The Howell Boys – Richard & Elé & their band

Father and son unite for a special evening of jazz at the intimate Bird & Beckett bookstore-turned-venue. Richard Howell, the Bay Area saxophone powerhouse, joins his drummer son Elé Salif Howell for a rare musical family collaboration that showcases two generations of jazz mastery.

Richard Howell brings decades of experience spanning jazz, soul, and global traditions. His "Bridge Music" philosophy has united diverse musical languages throughout a career that's taken him from blues legends like Etta James and Chaka Khan to avant-garde masters like Don Cherry and Cecil Taylor. A KQED profile calls him a "hidden Jedi" of Bay Area jazz, noting his role as an "under-the-radar force as a producer, arranger and educator" who's maintained higher visibility in Europe than at home.

Elé Salif Howell has earned recognition as one of jazz's rising stars, touring with Ravi Coltrane's quartet and trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah. Bird & Beckett has watched him mature from his first appearances there at age 14 into "one of the great drummers working in jazz today," describing him as "a truly magnificent and supple drummer" who brings "high energy music guaranteed to please and amaze."

The venue adds warmth to the evening: Bird & Beckett's cozy bookstore setting creates an intimate atmosphere where the audience sits close enough to hear every subtle musical conversation between father and son. It's the kind of space where you can witness the interplay between Richard's melodic, powerful tenor saxophone approach and Elé's supple, energetic drumming that "spreads the beat like Elvin Jones."

This collaboration represents more than just a family performance — it's a meeting of musical generations where Richard's decades of experience with diverse artists meets his son's fresh perspective shaped by contemporary jazz masters. Both musicians are products of the Bay Area's vibrant jazz education scene, with Richard serving as an instructor at Oaktown Jazz Workshops where his son also trained under the late trumpeter Khalil Shaheed.