserting his position as one of the very key reed players in these parts. He has the…
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Jam session on the last Sunday of each month from 5 to 7pm! All jazz players welcome. Audience, please donate to help us pay the Vince Lateano Trio to host the jam — Ben Stolorow, piano; Peter Barshay bass, Vince Lateano, drums.
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Noah Frank, trumpet Stephanie Woodford, piano Curtis Aikens, bass Martin Diller, drums $20 cover charge; byob. Reservations, call 415-586-3733. The Noah Frank Quartet will present a mixture of original tunes, pop covers, and jazz standards. Noah has performed at NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series, DC Jazz Festival, PDX Jazz Festival, Rockefeller Center, and many more.
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“Tal is an amazing guitarist and fabulous human making stunning music.” –Nora Stanley $15 cover charge, byob. Reservations, call 415-586-3733. Tal Yahalom is an award-winning guitarist, composer and bandleader based in Brooklyn, New York since 2014. Drawing from a wide range of influences – spanning jazz and impressionistic classical music to Brazilian repertoire and South-American guitar traditions – Tal aims to create engaging storytelling, adventurous interplay and a deep sense of groove while expanding on the traditional roles and textural capabilities of the guitar. As a leader, he performs regularly with diverse solo programs, a chamber-jazz quintet (set to release its debut album in 2024), a collective post-rock trio KADAWA, and various trios which have featured Caroline Davis, Dan Weiss, Eivind Opsvik and Rogerio Boccato. Following three solo guitar EPs of original and improvised music, Tal released ‘Solo Standards’ in June 2023 – an ambitious and creative take on classic jazz…
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SUPPORT BIRD & BECKETT - DONATE TODAY!
Your donation to the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project helps us pay for a multitude of operating expenses necessary to present, promote and preserve local music, poetry, and more.
Help us keep the arts alive and thriving!
The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project was created in 2007 "to present, document and archive the creative work of significant living writers and musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area, for a neighborhood audience and future generations." We've been doing that very thing for more than a decade and a half, continuing the work we began when the store was established in 1999.
Due to lapses in tax filings during and post-pandemic, the BBCLP's status as a registered nonprofit was suspended at the beginning of April 2024 while we reapply, which is expected to take about six months. Donations made after April 1st will not be tax-deductible until nonprofit status is restored.
However, we continue to present a full slate of programming live music and poetry, and producing literary chapbooks, and we seek and welcome your continued financial support in the interim. If a tax-deduction is not a major reason for your support to date, we hope you'll continue to ride with us while we navigate these next several months.
Click on "donate" in the navigation bar above, drop off a check at the bookshop, or drop one in the mail to:
Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project
653 Chenery Street
San Francisco, CA 94131
Call us at (415) 586-3733 to find out how else you might lend your support.
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The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project
Our events are put on under the umbrella of the 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 [Read More ]
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
