Rod Sudduth, tenor sax Ken Cook, piano Doug Miller, bass Dillon Vado, drums $20 cover charge, byob doors open 10 minutes before the show for a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733 Can’t make it to the shop? You’re missing a good thing, but at show time you can catch the live stream (and donate) here on our website, and on our Facebook page or YouTube channel. Quartet leader Ken Cook is a graduate of the New England Conservatory in Boston and has been all over the Northern California scene for well over a decade, heard in major venues from Healdsburg to the Wine Country to the Bay Area and points south, playing jazz, blues, Latin and Brazilian music. He leads his own combos and is a first call player with Bay Area favorites John Calloway, Terrie Odabi, and Mark Summer (Turtle Island Quartet) and countless others. Ken holds the…

Three celebrated Bay Area artists — a writer/choreographer, a director and an actor – have created a unique performance piece based on the book Dark Days and a Black Dog. Obie award winning actor Andrea Snow performs an intriguing, fully embodied “play/reading,” a new approach to bringing the written word to vivid life for an audience. Dark Days and a Black Dog, both the book and the performance, is rooted in the experiences of a family over seven heart-wrenching, darkly comic years that will, for many, feel both shocking and breathtakingly recognizable. The piece is directed by Jael Weisman, also an Obie award winner, whose work with legendary companies and productions has spanned almost fifty years. The book is by Emily Keeler, a four- time recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Individual Fellowship who has worked as a dancer, choreographer and writer in the Bay Area and New York..  https://www.darkdaysandablackdog.com/ Author Emily Keeler has been a dancer in San Francisco since 1974. She was a…

A reading to memorialize and celebrate the poet & publisher Robert Anbian. You can catch the live stream here on our website, and on our Facebook page or YouTube channel.

Ever since the pandemic began, Kim Shuck has conducted an open mic over Zoom under the Bird & Beckett auspices, attracting and serving a strong community of poets. The series continues apace, with two readings a month – 2nd and 4th Mondays at 7pm. On the 2nd Monday, there are usually two featured readers followed by an open mic. The 4th Monday reading is all open mic. This Monday, January 9th, the featured readers are Joshua Merchant and Paul Corman-Roberts, and the open mic just might include you! https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84350265713?pwd=eE84V3BYdWxiSFBHNHhmdUt1WTUzdz09 Meeting ID: 843 5026 5713 Passcode: 244211

When it’s the second Sunday in an odd-numbered month, it’s time for America’s favorite Honky Tonk band, The Seducers, with Joe Goldmark, pedal steel; Mitch Polzak, lead guitar and vocals; Hank Maninger, bass guitar and vocals; and Kenny Owen, drums. Bring a twenty for the band and, if so inclined, a bottle for yourself! Not able to come to the shop for the show? Donate any amount that seems fair to you ($10-20 suggested), and watch it in the live stream on our YouTube channel or Facebook page. Your donation helps us guarantee a fair wage to the musicians.

San Francisco journalist Denise Sullivan conducts a monthly series of conversations (the second Sunday of each month from 10-11 a.m.) with The City’s activists, educators, arts and cultural leaders and lesser-known workers, the everyday people who help make this place we call home, live streamed from Bird & Beckett Books. Jan 8 at 10 a.m., Denise and small business owner Graciela Ronconi will have a conversation from our stage in a live stream viewable on the Bird & Beckett Facebook page and YouTube channel. Graciela Ronconi has been in the vintage clothing trade for over 25 years. Starting as an apprentice at various stores on Haight Street during the vintage trade’s ’80s heyday, to opening her shop Guys and Dolls in Noe Valley and back to the Haight with her creation Love Street, Ronconi tracks the not only trends and styles but the ways in which vintage dealing intersects with…

John Schott, guitar Dan Seamans, bass John Hanes, drums with guest pianist Maya Kronfeld $20 cash cover charge; byob. Doors open ten minutes before the show. Reservations, call the shop at 415-586-3733. Not able to come to the shop for the show? Donate any amount that seems fair to you ($10-20 suggested), and watch it in the live stream on our YouTube channel or Facebook page. Your donation helps us guarantee a fair wage to the musicians. Pianist Maya Kronfeld, a Berkeley native and a long-time friend of Actual Trio’s leader John Schott, has performed with such visionaries as Samora Pinderhughes, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Aja Monet and Thana Alexa. She’s returned for the holidays from her “day job,” teaching philosophy and literature at Princeton University, and thus is able to join John’s trio for the occasion of this Bird & Beckett date. Trio members Dan Seamans and John Hanes are,…

Tim Lin, tenor saxophone Charles Chen, piano Ken Okada, bass Ben Esposito, drums   $20 cover charge; byob Reservations: 415-586-3733 Not able to come to the shop? Donate any amount that seems fair to you, and watch it in the live stream on our YouTube channel or Facebook page. Your donations help us pay a fair guaranteed wage to the fine musicians that cross our stage. Tim Lin, leading the date on tenor saxophone, grew up in the Bay Area, where his studies with Dann Zinn had a significant role in his development as a jazz musician. He pursued the art at USC under Bob Sheppard and was in Bob Mintzer’s orchestra there, and counts both of these major tenor sax artist-educators as mentors, along with Larry Schneider, who came to prominence in the 1970s as a sideman with Billy Cobham and Horace Silver and as a member of the Thad…

Michael Koch and Jerry Ferraz host featured poets and an open mic on the first Thursday of each month. Tonight, Norman Zelaya and Michelle Marie Robles Wallace will read in the featured poets segment. Not able to come to the shop? Donate any amount that seems fair to you, and watch it in the live stream on our YouTube channel or Facebook page. Your donations help us pay a fair guaranteed wage to the fine artists that cross our stage. Norman Antonio Zelaya was born and raised in San Francisco, CA. He has published stories in ZYZZYVA, NY Tyrant, 14 Hills, Cipactli, and Apogee Journal, among others. He was a 2015 Zoetrope: All-Story finalist, and 2019 Anginas Scholarship recipient for latinx writers to attend the Community of Writers workshops. In 2017, Orlando & Other Stories (Pochino Press) was published, his first book. Zelaya co-founded Los Delicados, a poetry ensemble, and…

SOLD OUT! Doors at 7:30, sets at 8 and 9:30pm. $50 for the entire evening. Fresh from this year’s Monterey Jazz Fest, Mo’Fone is a band with a concept that’s so simple, it’s radical! Alto player Larry De La Cruz, baritone player Jim Peterson and drummer Jeremy Steinkoler “have put together a formidable and funky trio that snaps and crackles like James Brown’s Famous Flames mixed with a New Orleans Second Line. Peterson’s rich molasses riffs mix with Steinkoler’s incessant beat while De La Cruz solos like Maceo Parker.” –George Harris (www.jazzweekly.com) Read more reviews here! Then come to the store and buy your tix before they’re all gone for New Years Eve at Bird & Beckett, home of good vibes, good beats, good ventilation and great friends! Bring a mask to wear at your discretion, and come healthy! We’ll gladly, and sadly, refund your ticket price if you suddenly…

Craig Handy, tenor saxophone Joe Gilman, piano Essiet Okon Essiet, bass Sylvia Cuenca, drums Superb jazz. Classic. Plan on it. $20 cover charge. byob. reservations, call 415-586-3733 Not able to come to the shop? Donate any amount that seems fair to you, and watch it in the live stream on our YouTube channel or Facebook page. Your donations help us pay a fair guaranteed wage to the fine musicians that cross our stage.  

Duncan James, guitar Larry Chinn, piano Jim Kerwin, bass Bob Blankenship, drums Four long-time colleagues in jazz, swing & blues return to Bird & Beckett for the second year-end date in a row. Duncan himself has closed out the year for us in one combination or another for a half dozen years or more, and it’s always a pleasure. $20 cash cover – byob – reservations, call 415-586-3733 Doors open ten minutes before the 7:30 show time. Guitarist Duncan James has performed solo and with all the cats — here’s a photo from just one of thousands of dates, this one in the company of tenor player Harvey Robb, drummer Bobby Dominguez, bassist Dean Reilly and pianist Larry Dunlap. He’s played bigger stages countless times, with fellow guitarists George Barnes, Howard Alden, Bruce Foreman and Mundell Lowe, with singers Marilyn McCoo, Eartha Kitt, Bernadette Peters and Bobby McFerrin, and with…

Not able to come to the shop? Donate any amount that seems fair to you, and watch it in the live stream on our YouTube channel or Facebook page. Your donations help us pay a fair guaranteed wage to the fine musicians and poets that cross our stage. Lucy Lang Day (Editor Scarlet Tanager Press, poet), Joyce Jenkins (Editor Poetry Flash, poet), Steve Rood (attorney, poet), and Jim LeCuyer (teacher, short story writer) present new and selected work, and filmmaker Jordan Freeman will screen his 20-minute piece, Sea State, with Jim’s voiceover. Jim LeCuyer is the author of four books, A Brick for Offissa Pupp (Floating Island Press), Threnody for Sturgeon (Outskirts), Duck Lessons (Dark House) and Stories for Clever Children (Raven and Wren), all available through Amazon.  He has three Master’s degrees (Creative Writing, Education, Psychology), has taught English Literature at Oakland Tech and Ruth Asawa School of the…

230 Jones Street Charlie McCarthy, saxophone Si Perkoff, piano Glen Deardorff, guitar Chuck Bennett, bass Tony Johnson, drums Drummer Tony Johnson brings in a quartet on the fourth Friday of each month. In odd numbered months, it’s the “Tony Johnson Quartet,” featuring top San Francisco players Bob Kenmotsu on tenor, Keith Saunders on piano and Eric Markowitz on bass. And in the even numbered months, like December, it’s 230 Jones Street! Join us for two sets of top flight jazz, from swing to bop to bossa. At its heart, 230 Jones Street is the band founded by the late tenor player Chuck Peterson in about 2005, after having first introduced Glen Park to a weekly Friday jazz booking at Bird & Beckett in late 2002 — twenty years ago! In October 2002, Chuck was introduced to us as a neighborhood guy who got his start here in 1950, when he…

Myron Cohen, drummer, is passing through town on a visit, and he’s pulled together some excellent young players to join him on this last minute date! Billy Francis, bass – Robert Muhammad, piano – Gavin Halloran, tenor sax No cover, byob. Just come down and enjoy a healthy dose of jazz this evening!

Michael Zilber, saxophone Matt Clark, piano Essiet Okon Essiet, bass Mike Clark, drums $20 cash cover – byob – reservations, call 415-586-3733 Doors open ten minutes before the 7:30 show time. Not able to come to the shop? Donate any amount that seems fair to you, and watch it in the live stream on our YouTube channel or Facebook page. Your donations help us pay a fair guaranteed wage to the fine musicians that cross our stage. Inextricably tied to the Headhunters, drummer Mike Clark is a funk legend whose beats for Herbie Hancock’s hugely influential mid-70s band have been endlessly sampled. But long before he brought East Bay grease into the keyboardist’s pioneering combo, Clark was a Philly Joe Jones-idolizing jazz cat who came up on the 1960s Bay Area jazz scene playing bebop. On the recent Sunnyside album he co-leads with East Bay saxophonist Michael Zilber, Mike Drop,…

Come out for a special night with NYC-based jazz pianist Joe Davidian. A consummate musician, Joe’s deep affinity for feel-good rhythms and strong melodies is evident in his dynamic playing. Joined by local musicians John Wiitala (bass) and Brian Fishler (drums), the trio will regale us with tunes from The Great American Songbook with a few Davidian originals peppered in. For lovers of Bill Evans, this is one not to miss! $20 cover / byob / reservations 415-586-3733 Catch the show live streamed on Bird & Beckett’s YouTube channel or Facebook page if you can’t make it down to the shop to hear them in person. Donate to help us pay the musicians. Video link: No Moon At All - Live at Mezzrow, NYC  “…a deeply talented pianist who maintains a delicate balance between forward thinking and jazz tradition…” – The Nashville Scene “…what lifts Davidian’s playing above the crop of…

Vibist Dan Neville is home for the holidays, and he’s slipping into Bird & Beckett for a quartet date, joined by pianist Bilge Gunaydin, bassist Aaron Germain and drummer Mike Mitchell! Dan has been studying composition this past semester in the renowned jazz program at William Patterson University back east in New Jersey, and for this engagement he brings along a classmate, pianist Bilge Gunaydin, one of the “brightest lights of the Istanbul jazz scene,” according to a review on the “All About Jazz” site. Bilge’s 2020 release “Daydreams” rides on “the evocative pulling-power of Bilge’s compositions. They charm the listener with quirky harmonic turns, melodic imagination and variety in the arrangements.” The reviewer goes on to note that “From open-sounding wind arrangements to nostalgic Turkish tango evocations, this album makes you indeed daydream.” Just the ticket for a Sunday evening during the holidays… $20 cover charge; byob doors open…

Darren Johnston – trumpet/vocals Ben Goldberg – clarinets Marcus Shelby – bass Dillon Vado – marimba $20 cover / byob / reservations 415-586-3733 Catch the show live streamed on Bird & Beckett’s YouTube channel or Facebook page if you can’t make it down to the shop to hear them in person. Donate to help recompense the musicians!  

Two jazz composers meet for the first time.   Beth Schenck, saxophone Scott Foster, guitar Matt Small, bass Jason Levis, drums   $20 cover charge, byob doors open at 7:20 for the 7:30 show for a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733   Catch the show live streamed on Bird & Beckett’s YouTube channel or Facebook page if you can’t make it down to the shop to hear them in person. Donate to help recompense the musicians!

Bart Schneider’s new book from Kelly’s Cove Press, The Daily Feast, is a joyous and savory collaboration between old friends, Sonoma painter Chester Arnold and Berkeley poet Bart Schneider. All the work focuses on food and drink, from oysters on the half shell to dirty martinis, with an afterword by legendary Napa chef and restaurateur Cindy Pawlcyn. Read Jonah Raskin’s review & profile of the poet/publisher at this link.   Also on hand, short story writer Daniel Coshnear, whose collection Occupy and Other Love Stories was brought out by Kelly’s Cove in 2012. Dan Coshnear lives in Guerneville, California with his wife and two children, works at a group home for the homeless and mentally ill, and teaches writing at UC Berkeley Extension and in other North Bay facilities. He is author of Jobs & Other Preoccupations (Helicon Nine 2001) and Occupy & Other Love Stories (Kelly’s Cove Press 2012) and a novella, Homesick, Redux (Flock…

                    Featured poets Preeti Vangani and Charlie Getter Preeti Vangani is a poet and personal essayist. Born and raised in Mumbai, she is the author of Mother Tongue Apologize (RLFPA Editions), her first book of poems (selected as the winner of RL India Poetry Prize.) Her work has been published in BOAAT, Gulf Coast, Threepenny Review, among other journals. She is the Assistant Poetry Editor for Glass Journal, a Poet Mentor at Youth Speaks, and holds an MFA (Writing) from University of San Francisco. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84350265713?pwd=eE84V3BYdWxiSFBHNHhmdUt1WTUzdz09 Meeting ID: 843 5026 5713 Passcode: 244211  

Americana noir from a master songwriter, with bassist Mike Anderson, Henry Salvia on piano, and special guest vocalist Pamela Brandon. $20 cover charge; byob. Can’t make it to the shop with your cover charge? Donate ten or twenty and watch it in the stream on our YouTube channel or Facebook page!  

San Francisco journalist Denise Sullivan conducts a monthly series of conversations (the second Sunday of each month from 10-11 a.m.) with The City’s activists, educators, arts and cultural leaders and lesser-known workers, the everyday people who help make this place we call home, live streamed from Bird & Beckett Books. December 11 at 10 a.m., Denise and photojournalist Mabel Jiménez will have a conversation from our stage in a live stream viewable on the Bird & Beckett Facebook page and YouTube channel. Mabel Jiménez is an award-winning journalist and documentary photographer with over 15 years of experience in nonprofit local media. She worked for over a decade at El Tecolote bilingual newspaper, most notably as the publication’s Photo Editor. During the Trump era, Jiménez documented the refugee crisis at the U.S./Mexico border, receiving awards for reporting and photography. In 2021, she documented the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on San…

Jazz standards and hard bop favorites arranged by Omar Aran in the classic jazz trio style. Adam Shulman, piano Eric Markowitz, bass Omar Aran, drums $20 cover charge, byob. Doors open at 7:20 for the 7:30 show. For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733. Catch the show live streamed on Bird & Beckett’s YouTube channel or Facebook page if you can’t make it down to the shop to hear them in person. Donate to help recompense the musicians!

John Calloway, flute and percussion Hafez Modirzadeh, saxophone Tony Stead – piano Saul Sierra – bass Dillon Vado – drumsJohn Calloway, master musician and educator, is unable to join us tonight due to a positive virus test with minor symptoms, but will return with his ensemble on February 4th, so please mark your calendar and wish him well! He will be well represented tonight by the stellar rhythm section he assembled for this date with his estimable colleague Hafez Modirzadeh stepping in on reeds. Do join us for two splendid sets of music. $20 cover charge, byob. Doors open at 7:20 for the 7:30 show. For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733. Catch the show live streamed on Bird & Beckett’s YouTube channel or Facebook page if you can’t make it down to the shop to hear them in person. Donate to help recompense the musicians!

Tonight at Bird & Beckett! 7pm. If you can’t make it to the shop, catch the live stream on Bird & Beckett’s Facebook page or YouTube channel. We are pleased to host Carol Gigliotti, author of The Creative Lives of Animals, offering “intimate glimpses of creativity in the lives of animals from elephants to alligators to ants.” She’ll present her book in dialog with Calder G. Lorenz, her son and the author One Way Down (or Another), “a novel content to follow its narrator’s lead, not looking for trouble but sometimes finding it, thriving instead on the strength of his rich inner dilemmas.” (Seattle Book Review). Less interested in artificial intelligence than in the creativity of sentient beings other than homo sapiens, and already know something of trees and mushrooms? Then this is the place to be Thursday evening! Take a listen to this NPR Morning Edition interview with Carol aired on…

Trombonist Grachan Moncur III emerged from the Benny Golson-Art Farmer Jazztet, steeped in hardbop, to become one of the more original improvising composers of the mid-‘60s New York jazz scene. With evocative titles like Gnostic, Esoteric, Love and Hate, Frankenstein, Air Raid and Ghost Town, his pen and his bone discovered new solutions to jazz problems of the era. New forms, old forms, no form. Bay Area stalwarts Mezzacappa, Ewing and Glenn are joined by Rova’s Bruce Ackley, and led through Moncur’s wonderland by East Bay treasure, vibraphonist Dave Casini. The music is swinging, compelling and drenched in fresh shades of blue. The casual fan of early to mid-1960s jazz knows well the names and the work of Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams. Most have a pretty good handle on Cecil McBee as well, or should… We dare say many likely don’t fully register the name of the…

On December 4, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Roots, Jazz & American Music B.Mus. degree program fields the B105 Seminar Jazz Ensemble coached by drummer Akira Tana. Remarkable talent on display! Come down to the shop, or tune in to the live stream on our YouTube channel or Facebook page. Your donations support the musicians and the stream. Thanks for that! The first Sunday of each month, Bird & Beckett proudly presents 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 and youngish students aspiring to a career in jazz —…