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Thursday, February 23rd, 7:00 pm

B&B’s EABOR

The monthly Eminent Authors’ Birthdays Open Reading at which patrons share with one another the work of one of their favorite authors born in the month at hand. All welcome!

Friday, February 24th, 5:30 pm

Chuck Peterson Quintet, with Dorothy Lefkovits

Jazz in the Bookshop

Chuck Peterson & Howie Dudune (reeds), Glen Deardorff (guitar), Dean Reilly (bass), & Tony Johnson (drums), with Dorothy Lefkovits (vocals)

Sunday, February 26th, 2:30 pm

Hölderlin

Walker Talks!

Walker Brents III resumes his monthly extemporaneous lecture series with a consideration of the German lyric poet Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843).

Sunday, February 26th, 4:30 pm

WordWind Chorus

Which Way West?

QR Hand, Brian Auerbach, and Lewis Jordan.

Monday, February 27th, 7:00 pm

Norman Fischer & Stephen Ratcliffe

Poets!

A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Norman Fischer has been publishing poetry since 1979. Loosely associated with the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets of the seventies and eighties, he maintains close creative and personal relationships with many writers from that movement. Fischer spent five years living at Tassajara Zen Monastery in monastic Buddhist practice where poets Jane Hirshfield and Phillip Whalen were fellow students. His new book is Conflict (Chax Press), of which Anne Tardos writes: “The conflict Norman Fischer speaks of in this poem is an inherent component of the universe. He writes of the human dilemma, the struggles of daily life, and the desire to ‘hold the world in place,’ showing us how not to be mired in any one spot. Freedom is won by tirelessly moving forward. The lines breathe: the poet’s breath, and the complexity of his thought, visualized on the page.”

Stephen Ratcliffe lives in Bolinas and teaches at Mills College in Oakland. He is the author of more than 20 books of poetry and criticism, including the newly published Cloud/Ridge (BlazeVOX Books), which “channels the complex, intermeshing, and endlessly variable dimensions of place. Its calendar perpetually marks this very day. Things seen and heard through the ‘window’ of the shifting present include weathers; birds; planets and constellations; insects, animals and plants; soundscape; shape and color; land forms; men, women and children; sentences from reading; poetics. All inheres in the music and the metaphysics of these pages—all and nothing, but the words, placed exactly so.” – Jonathan Skinner

Thursday, March 1st, 7:00 pm

B&B Book Group

Discussing The Girl Who Played Go, by Shan Sa

Friday, March 2nd, 5:30 pm

Don Prell’s SeaBop Ensemble

Jazz in the Bookshop

personnel to be announced

Sunday, March 4th, 2:00 pm

Love, InshAllah

The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women

Ayesha Mattu, co-editor with Nura Maznavi, hosts contributors to this groundbreaking collection, in which American Muslim women writers sweep aside stereotypes to share their real-life tales of flirting, dating, longing, and sex. Their stories show just how varied the search for love can be–from singles’ events and college flirtations to arranged marriages, all with a uniquely Muslim twist.

Sunday, March 4th, 4:30 pm

The Trio

Which Way West?

Denny Berthiaume, Chuck Bennett and Curt Moore – “THE TRIO”

Monday, March 5th, 7:00 pm

POETS!

Featured readers to be announced, followed by an open mic hosted by Jerry Ferraz

Thursday, March 8th, 7:00 pm

B&B Political Book Group

Discussing Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of the Spectacle, by Chris Hedges

Friday, March 9th, 7:00 pm

The Jimmy Ryan Quintet

Jazz in the Bookshop

Henry Hung (trumpet), Danny Grewen (trombone), Scott Foster (guitar), Bishu Chatterjee (bass), & Jimmy Ryan (drums)

Sunday, March 11th, 2:30 pm

Zachary Martin & Josie Schoel

New Writing

details to be announced

Sunday, March 11th, 4:30 pm

Music for Global Ears

Which Way West?

In the Year of the Dragon, Betty Siu Junn Wong invites you to ‘a moveable feast of Music for Global Ears.’ Experience music from around the globe with ancient Chinese instruments and poetry by Flowing Stream Ensemble fouders Betty and Shirley Wong and friends. Then travel to music of the Americas via Piazolla’s Histoire du Tango, Darius Milhaud’s rags and Aaron Copland’s sonatas for violin and piano with Community Music Center camber music faculty Betty Wong, Loretta Taylor and friends. Stay for a jazz set with CMc’s jazz faculty Ken Rosen, Randy Craig, Richard Saunders and Jon Frank.

Sunday, March 18th, 2:30 pm

Jonah Raskin

Marijuanaland

details to be announced

Sunday, March 18th, 4:30 pm

Bernal Hill Players

Which Way West?

Bernal Hill residents Jennifer Peringer, Martha Rodríguez-Salazar, and Leah di Tullio present a concert of gorgeous chamber music from around the world, right here, practically in their own back yard. For more info: http://www.bernalhillplayers.com/.

which way west?

a weekly concert series offering
jazz, acoustic americana, world and classical music
our Sunday shows run from 4:30 to 6:30 pm
and are presented in two sets –
beginning at 4:30 and 5:30 pm.
$10 per adult suggested donation; children free.
No one turned away for lack of funds!

Our Sunday concert series started in earnest when we moved into our current storefront in 2007, and allows us to accommodate a gamut of musical styles and performers.  From North Africa to Pakistan to Philly to Bakersfield to the hollers of Appalachia, and points west, east, north and south.  A great variety of musical disciplines and cultures is represented by individuals who have made the Bay Area their home but who carry with them traditions from the places where they grew up and came of age. We attempt in this series to present musicians rooted by birth in the styles in which they play, though many a sideman on these dates has come to the music honestly, through close exposure to native practitioners.

which way west?  Well, it’s always the same way, we suppose, but what you find when you set out may depend on where you’re starting from!

 jazz in the bookshop!

San Francisco’s longest running
neighborhood jazz party
every friday evening since oct. 2002
always 5:30 to 8:00 pm
$10 per adult suggested donation
kids welcome & free!
no one turned away for lack of funds

The cornerstone of the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project’s offerings at Bird & Beckett is this weekly series of jazz dates.  The neighborhood really turns out to revel in the music and the company, and it’s done so ever since tenor player Chuck Peterson got the series going nearly nine years ago.  Well over 450 Fridays have elapsed, with never a missed beat.  Come hear what it’s all about.  Jazz in a bebop / straight-ahead mode by some consummate long-time professionals and many of the best of the Young Turks on the local scene…

First Friday of each month – Don Prell’s Seabop Ensemble – bassist Prell is a veteran of the 1950s LA-based Bud Shank Quartet and 30 years with the San Francisco Symphony. He’s a fiercely avid jazz player, willing to play anywhere and any time and has been a key to keeping our weekly jazz series going these many years.

Each month, Don assembles a terrific combo from a repertory company of great players, which on any give session might include Jim Grantham or Jerry Logas on reeds; guitarists like Scott Foster, Ray Scott and Bob Brumbeloe; pianists Michael Parsons and Don Alberts; drummers Chris Bjorkbom, Omar Aran and Glen Iwaoka.

Second Friday of each month – The Jimmy Ryan Quintet – drummer Ryan learned the trade in L.A. in the ’50s as well, and hit the San Francisco scene in 1960 — and never looked back.  Jimmy has played with legendary musicians like Putter Smith, Vince Wallace, Kent Glenn and Bishop Norman Willliams, putting in significant time at legendary San Francisco clubs like Jimbo’s Bop City and the Gathering Cafe.

For his Bird & Beckett dates, trumpeter Henry Hung and trombonist Danny Grewen, two active young players on the local scene, give a rich, fiery and romantic tone to the front line, while guitarist Scott Foster, a Bird & Beckett favorite since the beginning, handles the chordal duties and spins out beautiful lines with aplomb, and bassist Bishu Chatterjee lays down a reliably steady and creative bass line.

Third Friday of each month – Peterson/Prell/Foster/Marabuto — This band is made up of three of the original founders of our jazz in the bookshop series plus a new addition…  Chuck Peterson, tenor sax, was actually the one who got it all going, back in late 2002, when he told us he’d make sure we always had good musicians if we’d just guarantee them a venue — and he’s more than kept his word.  He’s a veteran of the 1950s San Francisco scene and the 1960s live tv bands (remember Don Sherwood? and did you know Tennessee Ernie Ford used a live jazz combo in his local tv show here as well?).  Chuck’s career continued with decades in the pit orchestras of the San Francisco theatre district and playing bari sax in the Rudy Salvini Big Band…  now he travels down as often as he can from his digs in Santa Rosa to keep the jazz flame burning at Bird & Beckett.  Scott Foster, guitar, plays with a fluidity and grace that brings the classic Blue Note era guitarists immediately to mind; he too has been on these dates since the beginning and is at the core of the jazz sound we like best.  You can follow him up to North Beach most Friday nights after the gig here and catch him at Rose Pistola.  As for Don Prell, bass, we already filled you in on a bit of his background above in describing his Seabop affiliation.  Suffice to say, we couldn’t claim our unbroken string of Friday jazz sessions without his crazy enthusiasm for the music and for playing at every possible chance, and his creativity is unbounded.  Ron Marabuto, drums, son of the key local pianist John Marabuto, anchors the group with the unquestionable skill derived from decades of work with the top straight-ahead and latin jazz professionals on both coasts.

Fourth Fridays — The 230 Jones Street, Local 6 Literary Jazz Band — aka The Chuck Peterson Quintet, with vocalist Dorothy Lefkovits.  Chuck finishes out the month’s schedule of Fridays with four long-time associates who have been at the top of the jazz scene locally and nationally for six decades.  Reed player Howard Dudune plays with the easy grace of Lester Young and a swinging humor all his own, while guitarist Glen Deardorff drives the rhythm with a fierce insouciance.  Bassist Dean Reilly, one of the most respected elder statesmen of the local jazz scene and a well traveled pro, looks , acts and plays like a youngster with his first ducktail.  And drummer Tony Johnson, still sporting the Aussie accent of his own youth, swings effortlessly and keeps time with unerring precision.  All in all, a wonderful band — especially when you factor in the singer Dorothy Lefkovits who joins the band for a few tunes on each set.  When just a teen, she graced the stage at Harlem’s Apollo Theater and she’s still charming audiences with ease.