Danny Bittker Quintet

Danny Bittker Quintet at Bird & Beckett brings the veteran multi-reed player back to the bookshop with an expanded, percussion-heavy lineup and two guest vocalists. Based in the Bay Area since 1981, Bittker has performed worldwide with groups including Mo’ Fone, Mitch Woods, Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bums, and the Rova Saxophone Quartet, alongside artists such as Bonnie Raitt and Grover Washington Jr., and was a founding member of Your Neighborhood Saxophone Quartet. He’s joined by vibraphonist Dave Casini, a 40-plus-year veteran of the Bay Area Latin jazz scene who currently performs with Joel Dorham’s Octet and Viento y Maria, and bassist Michael Price, a longtime Bay Area sideman who spent four years as bassist for Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks. Rounding out the band is New York percussionist Annette A. Aguilar, founder of the Latin-Brazilian jazz group StringBeans and the Women in Latin Jazz Festival, who’s performed with Tito Puente, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and The Grateful Dead, alongside percussionist Mark Fishman and guest vocalists Carol Belcher and Lee Heuermann.