According to consequence.net, Andrew Bird has announced his latest album, Sunday Morning Put-On, will be out on May 24 through Loma Vista Recordings. The album is a tribute to mid-century, small group jazz, with the track list featuring compositions by musicians Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Rodgers and Heart, and more. Drummer Ted Poor and bassist Alan Hampton join bird on the recordings, with additional contributions coming from Jeff Parker and Larry Goldings.
While talking about Sunday Morning Put-On, Bird said: “Most Saturday nights [in my 20s], I’d stay up listening to a radio show called ‘Blues Before Sunrise’ on WBEZ from 12:00 to 4:00 a.m. The DJ, Steve Cushing, played old, rare 78rpm records of blues, jazz, and gospel. Then I’d sleep for a few hours and wake to Dick Buckley’s show, also on WBEZ, featuring what he called ‘Golden Era’ jazz from the ’30s and ’40s.”
The musician adds: “My love for a certain era of jazz up through the mid-20th Century has been constant through many transmutations in my own work, the bulk of which is not jazz at all. Once I had some distance between myself and this time when I was under its spell, I wanted to immerse myself in it again.”
In light of the upcoming album, Bird has shared two songs from the record, “I Fall in Love Too Easily” and “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face.” Both songs make good on Bird’s jazzy promises because each track puts a new spin on a genre standard. “I Fall in Love Too Easily” was originally written by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn, with artists like Chet Baker and Frank Sinatra further popularizing it with their own respective versions.
“I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face” comes from the 1956 musical My Fair Lady, with everyone from Tony Bennett to Bing Crosby to Marvin Gaye going on to cover the song.
Sunday Morning Put-On Tracklist
1. I Didn’t Know What Time It Was
2. Caravan
3. I Fall in Love Too Easily
4. You’d Be So Nice to Come Home to
5. My Ideal
6. Django
7. I Cover the Waterfront
8. Softly, As a Morning Sunrise
9. I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face
10. Ballon de Peut-etre
Photo Credit: Alyssa Fried