For Andrew Bird, Sundays have a special meaning. They were the days when jazz was etched into his subconscious before dawn. As a 20-something living in Chicago, he would fall asleep listening to late-night music broadcasts on local radio and to such great musicians as Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins.
Now, two decades later, Bird’s latest album, “Sunday Morning Put-On” (with Ted Poor on drums and Alan Hampton on bass) pays homage to those early influences.
On Sunday Funday, Angelenos share step-by-step instructions on what their ideal Sunday in the city would look like. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat, and how to enjoy life on the weekends.
These days, Sundays are a little different for the singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and whistler, but they’re still a time to relax. “I don’t have a typical 9-to-5, ‘Thank God it’s Friday’ lifestyle, but Sunday is the closest thing to that,” said Bird, who has released 16 studio albums since his 1996 debut. “It’s the only day I can make time for creative things that aren’t work.”
Bird and his wife, Katherine Tsina, along with their 13-year-old son, have settled in Northeast Los Angeles, where they have lived for the past 11 years. Bird is currently on tour and will play two shows at the Hollywood Bowl in August, with Pink Martini.
For Bird, a mountain bike enthusiast, being able to be outdoors any day of the year is one of the best things about living in Los Angeles. “I love the mountains,” he says. “I’m much healthier here than anywhere else.”
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for brevity and clarity.
8:30 am: Wake up to pancakes and jazz.
We make breakfast, drink coffee, put on a jazz record and take it easy. Sometimes we make pancakes, like Dutch pancakes with lots of fruit on top. It's kind of a special Sunday treat. Other than that, eggs and bacon, and lots of stone fruits.
9 am: I grab my bike and hit the trails.
If I have a mountain bike ride scheduled with other people, we will meet at Mulholland Land either JPL (I just say JPL for all the trails in Altadena across the Arroyo Seco River.) That's my ideal spot, it's about 15 minutes away. I'll go by the Gabrielino Trail There are horses, hikers, cyclists, but it all depends on the temperature. If the weather report says 75 to 80 degrees, it's too hot. Higher up, when you're exposed, it's more like 90 degrees. I almost got heat stroke there.
If it gets too hot, you stay on the riverbed, which now has a lot of water in it, so you get wet crossing six or seven rivers on your bike. It's almost a jungle environment. It's really like another world. If you're used to Griffith Park, which is just brush and piles of loose sand and quartz, this seems much more tropical and remote.
11 am: Replenish your energy with fresh pasta or sandwiches.
After that, not far away is this delicatessen that I have been really into lately and it is called From FerrazzaniIt's part of the Semolina Artisanal Pastas company and they make fresh pasta right there. Next door there's an Italian market that sells cheese, guanciale and fresh pasta and they make about five different sandwiches. They're all delicious. It's a nice place.
1:00 p.m.: Have a family drawing session.
There was a day when [my family and I] went to the Norton Simon Museum And I drew modern art. I have to say it was an amazing day. The scale reminds me of a Chicago museum in many ways, like a miniature art institute. And I like the building itself, with all the wastelands on the outside.
My mother was an artist and she used to take me and a group of friends to the Art Institute and we would bring sketchbooks and draw whatever we thought was interesting. I started doing it with my family and I don't know why more people don't do it. It's a totally different experience and you can compare your sketches to other people who are drawing the same thing. I'm not really a visual artist, but that little childhood tradition is something I really enjoy.
4:00 p.m.: Walk through Atwater Village
We spend a lot of time in Atwater Village on Sundays. There is a farmers market there and my wife owns a store. Airplane CurtainIt's been kind of a hub for us for the last nine or ten years that it's been open. It's a really cool place.
In Atwater there is Alias books, Proof Bakery and wide sidewalks with cafes. It has street life, which is rare in Los Angeles, and it's designed like an old western town with a super-wide boulevard where you can have a parade, wide sidewalks and normal commerce, as opposed to the beige strip malls all over Hollywood. If you build it, they will come. It's pretty lively these days.
6 pm: Sunday family dinner
Then we have Sunday dinner as a family with my wife, son and sister-in-law, who lives down the street. We usually make homemade bolognese. It's a joint effort, but most of the credit goes to my wife. I'm a cook.
19:15: Watch a movie or play music with my son
And then the extended family comes over and we hang out together and maybe watch a movie all together. Sometimes we'll split up and my son and I will watch “Rick and Morty” while my wife watches something she likes more. Or my son and I will play ping-pong or tennis or something. He just turned 13 and he's a really good guitar player and singer, but he hasn't shown any desire to make that his life's work right now. He got really good at guitar during the pandemic — he plays guitar with his fingers.
It's a bit of a complicated dynamic because as a professional musician, every time he says he wants to improvise, I'm like, “Great, okay,” and he'll go for about 10 or 15 minutes. After that, he'll go into passive resistance mode. So I'm still trying to figure it out. The key is to not intervene, but it's hard to suppress pride. [as a parent]He has a good ear and he's a good musician. But then you say to him, “Hey, are you going to do a solo in the choir?” And they say, “Get out.”
21:30 h: Relax, in bed or on a tour bus
[Bedtime] It depends on what stage of the year I’m in with touring or whatever. But when I’m home, I usually start reading around 9:30 or 10 p.m. and fall asleep by 11, maybe. I read a lot at night. Right now I’m reading “Hard Rain Falling” by Don Carpenter. It’s a 1950s, tough-guy prison crime novel.
If I'm on a bus tour, I'm in the bunk as soon as the bus starts moving, at 12:30 or 1 a.m. It's hard to describe sleeping with 10 other people in about 400 square feet as “luxurious,” but you have a day sheet that tells you what your obligations are for that day, where you have to be, what time. And otherwise, you're kind of free of responsibilities. Life is very simple. So I sleep a lot better when I'm on tour.
