Playground For The Birds – Donald Brown

This beautiful, delicate Latin song has no key center. The lyrical melody connects the unpredictable changes, while leaving plenty of space for the rhythm section. On the repeat of the head, fluttery rising piano lines fill in some of these spaces. These piano lines are shown in the C treble clef lead sheet. Besides the rhythm section figures, our lead sheets indicate "Latin comping"—this recording has a bossa-like 2-feel but a bit more open, not based on a specific style of Latin groove.

The form is 22 measures long, not further divided into sections as the phrase lengths are ambiguous throughout. However, the form could be split into a 12-measure and a 10-measure section, with similar melody and changes at the beginning of each. The harmonies are impressionistic, with a lot of major seventh chords with flat fifths or sharp 11ths. Solos are on a more simplified version of the head changes, with rhythm section hits in the last measure setting up the next chorus.

The combination of flugelhorn, flute, and vibes is an important part of Donald Brown's repertoire as a composer and arranger. For more songs with a similar instrumentation check out Prism, and I Love It When You Dance That Way from his album "People Music." Steve Nelson has played on seven Donald Brown albums; "Early Bird" was their first recording together.