In the past couple of years, Andrew Bird has teamed up with Rufus Wainwright and Chris Stills for a Neil Young cover and collaborated with Phoebe Bridgers for “I Felt A Funeral, In My Brain.” Today, the indie rock multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter announced Sunday Morning Put-On, an album of classic jazz covers releasing through the project Andrew Bird Trio. His first offerings, out now, are renditions of Sammy Cahn-Jule Styne’s “I Fall In Love Too Easily” and Alan Jay Lerner-Frederick Loewe’s “I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face.”
“When I was in my 20s, I lived in an old apartment-hotel in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago,” Bird explained. He continued:
It was cheap and inhabited mostly by retired Jesuit priests and nuns from nearby Loyola University. The gym had old Schwinn 10-speed bicycles up on cinder blocks for low-rent pelotons, an old swimming pool where they played opera, and the steam room was a clubhouse for the local Russian mob. Most Saturday nights I’d stay up listening to a radio show called ‘Blues Before Sunrise’ on WBEZ from 12-4am. 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. 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.
The album was produced by Bird and recorded live at California’s Valentine Studios, and it has Ted Poor on drums, Alan Hampton on bass, also featuring guitar from Jeff Parker and piano from Larry Goldings. It has covers of Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Rodgers & Hart, and more. Hear Bird’s versions of “I Fall In Love Too Easily” and “I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face” below.
TRACKLIST:
01 “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was”
02 “Caravan”
03 “I Fall In Love Too Easily”
04 “You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To”
05 “My Ideal”
06 “Django”
07 “I Cover The Waterfront”
08 “Softly, As A Morning Sunrise”
09 “I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face”
10 “Ballon de Peutetre”
TOUR DATES:
05/29 – Chicago, IL @ Green Mill !
05/30 – Milwaukee, WI @ The Pabst Theater %
05/31 – Chicago, IL @ Chicago Humanities Festival
06/02 – Denver, CO @ Outside Festival
06/03 – Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room !
06/08 – Healdsburg, CA @ BloodRoot’s The Ramble
07/05 – Jacksonville, OR @ Britt Fest Pavilion*
07/06 – Bend, OR @ Hayden Homes Amphitheater*
07/07 – Boise, ID @ Idaho Botanical Garden*
07/08 – Missoula, MT @ Big Sky Brewing Co*
07/10 – Sandy, UT @ Sandy Amphitheater*
07/12 – Omaha, NE @ Astro Amphitheater*
07/13 – Minneapolis, MN @ Surly Brewing Co*
07/14 – Bayfield, WI @ Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua*
07/15 – Interlochen, MI @ Kresge Auditorium*
07/17 – Charlottesville, VA @ Ting Pavilion #
07/18 – Asheville, NC @ Rabbit Rabbit #
07/19 – Atlanta, GA @ Coca-Cola Roxy #
07/20 – North Charleston, SC @ Firefly Distillery #
08/08 – Indianapolis, IN @ Rock The Ruins at Holiday Park^
08/09 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Meijer Gardens^
08/10 – Royal Oak, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre^
08/12 – Montreal, QC @ L’Olympia^
08/13 – Schenectady, NY @ Frog Alley Brewing Summerstage^
08/15 – Deerfield, MA @ Summerstage at Tree House Brewing Co^
08/16 – New York, NY @ Pier 17^
08/17 – Westport, CT @ Levitt Pavilion^
08/18 – Kennett Square, PA @ Longwood Gardens Open Air Theatre^
08/20 – Raleigh, NC @ NC Museum of Art^
08/21 – Vienna, VA @ Wolf Trap at Filene Center^
! Andrew Bird Trio
% with Elizabeth Moen
* with Nickel Creek & Haley Heynderickx
# with Nickel Creek & Mike Viola
^ with Amadou & Mariam
Sunday Morning Put-On is out 5/24 on Loma Vista.
