Birds of a Feather (Carmen McRae album)

Birds of a Feather
Birds of a Feather
Studio album by Carmen McRae
Released	1958
Recorded	August 4, 6 and 8, 1958, New York City
Genre	Jazz
Length	36:11
Label	Decca DL 8815
Carmen McRae chronology

Birds of a Feather is a 1958 album by Carmen McRae. The album was arranged by Ralph Burns, and features the saxophonist Ben Webster. All the songs on the album reference birds in some way.^[1]

Reception edit

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	^[1]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings	^[2]

John Bush reviewed the album for Allmusic and wrote that "Fortunately, there are plenty of good songs on the subject, and it's not so narrow that all the focus hinges on birds themselves." Bush praised Ben Webster's solo on "Bob White (Watcha Gonna Swing Tonight?)".^[1] Webster's biographer, Frank Buchmann-Moller, wrote that his performances on the album alternate between "routine and inspired", and likened his work on "Flamingo" to the "beating wings of a landing bird".^[3]

Track listing edit

"Skylark" (Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Mercer)
"Bob White (Watcha Gonna Swing Tonight?)" (Bernie Hanighen, Johnny Mercer)
"A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" (Eric Maschwitz, Manning Sherwin)
"Mister Meadowlark" (Walter Donaldson, Johnny Mercer)
"Bye Bye Blackbird" (Ray Henderson, Mort Dixon, Gene Austin)
"Flamingo" (Ted Grouya, Edmund Anderson)
"Eagle and Me" (Harold Arlen, E.Y. Harburg)
"Baltimore Oriole", (Hoagy Carmichael, Paul Francis Webster)
"When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along" (Harry Woods)
"Chicken Today and Feathers Tomorrow" (Johnny Marks)
"When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano" (Leon René)
"His Eye Is on the Sparrow" (Civilla D. Martin, Charles H. Gabriel)

Personnel edit

Carmen McRae – vocals
Ralph Burns – arranger, conductor
Ben Webster as "a tenorman" – tenor saxophone
Al Cohn – tenor saxophone (2, 7–10, 12)
Marky Markowitz – trumpet
Dick Berg, Donald Corrado, Fred Klein and Tony Miranda – French horn (1, 3–6, 11)
Don Abney – piano
Mundell Lowe or Barry Galbraith (2, 8, 12) – guitar
Aaron Bell – double bass
Ted Sommer, Don Lamond (2, 8, 10) or Nick Stabulas (7, 9, 12) – drums
Ray Charles – choral arrangements (12)

References edit

^ ^a ^b ^c Birds of a Feather at AllMusic
^ Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 986. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
^ Frank Buchmann-Moller (5 February 2010). Someone to Watch Over Me: The Life and Music of Ben Webster. University of Michigan Press. pp. 174–. ISBN 0-472-02598-8.

[Allmusic-1] Birds of a Feather at AllMusic

[Penguin-2] Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 986. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.

[Buchmann-Moller2010-3] Frank Buchmann-Moller (5 February 2010). Someone to Watch Over Me: The Life and Music of Ben Webster. University of Michigan Press. pp. 174–. ISBN 0-472-02598-8.

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