The Bird and the Bee
George's girl:She's a svelte, sweet- voiced jazz singer, signed to Blue Note, and her dad is a music legend from the 1970s. No, she's not Norah Jones, but Inara George, daughter of the late Lowell George, leader of beardy West Coast rockers Little Feat, and she's ready to charm you with an album's worth of tropicalia-tinged psychedelic jazz-pop tunes, a sundrenched mix of standards and originals released on Metro Blue, an imprint of Blue Note. Reluctant to trade on her famous father's name, yet unwilling to hide her light under a bushel, Inara teamed up with Greg Kurstin to form The Bird and The Bee, a self-styled "army of two" on a mission to subvert standard pop conventions and make gentle, fragile music that could float on a breeze yet still withstand the ravages of time.
Rise and shine:Growing up in a rock'n' roll household in LA's Topanga Canyon, young Inara George probably met all the big stars of LA rock, including Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt and Randy Newman. She was also probably too young to remember meeting them. Her dad lived the rock'n'roll lifestyle and died in 1979 of a massive heart attack when Inara was but an infant. Inara inherited Lowell's soulful talent, and soon she was singing in bands around LA, and doing vocal stints with Jackson Browne and Van Dyke Parks. But she largely avoided the things which contributed to her dad's death: drink, drugs, smoking and overeating. In 2005, she and a group of friends, including Kurstin, got together and recorded Inara's debut solo album, All Rise.
Piano man:Greg Kurstin didn't have a famous parent, but his prodigious talents on the piano led to him studying in New York with Charles Mingus's pianist Jaki Byard, and performing with the likes of Beck and Robert Moog (inventor of the Moog synthesiser). Greg also got to remix records by Peaches, Flaming Lips and Lily Allen. When he joined up with Inara to make All Rise, the pair discovered a mutual passion for playing jazz standards. "One day, after a rehearsal, we hung out near a piano and, for three or four hours, played all the old songs we knew," recalls Inara. Soon, they were adding their own compositions to the standards, including Again and Again, I'm a Broken Heart and F-cking Boyfriend.
Catch the buzz:Over the next three years Inara and Greg worked together at his home in Echo Park, crafting the delicate yet doughty tunes on their self-titled debut album. You can hear some of the tracks by visiting the duo's MySpace page, www.myspace.com/thebirdandthebee, or by teleporting to the Echo Park Listening Lounge in Second Life (you'll find the link on MySpace). The Bird and the Bee is released in Ireland on March 23rd.
