ANDREW BIRD

Ted Poor (drums), Alan Hampton (bass)

American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, recognised for his unique style of violin playing, whistling and his ability to mix genres like folk, Jazz, indie and classical music. His songs usually have poetic lyrics and innovative arrangements. His music blends technical sophistication with the folklore tradition of North America and Europe, making for deeply evocative records that ooze sensitivity, and which are, at the same time, easily accessible.

Bird will present his latest record, Sunday Morning Put-On (2024), at this 60th edition of Jazzaldia. It is quite different from anything he’s done to date. It is a journey in time, a return to the music he’s loved all his life, Jazz of the 1930s and 40s, and the North American songbook of classics and all the Jazz standards. Accompanied by a remarkable rhythmic section, – Ted Poor on drums and Alan Hampton on bass, – Bird reinterprets great works of the giants who have deeply influenced his music, virtually making them into his own: works by Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Lerner & Loewe, Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart… As he himself says: “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.”
A great opportunity to see a musician who, for over two decades now, has demonstrated that there’s no limit to his creativity and that, with his impeccable technique, he can mix genres and be versatile, without ever losing any of that sound that is so acutely and recognisably his.