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653 Chenery Street in San Francisco's Glen Park neighborhood
Open to walk-in trade and browsing Tuesday to Sunday noon to six
phone: 1-415-586-3733 email: [email protected]
50% student discount for all of our shows; preteens with parents free; reservations welcome. For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733. Sunday, July 19th — the happy hour show at 5pm — pay what you will: Peck Almond with the Vince Lateano Trio. $20 suggested. _____ July 21st: The Diversity Principle by David Oppenheimer – an author talk. Sue Schechter moderates. No charge. July 23rd: Dr. E & Squeeze in Tight – jazz/rhythm & blues/latin. $20 cover. July 24th: The Kasey Knudsen – Harvey Wainapel Quartet – jazz. $20 cover. July 25th: Avotcja & Modupue – poetry, jazz and blues. $25-$35 sliding scale cover. July 26th (afternoon event): Howie Klein, a celebration hosted by journalist/editor Denise Sullivan. No charge. July 26th (happy hour event): Jam session hosted by the Vince Lateano Trio – jazz – $20 suggested. and before the month’s end, get your head on straight when
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Make Bird & Beckett a habit Sundays at 5pm! Stay for a tune, stay for two sets — whatever suits your Sunday! Just byob and a friend or two and have a nice time in the neighborhood. Contribute what you can to the kitty so we can pay these fine musicians, but don’t stress. Our donors have your back. Become one yourself, if you’re flush. It’s good for you, and it’s good for the culture! This week, Peck Allmond comes back for visit. Born in Rochester, NY, Peck was raised in Berkeley, a graduate in the late 1970s of the storied Berkeley High jazz program that gave the jazz world the likes of David Murray, Will Bernard, Craig Handy, Benny Green, Peter Apfelbaum, Joshua Redman. Now, he’s a New York guy who’s performed with Oliver Lake, Meshell NdegeOcello, Peter Apfelbaum, Don Cherry, Pharoah Sanders, Joe Lovano, James Carter, Jimmy Smith,…
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David Oppenheimer is a clinical professor of law at Berkeley Law, director of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law and faculty co-director of the pro bono program. He is the author of ten books on civil rights and discrimination law, including the first law school casebook in comparative equality law. The Diversity Principle (Yale University Press, 2026), the work of a diversity skeptic turned admirer, chronicles how diversity became a foundational value of higher education over the last two hundred years, how it evolved as it was adopted in commerce and science, and the implications of the current backlash. The diversity principle–the idea that people with different backgrounds, experiences, identities, and viewpoints produce better work by engaging with one another–was a core tenet of the first modern research university, founded in Germany in 1810. It was the inspiration for John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty, a touchstone of academic freedom; a hallmark of Charles Eliot’s remaking of…
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Eli Yamin, piano & vocal. Roberta Donnay, vocal. Simon Planting, bass. Sylvia Cuenca, drums. $20 cover charge at the door, cash please! And bring your own beverage; we have cups, openers, etc. Student cover charge is $10. Kids free. Eli Yamin (widely known as “Dr. E”) is out from New York City to play blues, bebop and swing–topical original songs mixed with classics by Thelonious Monk, Elizabeth Cotten, and Willie Dixon. A very bluesy jazz pianist and cultural ambassador, Dr. E’s joyful style has taken him from performances with Mercedes Ellington, Illinois Jacquet and Walter Perkins to four appearances with his own band at the White House for the Obamas and ten global tours for the U.S. Department of State. His work embraces jazz as a tool for community building and social justice built on the idea that “the blues is the roots, everything else is the fruits.” At home…
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Kasey Knudsen, saxophone. Harvey Wainapel, saxophone. John Wiitala, bass. Jon Arkin, drums. $20 cover charge (cash at the door, please); byob. Students $10; kids free. For reservation, call the bookshop at 415-586-3733 Kasey Knudsen and Harvey Wainapel, highly accomplished saxophonists acclaimed for their work in diverse genres and their mastery of the full range of wind instruments, join forces across generations in this new quartet setting with equally talented and experienced colleagues, bassist John Wiitala and drummer Jon Arkin, to perform a thoughtfully selected repertoire that works well in a “chordless” setting, without piano or guitar — music that’s at once accessible and fascinating in its complexity. These four jazz musicians have long been mutual admirers and frequent collaborators while traveling individual paths in their careers. They’ve developed a unique quartet that they’re excited to bring to Bird & Beckett in its public debut. Harvey Wainapel, the senior partner in…
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Join us in celebrating Avotcja’s 85th birthday! Poet, Musicologist, Disc Jockey, Small Percussionist, Prose Writer in Many Genres, Culture Hero! Avotcja’s award-winning group Modúpue (Gratitude) is an ensemble that stretches to as many players as well fit a venue Tonight, Modúpue is: Avotcja, poetry and small multi-percussion. Sandi Poindexter, violin. Jon Jang, piano. Francis Wong, saxophone and flute. Heshima Mark Williams, bass. Raul Ramirez, multi-percussion. The cover charge for the quintet tonight is $25-35 sliding scale, cash or venmo, payable at the door / byob. College and high school students – $10. Grade school and younger, free. No one turned away for lack of funds. Wheelchair accessible.Avotcja was named “Jazz Hero” by the West Coast Chapter of the Jazz Journalists Association in 2015 and was in the same year awarded the JaZzline Institute BAJABA Lifetime Achievement Award and the PEN Oakland Lifetime Achievement Award. She has also been the recipient…
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A preview of a work in progress with Lisa Austin, Linda Champagne, Carla Diamond, Trudy Fisher, Lori Gates, David Katznelson, Harry Levy, Linda Ryan, Sue Sponge and special guests. Memwah is Howie Klein’s printed and photographed recollections of his life well-lived. Tasked with finishing a book upon his death in December 2025, award-winning columnist Denise Sullivan has gathered a cast of friends from his San Francisco years at KSAN, KUSF and 415 Records, to read the ’70s and ’80s portions of Klein’s memoir aloud, speak to the causes he cared about, and spin the records he loved. From the tenements of New York and its downtown psychedelic scene, on the hippie trail through Afghanistan and India, to a vegan kitchen in Amsterdam, by the mid-’70s, Klein found himself at Harvey Milk’s camera store on Castro Street, and at the center of San Francisco’s mid-’70s social, political and musical scenes. Working…
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Jam sessions in San Francisco have a history as long as jazz has been played here. From the Barbary Coast to the present day, the session is one of the key ways the music has refreshed itself and brought old hands and young pups together. Vince Lateano has led a lot of them in his time and has been leading ours for years, a practice he’s carried from Pier 23 to the Dog Patch Saloon to the Seven Mile House to Sweetie’s Art Bar. Come enjoy the hearing the tradition unfold. No charge to play. Audience donations appreciated to help us pay the trio for its work!
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The Jazz Therapy Trio brings together three seasoned Bay Area musicians for an evening of introspective, lyrical jazz. Pianist Ben Stolorow leads the ensemble, drawing on classical influences and modern jazz sensibilities shaped by studies with Fred Hersch, Stanley Cowell, and David Hazeltine. A UC Berkeley graduate and Jazzschool faculty member, Stolorow has performed at Yoshi’s, Kuumbwa Jazz Center, and festivals throughout the Bay Area and Japan. The SF Chronicle describes him as “a pianist with a gift for crafting alluring melodies that cry out for lyrics” who “interprets every piece with poise and purpose.” On bass is Heshima Mark Williams, a native San Franciscan and a neighbor of the store when we first opened in 1999, living in Berkeley now. As a youth, he studied under the first classical bassist in the Boston Symphony, Dr. Ortiz Walton, and through the five decades since, he’s played with countless top musicians from Taj…
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August 1st, 7:30pm: Harold Carr Quintet — Flavia Cerviño-Wood, violin; Andrew Voigt, woodwinds; Derek Coombs, piano; Harold Carr, bass and compositions; Susanna Goldenstein, percussion. Album release for Bird Is Whiter Than The Moon. Everyone who attends will receive a free copy of the album! $25 cover charge / byob for adults — cash at the door, please! _____ Regarding the cover charges: $20 is typical for a trio or quartet at Bird & Beckett. $5 per musician is a good rule of thumb for larger outfits: quintets $25, sextets $30, etc. Bird & Beckett is committed to guaranteeing a fair wage to the professional musicians who we book to entertain our Glen Park patrons, and we appreciate your support! There’s always a 50% student discount for our shows; preteens free. Reservations are always welcome. For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733. Financially, challenged? We understand and will accept what you’re…
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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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Kristen Strom, saxophone Jhoely Garay, guitar Scott Sorkin, guitar Nick Panoutsos, bass Jim Kassis, drums $25 cover charge at the door (cash, please!) / byob. Students $10. Kids free. For a reservation, call the bookshop at 415-586-3733. Kristen Strom and Scott Sorkin are a musical couple who are two of the Bay Area’s most in-demand musicians. For this show at Bird & Beckett they will explore their love of Brazilian music with special guest, guitarist Jhoely Garay. Garay is a New York-based guitarist, composer, arranger, and educator from Mexico City, whose music expresses her passion for straight-ahead swing, contemporary jazz, and melodies and rhythms from Latin America. The rhythm section is completed with NYC-based bassist Nick Panoutsos and drummer Jim Kassis. Jhoely Garay has become an integral part of the dynamic jazz scene in New York and Mexico, collaborating with iconic artists such as Dee Dee Bridgewater, Steve Wilson, Darcy…
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Scott Foster & Myles Boisen,guitars. Lisa Mezzacappa, bass. Jon Arkin, drums. $20 cover charge (cash, please) / byob. Students $10. Kids free. For a reservation, call the bookshop at 415-586-3733. The Mad Explorations Of Scott Foster & Myles Boisen swinging their axes through tangled thickets. Holy Les Paul, Batman! two guitarists tinker with tunes not written for the guitar!
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All welcome! Meet your neighbors! Get involved in your neighborhood! Join the GPA if you’re not already a member. Annual dues still just $10. Sign up for the GPA newsletter here: https://www.glenparkassociation.org/
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Since the McCarthy era theatre text have consistently expunged any mention of important contributions from the Left to the American Theatre. Professor Joel Eis, author of five previous books on theater and politics and a radical theatre practitioner in the 1960s, has unearthed and compiled the story of this sixty-year movement. From the first use of agitprop in the Yiddish theatre in 1887 to the first true theatre-in-the-round in Harlem in 1938, this movement produced the most important plays, playwrights and theater styles for the first half of the twentieth century. Free event, presented in person and live streamed. (A caveat for those viewing in the stream: the visuals presented with the talk in the shop will not necessarily be well served by the live stream. Come to the show if you possibly can!) Visit the Laborfest website for more information on the month’s schedule of events.
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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," continuing the work we began when the store was established in 1999.
We continue to present a full slate of programming of live music and poetry readings, and produce a literary journal and poetry chapbooks, and we seek and welcome your continued financial support by way of donations.
Click on "donate" in the navigation bar above. Better yet, make a check out to the “Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project” and drop it off or mail it 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.
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
