Bird & Beckett Books and Records

Site intro for new Bird & Beckett site. Coming soon...

2009-06-21T12:25:00.001-07:00

Bird & Beckett Books from Jack Whittington on Vimeo.

Cold Eye, Warm Heart -- Jazz & Literature at Bird & Beckett Books - 5/29 - 6/1

2009-05-28T17:22:00.000-07:00

5 events in 4 days commencing Friday May 29, 2009 --
and that's with Saturday off!!
(we planned it that way so that book buyers could be unmolested by aurally manifested culture at least one day this weekend... oh, except for the records we spin to keep ourselves amused)

So here's the scoop:

Friday evening (5/29/09), starting at 5:30 pm, it's jazz in the bookshop (like every Friday since late 2002)... a neighborhood party without end... this week, with a special twist: the jazz will overlap and be followed by a book release party.

First, it's the Russo Alberts Trio. They call themselves "The Bad Boys" -- grizzled vets though they may be. Don Alberts is a hard-driving bop pianist, composer, poet, novelist and historian of the jazz scene; and he and his long-time associate, bassist Don Russo have found a sympathetic spirit in the internationally seasoned drummer Art Lewis -- no stranger to the Bird & Beckett audience. This is one tight trio, jamming hard through standards and original material, and joined for this date by the very wonderful trumpet player Al Molina, also a B&B stalwart... it'll be top flight bop & its post-bop legacy...
and following the jazz session, still on Friday, join us for a book release party with free champagne for all! Gerald Rosen will be on hand throughout the evening, reading a snippet at the break between sets around 7:15 pm, and then starting in earnest at 8:30, celebrating his new book, a memoir/intellectual history called Cold Eye, Warm Heart: A Novelist's Search for Meaning. Jerry is a regular at Bird & Beckett, and a novelist since the 1970s. His books The Carmen Miranda Memorial Flagpole, Blues for a Dying Nation and Dr. Ebenezer's Book & Liquor Store are all lauded, critically acclaimed classics of the American scene. The wine & champagne, and the cheese & crackers all evening are on Jerry, a long-time supporter of Bird & Beckett.

Sunday, May 31st, a terrific double bill: First, at 2:30 pm, Walker Brents spins tall tales out of his self-penned west Texas mythos, centering on the ways of a sly and curious feline, to the strolling & loping bass improvisations of Don Prell. They call it "The Flintlock Sessions." If you find a recording of this in ten years, you'll marvel at the culture that flowed through Bird & Beckett back in the fabled days of '09... Walker & Don are disparate parts of the Bird & Beckett whole...
And you'll truly marvel at the store as a pipeline for the culture if you chance upon the second half of the bill... at 4:30 pm, Riffat Sultana & Party take the stage. This is Riffat's second appearance as part of the bookshop's "Which Way West?" Sunday afternoon weekly concert series -- again, as before, accompanied by Shiraz Ali Khan, aka Richard Michos, her husband and a phenomenal world music guitarist, along with the young and skilled tabla player, Samir Habibi. Riffat is a world-renowned vocalist hailing from Lahore, Pakistan, a skilled interpreter of classical, devotional, folk and popular styles, which she learned first from her father, the preeminent Pakistani classical singer of his generation, Ustad Salamat Ali Khan. She comes from eleven generations of prestigious musicians, and is the first woman in the family to be allowed to perform this music publicly, for which we are hugely grateful.

And then, on Monday, June 1st, at 7:00 pm: Our twice-a-month poetry series features Geri Digiorno, Nancy Keene and Michelle Baynes. One family, two generations; poetry royalty and a worthy heir(ess)... Nancy is very well known locally as the owner of the 3300 Club, a great Mission District bar with a long and storied history, where she has run a frequent poetry series for years attracting many of the regions most important poets, reading elbow to elbow with some of the cities staunchest barflies. Nancy grew up with a passel of sisters over in Noe Valley, lives a stone's throw from Bird & Beckett, and is a great poet herself. One of those sisters is Geri, now a Petaluma resident and in fact a lynchpin of the poetry world up in the North Bay... For years, she has been the impressario(ess) of the Petaluma Poetry Walk, which each September, in one huge day, brings in legions of poets to read and many hundreds of fans to listen at a succession of venues across that little country town, starting early over coffee and ending late over drinks, with much excitement all day long... Geri, too, is a fine and accomplished poet. And then there's Michelle, Geri's daughter, who recently published her own volume of poetry, Homeless in Petaluma, which directly engages that condition in that locale, through skilled poetry the like of which you'd rightfully expect of a woman in that very distinguished (and charming and talented) family. All this, and an open mic to follow.

Oh yeah, there's also the before and after: tonight (5/28) at 7:00 pm, we're convening a hardy crew of bookshop regulars for the monthly EABOR (i.e., the "Eminent Authors' Birthdays Open Reading"). If you don't know what it is, you might want to find out! It's one of the things we're proudest of here at B&B, humble as it is. And after the weekend, on Wednesday (6/3), the Bird & Beckett Book Club (which has been around longer than Bird & Beckett itself) meets at 7:00 to consider Jhumpa Lahiri's The Inheritance of Loss. Looking for a book club to participate in? Look no further. Come on in...

That's enough for this post! Don't forget, on Saturday, no event! Come buy a book. (You can buy books during the events too, by the way-- it helps us keep the lights on for the events!)

Live Jazz Tonight!

2009-03-06T11:32:00.000-08:00

This and every Friday, Which Way West presents:

Jazz in The Bookshop

Friday March 6th, 8:30 pm

Don Prell's Sea Bop Ensemble

with Danny Brown on tenor sax,

Scott Foster on guitar,

and Art Lewis on drums

See you there!

Book Club Tonight, Jazz Friday

2009-03-04T11:16:00.000-08:00

Book Club tonight- Wednesday, March 4th, 7 pm
The Bird & Beckett Book Club discusses The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak

Then on Friday-
Jazz in the Bookshop
Every Friday - 5:30-8:00 pm
This Friday, March 6th-
Bassist Don Prell's Seabop Ensemble
with Danny Brown, tenor sax
Scott Foster, guitar
Art Lewis, drums

Bird and Beckett in Paris!

2009-01-26T16:26:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Oceane for sending this picture! If you have a photo of yourself, your friends or your family in a Bird & Beckett shirt, send it to birdandbeckett@gmail.com and we will post it!

Live Performances TODAY!

2009-01-25T13:14:00.000-08:00

Today! Sunday, Jan. 25th at 4:30
Which Way West? Presents
Passage to India Live Jazz!
Prasant Radhakrishnan, sax
Bishu Chatterjee, bass
Ralph Granich, drums
Vivek Anand, vocal

AND EARLIER THE SAME DAY
(January 25th)

1:00 pm: a presentation by Alex Hatch of her new book "Cracks in the Asphalt" about SF's community gardens with co-presenters Mike Jacob, coordinator of the Arlington Street Garden, and Susan Leeds, coordinator of the Park Street Garden

2:30 pm: Walker Brents gives another in his series of monthly talks, this time on
the work and insights of the Romanian historian of mythology, ritual & religion- Mircea Eliade

Live Jazz Tonight!

2009-01-16T11:02:00.000-08:00

LIVE JAZZ TONIGHT!
5:30 to 8:00 pm
Don Prell's SeaBop Ensemble
Jerry Logas, tenor saxophone
Michael Parsons, piano
Don Prell, bass
Chris Bjorkbom, drums
JAZZ IN THE BOOKSHOP EVERY FRIDAY EVENING
A neighborhood tradition since 2002!

Live Music Today!

2009-01-11T11:41:00.000-08:00

Today at 4:30 pm
Middle Eastern music by master Egyptian percussionist Faisal Zaidan with oud player Rachel Valfer

Preceded at 3:30 pm by a talk on Arab influences in American music by Jonathan Curiel SF Chronicle writer and author of Al' America: Travels through America's Arab & Islamic Roots

LIVE JAZZ TONIGHT!!!

2009-01-09T13:30:00.000-08:00

TONIGHT!
JAZZ IN THE BOOKSHOP
5:30 TO 8:00 PM
A neighborhood tradition since 2002!

DOUBLE BILL!

First, from 5:30 to 8:00 pm
The Jimmy Ryan Quintet
Rick Elmore, trombone
Fil Lorenz, tenor saxophone
Scott Foster, guitar
Bishu Chatterjee, bass
Jimmy Ryan, drums

Followed at 9 pm by
SYNTHESIS
original compositions, electronica & jazz standards
featuring Noah Frank, trumpet, Fender Rhodes & laptop
Natalie Cressman, trombone
Imanuel Junaedy, piano
Adam Nash, bass
Alex Nash, drums
a special late date before Noah returns to school at Berklee School of Music.

Book Release Party

2009-01-05T10:57:00.000-08:00

Today- a book release party for Sharon Doubiago's Love on the Streets: Selected and New Poems
Click Here

Le Petit Nicholas and a Tribute to Henry Irvin

2009-01-04T09:57:00.000-08:00

TODAY!!! SUNDAY MORNING at 11:00 AM
Join us for
The Nicholas Club!
Bring your youngsters(age 6-9 recommended) to hear the stories from the classic books by Rene Goscinny illustrated by Jean Jaques Sempe about the impish young boy beloved by French children since the 1950s.
We'll have sheets to color, plus stickers and pins. We are serving FREE hot chocolate & croissants all morning!!!

Then, this afternoon,
The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project presents Which Way West? 4:30 to 6:30
Jazz musicians pay tribute to Henry Irvin who passed away shortly after Thanksgiving
and is sorely missed!
The celebration jam will continue at Velma's Sunday Blues & Jazz Club 2246 Jerrold Avenue (824-4606) from 7:00 'til 10:00 pm.
Click HERE to go to Henry's memorial website.

Live Jazz Tonight and Sunday! A Tribute to Henry Irvin

2009-01-02T10:59:00.000-08:00

JAZZ IN THE BOOKSHOP
EVERY FRIDAY EVENING
5:30 TO 8:00 PM
A neighborhood tradition
since 2002!

TONIGHT! Friday, January 2nd:
Don Prell's SeaBop Ensemble

This Sunday, Jan. 4th -- 4:30 to 6:30 in the bookshop:
Jazz musicians
pay tribute to
Henry Irvin
who passed away
shortly after Thanksgiving
and is sorely missed!
The celebration jam will continue at
Velma's Sunday Blues & Jazz Club
2246 Jerrold Avenue (824-4606)
from 7:00 'til 10:00 pm

Freddie Hubbard, R.I.P.

2008-12-29T20:55:00.000-08:00

The great jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard died Monday at the age of 70. Here he is, playing with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers.

Friday Jazz

2008-12-29T14:36:00.000-08:00

Don't Forget! Every Friday Evening, Bird & Beckett Books presents: JAZZ IN THE BOOKSHOP from 5:30 TO 8:00 PM. A neighborhood tradition
since 2002!

This Friday, January 2nd-
Don Prell's SeaBop Ensemble

Blues in the Bookshop

2008-12-28T09:13:00.000-08:00

Today, Sunday, Dec. 28th at 4:30 pm-
In honor of Rosetta Records' mission
to keep the recordings of
blues women of the 1920s alive
Which Way West? presents
a live set of
blues and rhythm & blues by

THE TIDBITS
Local gal Patricia Wilder
on guitar and vocal
and Brooklyn's
Rocki Shore on bass!

Beckett Down Bottom

2007-12-01T09:53:00.000-08:00

The Classical Theatre of Harlem has staged a performance of Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" in the Katrina ravaged Lower Ninth Ward. Check out the article in the New York Times.

New Store Open Now!!!

2007-10-02T11:11:00.001-07:00

Bird and Beckett is now bigger and better, beatin' and boppin' at our new store. Come see us at 653 Chenery in Glen Park.
MAP

New Location!

2007-09-20T10:44:00.000-07:00

A Glen Park institution since 1999, Bird & Beckett is proud to announce the opening of our new location, just around the corner from our place of birth. The new store is located at 653 Chenery Street, between Diamond and Castro. Come help us move this weekend, September 22nd and 23rd and get a sneak peek at our new digs.

Bird Lives

2007-09-19T21:35:00.000-07:00

This is a clip taken from the only known footage of Charlie "Bird" Parker actually playing live, not miming for the camera.

Beckett's "all seeing eye"

2007-09-19T21:23:00.000-07:00

Buster Keaton tries to evade the all seeing eye in Samuel Beckett's "Film" (1965).