Edwin Birdsong

Edwin Birdsong (born in Shreveport, LA on August 22, 1941- deceased in Los Angeles on January 21, 2019) was an American keyboard/organ player, known in the 1970s and 1980s for his experimental funk & disco music. His father was a minister and Birdsong started singing in the Los Angeles Community Choir. After serving in Vietnam he played for American army personnel in clubs throughout Germany for a while. At the end of his service he was stationed in Baltimore where he played in the clubs around Pennsylvania Avenue. In the late 1960s he moved to New York City where he studied music and composition at the Manhattan School of Music and at the Juilliard School. Also in New York Birdsong met Wes Farrell who helped him get a contract with Polydor. By that thime he had already reconnected with LA high school friend Roy Ayers, who'd moved to New York too. Ayers got him session work with Herbie Mann, and Birdsong would join his band, appearing on the Ubiquity album and also working on later Ayers albums, as well on albums by RAMP and Eighties Ladies. Later on Birdsong would work with Marley Marl and never achieved chart success with his solo work, but co-wrote Ayers' Running Away hit. Over time, Birdsong developed a strong fan base and has also been sampled by other artists many times, most famously by Daft Punk and Kanye West who both sampled Cola Bottle Baby, and De La Soul, Snoop Dogg and Gang Starr who sampled his Rapper Dapper Snapper single.