Jazz songbird really digs her ornithology

Susan Krebs can remember the precise experience that stimulated “Jazz Aviary” -- her celebration of birds through music, poetry and birdsong.

“It dates back to waking up at dawn in my grandmother’s house in the country,” the singer-actress says. “Lying in my bedroom in that old house, listening to an unbelievable chorus of birds singing in those early morning hours -- singing music, really. It’s always been with me, and I think that, more than anything else, is what led me to this place.”

“This place” is a program further exploring the music and nature connections Krebs first encountered in her albums “What Am I Here For?” and “Jazz Gardener.” With “Jazz Aviary” -- which will be performed in three concerts at Space at Fountain’s End in Silver Lake -- she brings it all into full bloom.

In the songs, Krebs and her six musicians soar through jazz-in-flight versions of material including Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer’s “Skylark,” Lennon-McCartney’s “Blackbird” and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “A Lark Ascending.” Between songs, Krebs recites poetry from Thoreau, Shelley and others, occasionally tossing in some ornithological facts (“In as nonintellectual a manner as possible,” says Krebs with a laugh). The performance wraps with a segment devoted to the recorded sounds of birds themselves, the myriad songs, calls and cries that have drifted through Krebs’ memory. Interestingly, the experience of “Jazz Aviary” has had similar effect upon her audiences, she says. “I’ve had people call me to tell me how it triggered their own childhood experiences. How, for the first time as adults, they began to hear the birds in their own backyards,” Krebs says. “And that was like, ‘OK, my job is done.’ Because if nothing else, I want ‘Jazz Aviary’ to help people cut through the cacophony that is modern living and bring us back into the rhythm of nature -- back to slowing down, listening and tapping into cosmic time.”

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Don Heckman

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“Jazz Aviary,” Space at Fountain’s End, 3929 Fountain Ave., Silver Lake. 8 p.m. Friday, March 31 and April 1. $20, or $30 for two. (323) 856-6168