Autumn in New York

... and not just there but everywhere in the Northern hemisphere. Except Autumn leaves, Autumn in New York is the most famous jazz standard about the time of fall. In this song the lyrics isn't about the lost love and the sorrow, it's about the status when a big town is getting surrounded by a new, magical season. And because in NY everything is the most-most-most, autumn is also had to be wonderful there, and the song is an additional proof for it. It was written in 1934 by Vernon Duke and also performed by many musicians and singers.

Jazzstandard.com tells us "Vernon Duke’s composition was written for the 1934 showThumbs Up! and introduced by J. Harold Murray. Thirteen years later it rose to number 27 on the pop charts thanks to a fine vocal version by Frank Sinatra."

Autumn in New York
Why does it seem so inviting?
Autumn in New York
It spells the thrill of first-knighting

Glittering crowds and shimmering clouds
In canyons of steel
They're making me feel
I'm home

It's autumn in New York
That brings the promise of new love
Autumn in New York
Is often mingled with pain

Dreamers with empty hands
May sigh for exotic lands
It's autumn in New York
It's good to live it again

Lovers that bless the dark
On benches in Central Park
It's autumn in New York
It's good to live it again

Some albums on which you can hear it:

• Ahmad Jamal Trio - Ahmad's blues
• Billie Holiday - Lady in autumn - The best of the Verve years
• Bud Powell - The amazing Bud Powell, vol. 2.
• Buddy Defranco - Mr. Clarinet
• Charlie Parker - Charlie Parker with strings -the master takes
• Chet Baker Quartet - Jazz in Paris, vol. 53.
• Dexter Gordon - Autumn in New York
• Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong - Ella and Louis again
• Frank Sinatra - Come fly with me
• Jo Stafford - Autumn in New York and other classics
• John Stetch - Heavens of a hundred days
• Kenny Barron - New York attitude
• Mel Tormé - Songs of New York
• Phineas Newborn Jr - Phineas' rainbow
• Shelly Manne - The three and the two
• Sonny Stitt - Autumn in New York
• Stan Kenton - Portraits on standards
• Sun Ra - The Sun Ra Sextet at the Village Vaungard
• The Hi-Lo's - Love nest / All over the place
• The Modern Jazz Quartet - Django

Some videos - Autumn in New York, performance by:

• Ella and Louis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50zL8TnMBN8
• Billie Holiday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS3ZTVeqJjA
• Frank Sinatra: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WohRBN5oflE

Read more about it here.

More standards about autumn: Autumn leaves, September in the rain, September song.

Books on the topic: jazz standards

I love jazz standards. I love their melancholic mood, their simple but expressive lyrics about well-known emotions, their ever-green property, the countless performances of them. This feeling reaches me very often, and I wanted to know more about these songs, more than its lyrics and nice melodies. The stories behind, the circumstances of their birth, the authors' thoughts. Jazzstandards.com helps me of course but I prefer reading in books, not on web. This site helps in this, too, because it offers a big range of books on this topic. With the help of Amazon's Look inside! function I chose the most interesting ones and maybe I'll read one of them in the summertime this year.

Listening to classic American popular songs

This book will be read by musicians because its main feature is sheet and lyrics of twenty-three well-known songs, like I've got you under my skin, Autumn in New York, Come rain or come shine, etc. It also gives some knowledge about harmony, melody and rhythm in the first part of the book, and you can listen to the songs as well on the cd attached to the book.

The NPR's curious listener's guide to popular standards

The main advantage of this book is that it doesn't only write about 100 songs, it also describes the songwriters, the performers, it defines the meaning of it and shows the whole evolution of this style.

The Great American Songbook: Stories of the standards

This book tells us the stories of the standards and their writers, such as: Night and day: Cole Porter, The way you look tonight: Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields, Kind of blue, So what: Miles Davis - and many more (up to 29). It also presents songs which haven't got lyrics but became very, very famous.

America's songs: The stories behind the Songs of Broadway, Hollywood, and Tin Pan Alley

It's like a history textbook: the chapters are periods of time (1910-1919, 1920-1929, ... , 1970-1977) and they are divided into years - with interesting, illustrative photos.

More:
American Popular Song: The great innovators, 1900-1950
The American popular ballad of the Golden Era (1924-1950)

There are a lot more but you wouldn't choose... and I didn't show the books which concentrate on only one writer.

Autumn leaves

The time has came for this post at last - a post which I've waited for months. It's autumn, and the song, Autumn leaves, the evergreen melody and jazz standard. Written by Joseph Kosma in 1945, lyrics by Jacques Prévert, and American lyrics by Johnny Mercer in 1947. Originally it's a French chanson, titled Les feuilles mortes (The dead leaves).

A song, where beauty meets melancholy, performed it almost a million times, in a million ways.

Some examples:

Autumn leaves on albums:

• Ahmad Jamal - The legendary Okeh & Epic recordings
• Barney Kessel - Autumn leaves
• Ben Webster - There is no greater love
• Bill Evans - Portrait in jazz
• Bobby McFerrin - Play
• Bobby Timmons - In person
• Cannonball Adderley - Somethin' else
• Chet Baker - She was too good to me
• Chick Corea's Akoustic Band - ~
• Clark Terry - Portraits
• Duke Ellington - Indigos
• Erroll Garner - Concert by the sea
• Eva Cassidy - Songbird
• Frank Sinatra - Where are you?
• Gabor Szabo - Spellbinder
• Jacky Terrasson - Smile
• Jim Hall & Ron Carter - Alone together
• Joe Henderson - Four!
• Joe Pass - Unforgettable
• Keith Jarrett Trio - Still live
• McCoy Tyner - Today and tomorrow
• Nat King Cole - The unforgettable Nat King Cole
• Paul Desmond - Summertime
• Sarah Vaughan - Crazy and mixed up
• Stan Getz - The complete Roost recordings
• Steve Kuhn - Pianists on the Sunnyside
• The bird and the bee - Live from Las Vegas at the Palms
• Tierney Sutton - Blue in green
• Wynton Marsalis - Marsalis Standard Time, Vol. 1.
  

Autumn leaves on the Internet, performance by:

• Bill Evans Trio:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRhVI7cpcS4
• Eva Cassidy:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSXYu-3r1S8
• Keith Jarrett Trio:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=io1o1Hwpo8Y
• Les Baxter:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr_Kip2xphM
• Nat King Cole:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gnp58oepHUQ
• Wynton Marsalis and Sarah Vaughan:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZbI2VZF9K8

The chanson, Les feuilles mortes in the performance of

• Yves Montand:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOsVVeojMZs
  

Learn more about it on

http://www.jazzstandards.com/compositions-0/autumnleaves.htm

The falling leaves
Drift by my window
The falling leaves
Of red and gold

I see your lips
The summer kisses
The sunburned hands
I used to hold

Since you went away
The days grow long
And soon I'll hear
Old winter's song

But I miss you most of all
My darling
When autumn leaves
Start to fall

Since you went away
The days grow long
And soon I'll hear
Old winter's song

But I miss you most of all
My darling
When autumn leaves
Start to fall

Summertime

This post is a part of "standards", and I will always upgrade these posts when I have something new.

How could I draw summer if not with this standard? Summertime is by George Gershwin, from the 1935 opera: Porgy & Bess. It's one of the most known jazz standards, and many jazz musicians have performed it in many ways (that's what I love in jazz standards, the many possible ways of performance).

Summertime,

And the livin' is easy

Fish are jumpin'

And the cotton is high

Your daddy's rich

And your mamma's good lookin'

So hush little baby

Don't you cry

One of these mornings

You're going to rise up singing

Then you'll spread your wings

And you'll take to the sky

But till that morning

There's a'nothing can harm you

With daddy and mamma standing by

Summertime,

And the livin' is easy

Fish are jumpin'

And the cotton is high

Your daddy's rich

And your mamma's good lookin'

So hush little baby

Don't you cry.

Some albums on which you can hear it:

• Art Blakey Quartet - A jazz message
• Charlie Shavers - Complete Intimate Interpretations
• Chet Baker - The last great concert
• Duke Ellington - Complete Gus Wildi recordings
• Ella Fitzgerald - Pure Ella
• Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong - Porgy & Bess
• George Benson - It's uptown
• Jim Hall - The unreleased sessions
• John Coltrane - My favorite things
• Miles Davis - Porgy and Bess
• Ray Brown - Summertime
• Sarah Vaughan - Sarah Vaughan sings George Gershwin

Some videos - Summertime in the performance of:

• Bill Evans Trio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p_dHE5hQIA
• Billie Holiday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5ddqniqxFM
• Chick Corea & Hiromi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2m4Oy9TWmo
• George Benson & Jill Scott: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCaPno7QChY
• Keith Jarrett: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9CjfpWq3M8
• Ray Brown Trio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9frgJdwYNC8