From the conga to the trapset to the hearbeat...

A lovely and formidable arc of bands takes over Bird & Beckett through the weekend: from conguera Annette A. Aguilar's combo tonight to flautist John Calloway's tomorrow in the early show... to the sextet Mean to Me in the Friday late slot... and to saxophonist Patrick Wolff leading first a quartet and then a sextet across a sweep of his compositions Saturday night... and then, on to the free jazz of Yoni Kretzmer's trio Sunday afternoon... Latin, Brazilian, Caribbean, South African, free, straight ahead... at base, it's rooted in African rhythms filtered though countless contexts-- historical, geographic, spiritual...

First up, tonight, Thursday, 5:30, 8pm 'til late, Annette A. Aguilar, whose huge and vibrant band Stringbeans  has long held a place of pride in the latin jazz community; you can hear them by clicking on her photo above, or here.  At sixteen, she was recognized for her percussion playing and was asked to sit in with masters including Chepito Areas (Santana's percussionist), Cal Tjader, and Pete and Sheila Escovedo (Pete's daughter, later ever more widely known as Sheila E.). Aguilar studied classical music in college and Afro-Cuban percussion with Marcus Gordon, and learned Brazilian percussion as a member of the wonderful local Afro-Brazilian band Batucaje. She earned her Bachelor's of Music at SFSU and her Masters in Music at Manhattan School of Music. During graduate school, she attended Harbor Performing Arts School in East Harlem, the exclusive school of Afro-Cuban studies in the U.S., where she studied with Luis Bauzo and Johnny Almendra, and she studied as well during this period with Jerry Gonzalez of Jerry Gonzalez and the Fort Apache Band. And that's just a cursory rundown! Read more at http://www.aguilarstringbeans.com/html/about.php

Two shows Friday: John Calloway, the Jazz Commissioner Emeritus, with Hired Guns Marcus Shelby (JC, current) on bass, Ken Cook on piano, Alan Hall on bass, and Angie Doctor on vocals. The Calloway/Shelby nexus did their thing beautifully in Shelby's SFJazz Residency gig just last Thursday on two selections from Shelby's Green and Blues suite, and Calloway returns the favor tonight. That's just the early show, 5:30 to 8:00pm! Bring $20 for this quartet, though ultimately here at B&B it's, resolutely, pay what you can. We want you to hear this music! Same goes for the late show, when the sextet Mean to Me takes the stage, dipping delectably & deeply -- on Judy Butterworth's vocals, Ben Slater's piano and Dave Shaff's trumpet -- into the music's New Orleans roots and, Tin Pan Alley manifestations, with a whole lot of help from Cairo McCockran's drums, Sam Heminger's bass and maestro Scott Foster's guitar.

Jerry Ferraz is cooking gumbo for the Friday late show... his mom, Billie, patroness of Bird & Beckett, told him how! But keep in mind, it's always BYOB at B&B-- you'll want something to wash that gumbo down, so remember that god helps the child that's got her own.

Saturday! Now here's a thing! Patrick Wolff's got a passel of recent compositions that he's recorded with the South African jazz legend Louis Moholo-Moholo for a forthcoming album! And there's more on top of that... To share those Moholo-Moholo works with us, he'll front a quartet, and then after a short break he'll augment the band with trumpet and reeds to make a sextet. All for the price of a double sawbuck. SF jazz royalty including Matt Renzi, Erik Jekabson, Richard Sears (well, ok, Richard is, we believe, more centered along a New York/LA axis), Josh Thurston Milgrom, and, in LHH's chair, the drummer Hamir Atwal... Listen to this famed and majestic recording by Moholo-Moholo while you contemplate that prospect!

Sunday, Apollo Blue's Harp and the God of Song. Ed Coletti, poet, drops in at 2pm with the literary dimension of this divine music, with bassist Steve Shain. We do hope that Louis Moholo-Moholo's "You ain't gonna know me 'cos you think you know me" is regaling you as you read this... if not, click that link above and hit play, for god's sake!

And at 4:30pm, the Yoni Kretzmer Trio -- free jazz in the velvet lounge! Lisa Mezzacappa on bass; Kjell Nordeson on drums. It's all about the heartbeat, though you may need to strain to hear it amidst the din of this world! The heartbeat in this music never stops!

Consider how strong it's beaten in San Francisco for many decades, though consider also how difficult that can be: https://www.sfcv.org/article/great-musicians-few-gigs-afro-cuban-musicians-keep-on-keeping-on

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