Little Played Little Bird

5-Stars...For Coleman's fans, the melodies are laid down with a compellingly original harmonic and rhythmic approach, with bassist Bill Athens laying down a viscous and pulsating murk that flows through Bishop's idiosyncratic steam hiss cymbal sizzles and off-kilter but-tight drum work on this immaculate exploration of Ornette Coleman's music.
Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz

All About Jazz referred to Todd Bishop's Serge Gainsbourg tribute, "69 Annee Erotique," as "...beautiful decadence, brilliant and bright." Here, he features a set of rarely heard gems from Ornette Coleman's catalog on his latest in a series paying respect to some of the music world's more iconic and intriguing figures. In this free-spirited session, they cover compositions such as "Friends And Neighbors," "Comme Il Faut," "Country Town Blues," along with a beautifully unraveling, and unavoidable, take of the classic "Lonely Woman," drummer Bishop is joined by the brilliant Brazilian pianist Weber Iago, bassist Bill Athens, and a frontline of Richard Cole and Tim Willcox, each playing multiple woodwinds except the alto saxophone.

Production Info:

Produced by Todd Bishop
Recorded & mixed by Bob Stark
at Kung Fu Bakery, Portland, OR
on 11/11/2011
Mastered by Dan Dean
Bird drawings and design by Todd Bishop
Photography by Todd Bishop
Cover design and layout by John Bishop

Reviews of Little Played Little Bird

All About Jazz (Dan McClenaghan)
5-STARS Fans of alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman have had to sit through a long wait since the free jazz pioneer's last recording, Sound Grammar (Sound Grammar Records, 2006), a marvelous set that garnered the artist a Pulitzer Prize. Those fans are still waiting, though the iconic jazz man has teased them with his bits and pieces (non-album lengt ...

emusic Review (Dave Sumner)
Concept album that performs renditions of lesser-known Ornette Coleman tunes (except ?Lonely Woman,? which Bishop admits to including because he loves playing it, ?concept be damned.?). Bishop on drums and leading a quintet that includes a family of saxes, bass clarinet, piano & Wurlitzer, and bass. A strong recording that brings plenty of swing, f ...

All About Jazz (C. Michael Bailey)
In the twilight days of the compact disc as a sound storage device, the most compelling reason for keeping what still seems a "new" audio media (compared to wax cylinders and 78s) in the face of purely electronic media is "concept" or "thematic" releases. One such example was drummer Todd Bishop's Pop Art 4 album, 69 Annee Erotique (Origin Records, ...

Jazz Society of Oregon (George Fendel)
Okay, along with a lot of you, I haven't explored the music of Ornette Coleman to the extent that I probably should have. I've "always" admired "Lonely Woman," and as Bishop explains, on a disc of Coleman tunes that nobody ever does, "Lonely Woman" is the exception because, he writes, "I've been playing it for 20 years and it deserves to ...

Sax Sounds Magazine (Spain) (Arion Molina)
There are many fans of the pioneer of free-jazz, Ornette Coleman. After their wake a few albums in their name have been recorded already. But it's been a long time since the conflicting chords of this enhancing music were heard in a recording studio. The drummer Todd Bishop puts on alert his compatible collaborators, to enter itself in the dark of ...

WYCE Music Journal (Rebecca Ruth)
Accomplished photographer, landscape oils painter and drummer, Todd Bishop, may be familiar to you because of his group, Pop Art 4, which is dedicated to exploring commercial music of the 60s and 70s. (Such as Todd Bishop Pop Art 4: 69 Annee Erotique: Music of Serge Gainsbourg.) Except for the classic "Lonely Woman", you've likely not heard most of ...

Bird Is The Worm Jazz Blog (Dave Sumner)
Taking ownership of a series of obscure Ornette Coleman songs, drummer Todd Bishop shines them through a facet of his own view of the music, while leaving the beating heart of the originals intact, not a scratch upon them. Most strikingly, the album is an easy listen. Not in the sense that it's straight-forward, but instead, Bishop doesn't need ...

L.A. Jazz Scene (Scott Yanow)
Drummer Todd Bishop and his quintet with Richard Cole (bass clarinet, baritone, tenor and soprano), Tim Willcox (tenor and soprano), keyboardist Weber Iago, and bassist Bill Athens, pay tribute not so much to Ornette Coleman's style and sound, but to his compositions. Of the eight songs, only "Lonely Woman" (Coleman's greatest hit but taken in a ...