Songs and seasons seem to go together like rhymes and reasons and autumn is up there in contention with the other three quarters of the calendar year. These are some of my favourites:
Early Autumn began life as an add-on to Ralph Burns' Summer Sequence suite for Woody Herman and featured a beautiful solo by Stan Getz who recorded it several times later in a variety of settings. Johnny Mercer added lyrics and there were vocal versions by, among others, Ella Fitzgerald and Jo Stafford
Lullaby of the Leaves. Just like you can't have Christmas songs without snow, if you're going to compose an autumnal sung you must have leaves. Bernice Petkere and Joe Young did that back in 1933. The Gerry Mulligan Quartet rubber-stamped the song's jazz credentials and Anita O'Day turned it upside down.
Autumn Leaves - originally Les Feuilles mortes by Hungarian composer Joseph Kosma - entered the jazz world when Johnny Mercer translated the lyric to English much to the delight of Nat 'King' Cole and a thousand others. Erroll Garner's version on his album Concert by the Sea ranks as one of the best jazz recordings of the tune although every body has had a crack at it one time or another.
September
in the Rain. The leaves of brown may have,
according to Harry Warren and Al Dubin, came tumbling down but
for the George Shearing Quintet they were green backed dollar bills. The first
of many great hits for the quintet. Dinah Washington also did wonders with the
song.
The Things We Did Last Summer may seem out of place here but the line The leaves began to fade, like promises we made puts the record straight. Words and music by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne provided fodder for Sinatra and (again) jo Stafford. Lou Donaldson recorded a blistering version on Blue Note.
September Song by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson may have achieved immortality with Walter Huston's half sung/half spoken recording but for jazz fans it was Chet Baker who got the gold medal if not the gold disc.
Autumn in New York is a beauty. Vernon Duke hit the spot with this one. Sinatra, Chet, Zoot, Stan and just about everyone who's sang in the shower has had a go. My personal fave is from Charlie Parker With Strings.
'Tis Autumn, composed by one Henry Nemo, and recently revived, rather splendidly, by Alan Barnes and Dave Newton on their album of the same name is handy as an antidote to the threat of winter. Earlier gems include a quartet recording by Stan Getz and the classic vocal version by George Evans with Geraldo and his Orchestra.
Autumn Serenade. No need to look further than the version by Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane. Vocal and tenor magic on a song by Peter De Rose and Sammy Gallop. Kurt Elling also makes a decent fist of it.
Sat 07: Nathan Lawson @ Staiths Café, Autumn Drive, Gateshead NE8 2BZ. 6:00pm.
I don't know if guitarist Nathan Lawson will play any of the above at
his gig tonight but check out the address! Lance
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