Photo Credit: Alexa Viscius

Andrew Bird has announced Sunday Morning Put-On, a forthcoming project that sets the iconic singer-songwriter and instrumentalist in a new sound and a new trio, alongside drummer Ted Poor and bassist Alan Hampton. Set for release on May 24 via Loma Vista Recordings, this album represents a bold new turn in the artist’s catalog, diverging from his singular brand of folk–ranging from idyllically naturalistic to anthemic and baroque–to embrace intimate, stripped-back jazz arrangements and timeless standards from the Great American Songbook. To preview this new selection, Bird has released “I Fall In Love Too Easily” and “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face,” recorded live at Los Angeles’ hallowed Valentine Recording Studios.

Bird’s latest offering is over 30 years in the making, marking the culmination of a lifelong love for the smoky, smoldering music of the mid-century. “When I was in my 20s, I lived in an old apartment-hotel in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago. It was cheap and inhabited mostly by retired Jesuit priests and nuns from nearby Loyola University,” the artist recalls. “Most Saturday nights I’d stay up listening to a radio show called ‘Blues Before Sunrise’ on WBEZ from 12-4 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.

“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,” Bird continues, tracing the sonic pathways that led to this breakthrough. “Once I had some distance between myself and this time when I was under its spell, I wanted to immerse myself in it again.”

Immersive hardly touches the commitment Bird demonstrates on the album’s first preview selections. The artist gives himself over to the form entirely, faithfully recreating the warmth and soul-stirring sincerity of those records that inspired him with some of his most nuanced and prominent vocal deliveries to date. Bird’s violin shines here, too, soaring and swooning with the subtle currents of the ensemble; on “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face,” the performer’s interplay with renowned guitarist Jeff Parker exudes an affective lucidity that recalls the great Django Reinhardt. Watch the artists at work below.

Sunday Morning Put-On is available to pre-order now. The Andrew Bird Trio will celebrate the album’s release with a May 29 performance at Chicago’s Green Mill and a June 3 performance at Los Angeles’ Lodge Room, followed by Bird’s summer headline tour, featuring engagements with Nickel Creek and Amadou & Mariam. For tickets and more information, visit andrewbird.net. 

Read on for the album’s complete tracklist.

Sunday Morning Put-On Tracklist:
I Didn’t Know What Time It Was
Caravan
I Fall In Love Too Easily
You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To
My Ideal
Django
I Cover The Waterfront
Softly, As A Morning Sunrise
I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face
Ballon de Peut-etre