Ellynne Rey: The Birdsongs Project

It all began late last spring after singer Ellynne Rey experienced a spate of unusual “life” bird sightings as well as striking rarities such as the increasingly scarce snowy owl. “Avid birdwatchers, such as myself, live for such things,” Rey says. “I called my friend and wonderful pianist, Bennett Paster. I told him that I wanted to make a new recording with him and had to have a bird theme.” A few weeks later, she found herself in Brooklyn standing alongside Bennett’s Steinway, exploring songs on a list she’d compiled of tunes featuring birds. Now, Connecticut jazz singer-composer Ellynne Rey blends her birding and her singing in a new CD called The Birdsongs Project, a self-produced disc that was released May 1. Joined by an impressive sextet helmed by her longtime associate, pianist-organist Bennett Paster, Rey performs bird songs by such writers as Blossom Dearie, Joni Mitchell, Hoagy Carmichael, Abbey Lincoln, Franz Schubert, and the Beatles as well as her own compositions. Ellynne Rey: The Birdsongs Project is her follow-up to 2014’s A Little Bit of Moonlight, which featured guitar great Gene Bertoncini. For the varied Birdsongs set, she is joined by Paster on piano, guitarist Freddie Bryant, bassist Marcus McLaurine, both Anthony Pinciotti and Joe Strasser alternately on drums, trumpeter Alex Norris, tenor-saxophonist Joel Frahm, plus guest percussionist