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.

Renee Rosnes' recording is slower than Donald Brown's original version, but the feel is similar. The only important difference is in the seventh measure of the head. Here the melody note on the downbeat is played short; the drums break for the rest of the measure, while the piano plays unison with the melody and the bass adds a harmony line. The melody is played only once out, with Renee playing only the last of the three rising fills.