Three great jazz players convene under the “Billy Higgins Legacy” moniker to deliver two sets of powerful music. When Myron Cohen was setting out as a young musician to play jazz drums, he fell into the orbit of the great drummer Billy Higgins. The lessons he learned under Higgins’ mentorship have stuck with him through the ensuing decades, particularly the value of mentorship and the direct transmission of musical knowledge within the jazz community. He still plays the kit that Higgins gave him back in the 1960s, and for many years he’s kept his Billy Higgins Legacy combo active with a mission to connect emerging talents with the ethics and swing that make jazz a universal treasure. Myron was looking forward to this date in a big way, but a touch of virus has taken him out of the equation for the evening, and Elé Howell is stepping in. More…

“If there’s anything we’ve learned about life on Muni, it’s that the interesting stuff happens along the journey, not at the destination. From the nuances of operating a bus on city streets to the small details of our rides and fellow riders, Keith Ferris and Lia Smith have captured the urban humanity within each Muni experience that knits us together.”  —Eugenia Chien and Tara Ramroop, Muni Diaries co-founders. Join artist Keith Ferris and writer Lia Smith, who collaborated to produce Muni is My Ride, just published by Ithuriel’s Spear Press. Also on hand will be Muni operators David Banbury, Mike Gonzalez and Primo Rivera to share some of their stories. Keith and Lia — in his sketches and her profiles based on interviews with Muni personnel and riders alike — show a familiar feature of the urban scene in the kind of subtle detail that expands our perception of a…

” More fun than you can shake a stick at! Grab a plane to SFO and hop BART to the shop. Or better yet, check in at your hotel first, and ride a Muni bus or streetcar out to the bookshop. The J-Church, running from the Embarcadero out to Balboa Park, near City College, is a lovely ride, and the Muni operator can surely let you know when you’ve reached your destination in Glen Park. Muni is always the thing when you’re bopping around Frisco! Adults! For our concerts, if you bring a twenty and something to sip, you’ll generally be fine! You can call to inquire about a reservation – 415-586-3733. Feel free to do so! Sometimes necessary, often not. It all depends. We stream most of our shows, complete or in parts, so check out the video screen at the top of this web page and you’ll have…

Karina Denike, vocals Tom Griesser, clarinet and sax Michael MacIntosh, piano Vic Wong, guitar Joe Kyle, Jr., bass Carson Messer, drums $25-35 sliding scale for adults, cash please! Kids under 12 free; teens and music students $5-10 sliding scale Jump jazz, rhythm & blues! The spirit of the ’40s & ’50s with deeper roots and fresh as a daisy! A Thanksgiving tradition at Bird & Beckett. Do come!

India’s great poet of devotion and love, Mirabai, widowed at a young age, dedicated her life upon her husband’s death to the worship of Krishna. It was a decision that led her parents-in-law to evict her from their home. She spent the rest of her life traveling from village to village, singing and dancing to celebrate her love of Krishna. The rapturous lyrics she wrote enthralled worshipers then and continue to be sung in India today. Kabir, an illiterate weaver, celebrated both Indian and Muslim spirituality while criticizing each religion’s blinkered believers. His clear-eyed expression, his wit and the continued relevance of his cutting insights led to a body of poetry that resonates still. Mirabai and Kabir have enchanted their devotees and fascinated their admirers for five centuries, Jonathan Richman among them. On tambura, Nicole Montalbano accompanies Jonathan as he plays his guitar and sings poems left to us by…

Jim Peterson, saxes Scott Foster, guitar Joe Kyle, Jr., bass Larry Vann, drums $20 cover charge, byob A Thanksgiving tradition at Bird & Beckett! The New Squatoolas play jazz, blues & R&B with a deep New Orleans groove. Not to be missed!!

Bob Kenmotsu, tenor saxophone Keith Saunders, piano Eric Markowitz, bass Tony Johnson, drums Classic, swingin’ jazz from four master practitioners of the art! Tony Johnson has been on the scene since 1960, and has never stopped. His bandmates are a generation or two younger, with three to four decades apiece in the business, playing at a high level all along the way. Kids welcome! Give them a taste of America’s great art form in a friendly setting. Under 12, free. Pay ten for the teenagers in your care. Adults? $20 will get it! Teens & music students on your own, $5-10 sliding scale. We like to pay the musicians (in fact, we make a point of doing so), and do that with solid support from our audiences and neighborhood donors. Be in that number, when the saints coming marching in! Byob. See you at Bird & Beckett!

A rare weeknight sighting of our favorite jazz trio! Vince Lateano is one of the gems of Telegraph Hill, a treasure since he first settled into North Beach back in the mid-1960s! For a long stretch he was the house drummer at Pearl’s on Columbus, but his history in these parts stretches far on both sides of that decade-plus tenure. Come to Bird & Beckett and enjoy a swingin’ cat who’s always enjoying the music and his bandstand colleagues. The enjoyment is contagious! Here’s a taste of what’s in store for you!

Please join us for an urgent reading in support of the Palestinian people, organized by the poet Deema K. Shehabi. Deema will read beside her colleagues Zeina Hashem Beck, Aracelis Girmay, Nathalie Khankan and Priscilla Wathington, with instrumental interludes by bassist Marcus Shelby. Deema K. Shehabi is a Palestinian-American poet, writer and editor. She is the author of Thirteen Departures from the Moon and co-editor with Beau Beausoleil of Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here, for which she received a Northern California Book Award. She’s also co-author of Diaspo/Renga with Marilyn Hacker and winner of the Nazim Hikmet poetry competition in 2018. Deema’s work has appeared widely in literary magazines and anthologies, and her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize several times. For more information, please visit her website at Deema K. Shehabi. Zeina Hashem Beck is a Lebanese poet. Her poetry collection, O (Penguin Books, 2022) won the 2023 George Ellenbogen Poetry Award. She’s also…

    Tuesday, 11/21, 7pm: A reading for Palestine, organized by Deema Shehabi – gratis     Wednesday, 11/22, 7pm: The Vince Lateano Trio, Ben Stolorow, piano Peter Barshay, bass Vince Lateano, drums $20 adult cover charge, byob all ages; kids under 12 free teens/music students $5-10 sliding scale Friday, 11/24, two shows: 6pm: The Tony Johnson Quartet, jazz – $20 8:30pm: The New Squatoolas, New Orleans jazz, funk and R&B – $20      Saturday, 11/26: Jonathan Richman, voice and guitar, plumbs the devotional poetry of Kabir and Mirabai, with Nicole Montalbano on tambura – $30       Sunday, 11/25, 4:30pm: The Cottontails jump jazz & blues – $25-35 sliding scale     All ages; byob     For the Jonathan Richman event, plan on paying for your seat at 5pm day of the show and enter between 7 and 7:15pm. The doors will be closed between 6 and 7 so that we…

Friday 11/17, 6-8pm jazz in the bookshop the happy hour show Guitarist Scott Foster leads a quartet with trumpeter Henry Hung, bassist Ollie Dudek and drummer Omar Aran, sampling generously from the music of Bud Powell, with nods, of course, to Bird & Diz & Monk & Miles & more bebop & bop adjacent giants! byob. $20 donation per adult requested; students $10; children free. no reservations necessary. Friday 11/17, 8:30-10:00pm the late show Solo boogie woogie and blues piano from Frank Muschalle, touring for 30 years out of his home in Germany, counted among the most sought-after blues & boogie-woogie pianists working today. He has played concerts all over Europe, Paraguay, Bolivia, the United States and North Africa, and has put out fourteen cds with a variety of musicians including Carey Bell, Jean-Pierre Bertrand, Nappy Brown, Jimmy Coe, Herb Hardesty, Red Holloway, Stephan Holstein, Bob Margolin, Jimmy McCracklin, Louisiana…

Hanna Arendt escaped a short period of Nazi captivity to work for refugees in Paris until Paris fell. After finding her way to the U.S.A. she taught generations of students at the New School for Social Research in New York City. She worked hard to express for us her understanding of what was novel about the crimes that characterized the late 20th Century. Her phrase “the banality of evil” is more than a soundbite. She formulated notions of the nature of power, of action, of promise, of thinking—each one a crystallization around an arc of creative writing that has no peer. We are her legacy, as democratic citizens finding our way through a world gone mad. What’s going on in San Francisco even as the APEC conference takes place? Talks like this, in the voice of one who thinks out loud. Walker Brents III talks, every month (with a summer…

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84350265713?pwd=eE84V3BYdWxiSFBHNHhmdUt1WTUzdz09 Meeting ID: 843 5026 5713 Passcode: 244211 The featured poets this time out are K.R. Morrison and Zara Jamshed. An open mic follows.  Kim Shuck hosts. Since the pandemic, K.R. Morrison has been searching for mermaids in a sea town in Southern California, often returning to the Bay Area for her poetry nests and to play drums for two all-female fronted rock bands – Harriot and Unicröne. Morrison is a Pushcart Nominee for her poem, “Her Altar” and still enjoys readings and podcasts for Cauldrons, her first poetry collection published by Paper Press. Alongside years spent as a writer, activist, and musician, K.R. spent 17 years as a sea captain for the teens – using creative writing and books, she worked with countless students at Galileo High School in San Francisco, earning the name “Mama Mo” with many who left her classroom armed with writing and tools for healing.…

. . . Sometimes words just get in the way…

Mitch Polzak –  lead guitar & vocals Hank Maninger – bass guitar & vocals Joe Goldmark – pedal steel guitar Paul Revelli – drums You’ll find the Seducers playing songs of longin’ and lovin’ at Bird & Beckett on the second Sunday of every other month —  January, March, May, July, September & November, the odd numbered ones… Twangtastic tunes and gorgeous convergence in honky tonk heaven. Every second Sunday of the year, you’ll find sin & redemption, mourning and celebration in an Americana vein… December 10th, Maurice Tani & the American bass player Mike Anderson…February 11th, Jim Campilongo & Sam Reider… There’s so much more than just jazz at Bird & Beckett, though we do love our jazz more than you know… Join us! BYOB and a twenty for the band. That’ll git it!  

An immense amount of amazing jazz the weekend of 11/9-12, a packed roster of fantastic, well-traveled musicians of all ages, and a honky tonk band beyond compare to wrap it all up in a glittering package! Kicking it all off on Thursday, 11/9 at 7:30pm, the young drummer Ben Esposito brings the esteemed saxophonist Howard Wiley, the sharp & fantastic young bassist Isaac Coyle and the amazing emerging pianist Luis Peralta. You might want to call for a reservation for this one… 415-586-3733. Bring twenty for the cover and something to sip. Jazz is thirsty work! Under 21? Bring soda pop! Students, pay what you can afford. Five or ten bucks will do it for you, and you can use venmo. What’s not to like about that? For most of our shows, a twenty dollar bill is the starting point, sometimes a bit more for larger ensembles, ________________________ Two shows…

Marina Albero, piano Billy Edwards, bass Josh Setala, drums Pianist Marina Albero is the toast of the Seattle jazz scene — drummer/trio leader Josh Setala’s hometown. To gain her participation in this concert is a tribute to Josh’s abilities and, for him, a dream scenario. Bassist Billy Edwards adds a brilliant dimension. Expect an intensely engaging and enjoyable evening  of jazz! Marina was born in Barcelona and toured as a child on stages all around the world with her family, picking up whatever instrument they needed her to play, performing Iberian and early music, creating new shows wherever they went. She studied in Barcelona’s Conservatory (El Bruc) and later in La Havana (ISA), where she finished her classical piano studies with the great professor and pianist Mrs. Teresa Junco. She’s never stopped exploring, delving into jazz, flamenco, early music, Andalusie, classical Indian, Latin son & Latin jazz. $20 cover charge…

Good times! That’s why they call it Happy Hour! Eric Shifrin, piano Carl Herder, bass Garry Williams, drums As seen on tv and at your finer estabishments! BYOB and a twenty for the band! No reservations necessary. All ages welcome.

Howard Wiley, tenor saxophone Luis Peralta, piano Isaac Coyle, bass Ben Esposito, drums with special guest Tiffany Austin

Celebrate the release of a new Noertker’s Moxie CD—in flitters (49 bits from B*ck*tt)—with bassist/composer Bill Noertker and his cohorts, woodwindist Annelise Zamula, pianist Brett Carson, and drummer Eli Knowles. During the dark days of the Covid-19 pandemic, as a way of staying sane, bassist Bill Noertker began composing strange and repetitious little ditties. As he re-read Samuel Beckett’s Watt—a book whose enigmas had long intrigued him—he saw the similarities between his compositions and Beckett’s absurdist novel. He was compelled to create a sonic universe that paralleled Watt. The result is in flitters, a suite of 49 short and whimsical pieces brought to life by the brilliant members of his long-standing ensemble Noertker’s Moxie. Byob and a twenty for the band!    

Two great San Francisco-based jazz artists unite for two sets of flute & piano duo work. $15 cover charge (cash or Venmo at the door, please), byob. An intimate and thrilling evening of music guaranteed. Gaea Schell’s new album “In Your Own Sweet Way” (Saphu Records, 2023) prominently features her flute work and vocals alongside the piano chops that have made her an important contributor to contemporary jazz. She  made her California debut as a twice-featured performer at the San Jose Jazz Festival and has been performing professionally and internationally in diverse contexts all along the way. Recently, work on flute with Cuban son groups has captured her devoted attention. Her experience includes everything from teaching elementary school flute choirs, trio to quartet to orchestral performance. Notable artists she has shared the stage with include Nancy King, John Stowell, Albert ‘Tootie’ Heath, Clare Fischer Big Band, PJ Perry, Marcus Shelby,…

“A cliché-free, inventive player who doesn’t neatly fit into any of the usual modes of contemporary jazz guitar playing.” —Jazz Times. Amanda Monaco, guitar. Jason Gillenwater, tenor sax. Lisa Mezzacappa, bass. Jeff Davis, drums. $20 suggested (cash or Venmo at the door, please). BYOB. Acclaimed guitarist Amanda Monaco is traveling from NYC out to the west coast with drummer Jeff Davis to perform with Bay Area-based musicians Jason Gillenwater (saxophones) and Lisa Mezzacappa (bass). Friends and musical colleagues for over 25 years, the quartet’s reunion will be celebrated on November 3rd at Bird & Beckett.  Here’s an original composition from her 2017 Posi-Tone Records release, Glitter, with Lauren Sevian on bari sax, Gary Versace on organ and Matt Wilson on drums: Amanda Monaco – Dry Clean Only  Details here: https://www.posi-tone.com/artist_monaco/artist_monaco.html Get the complete picture from Amanda’s website: https://amandamonaco.com/about/ As for critical acclaim: “Monaco’s guitar playing is well within the modernist…