Autumn Leaves (1945 song)

"Les feuilles mortes"
Song by Yves Montand and Irène Joachim
English title	"Autumn Leaves"
Written	1945
Released	1946 by Enoch & Cie (fr)
Genre	Jazz, pop
Composer(s)	Joseph Kosma
Lyricist(s)	Jacques Prévert (French), Johnny Mercer (English)

"Autumn Leaves" is a popular song and jazz standard composed by Joseph Kosma with original lyrics by Jacques Prévert in French, and later by Johnny Mercer in English. An instrumental version by pianist Roger Williams was a number 1 best-seller in the US Billboard charts of 1955.

Background

Kosma was a native of Hungary who was introduced to Prévert in Paris. They collaborated on the song Les Feuilles mortes ("The Dead Leaves") for the 1946 film Les Portes de la nuit (Gates of the Night) where it was sung by Irène Joachim.[1] Kosma was influenced by a piece of ballet music, "Rendez-vous" written for Roland Petit, which was itself borrowed partially from "Poème d'octobre" by Jules Massenet.[2] The first commercial recordings of "Les Feuilles mortes" were released in 1950, by Cora Vaucaire[3] and by Yves Montand.[4] Johnny Mercer wrote the English lyric and gave it the title "Autumn Leaves". Mercer was a partner in Capitol Records at the time, and Capitol recording artist Jo Stafford made the first English-language recording in July, 1950.[1] The song was recorded steadily throughout the 1950s by leading pop vocalists including Bing Crosby (1950), Nat King Cole (1955), Doris Day (1956), and Frank Sinatra (1957). It was also quickly adopted by instrumental jazz artists including Artie Shaw (1950), Stan Getz (1952), Erroll Garner and Ahmad Jamal (separately in 1955), Duke Ellington (1957), and Cannonball Adderley and Miles Davis (together in 1958). In 2012, jazz historian Philippe Baudoin called the song "the most important non-American standard" and noted that "it has been recorded about 1400 times by mainstream and modern jazz musicians alone and is the eighth most-recorded tune by jazzmen."[5]

Structure and chord progression

The song is in AABC form.[6] "Autumn Leaves" offers a popular way for beginning jazz musicians to become acquainted with jazz harmony as the chord progression consists almost solely of ii–V–I and ii–V sequences which are typical of jazz. It is originally in G minor.

The song's iv⁷–VII⁷–III^maj7–VI^maj7–ii^ø7–V⁷–i chord progression is an example of the circle-of-fifths progression.[7]

Other versions

As a jazz standard, "Autumn Leaves" has accumulated more than a thousand commercial recordings.[8] Among those by notable performers are:

Cannonball Adderley with Miles Davis – Somethin' Else (1958)[1]
Chet Baker with Paul Desmond – She Was Too Good to Me (1974)[1]
Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps has "Autumn Leaves" as the corps song[1] and it is listed on their 1987 program.[9]
Eva Cassidy – Live at Blues Alley (1996)[1]
Eric Clapton – Clapton (2010)[10]
The Coasters – One by One (1960)[11]
Anat Cohen
Coldcut - Philosophy (1994)[12]
Nat King Cole – Nat King Cole Sings for Two in Love (1955)
Bing Crosby – recorded September 7, 1950 for Decca Records.[13]
Miles Davis – Miles Davis in Europe (1963).[1] He performed the song as part of his live repertoire from 1960 until 1966. Except for the session with Cannonball Adderley in 1958, Davis never recorded the tune in a studio. Several concerts were recorded and released.[14]
Doris Day – Day by Day (1956)
Bob Dylan – Shadows in the Night (2015)
Bill Evans – Portrait in Jazz (1959)[1]
The Everly Brothers – Instant Party! (1962)
Fairuz – بيذكر بالخريف ("Biyzakkir Bil Khareef", in Lebanese Arabic), on her Wala Keef album (2002)
Santo & Johnny Farina – Mona Lisa (1966)
Sergio Franchi – I'm a Fool to Want You (1968)[15]
Ryo Fukui – Scenery (1976)
Serge Gainsbourg – La chanson de Prévert (1961)[16]
Erroll Garner – Concert by the Sea (1955)[1]
Robert Goulet – Without You (1964)
Vince Guaraldi – A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing (1958)[17], Jazz Impressions (1964)[18], North Beach (2006)[19], Essential Standards (2009)[20] The Definitive Vince Guaraldi (2009)[21]
Jim Hall and Ron Carter – Alone Together (1972)[1]
Dami Im – I Hear a Song (2018)[22]
Ahmad Jamal – The Ahmad Jamal Trio (1955)[1]
Keith Jarrett – Still Live (1986)[1]
Keith Jarrett – Tokyo '96
Jack Jones – Jack Jones Sings (1966)
Wynton Kelly – Wynton Kelly! (1961)[1]
Jerry Lee Lewis recorded this song at the Caribou Ranch (Colorado) during the unreleased Caribou Ranch Sessions in 1980.
Manfred Mann – As Is (1966)[23]
Johnny Mathis – The Sweetheart Tree (1965)
Matt Monro – The Late, Late Show (1968)
Willie Nelson – Without a Song (1983)
Joe Pass – Virtuoso No. 4 (1983, recorded in 1973)[24]
Art Pepper – The Way It Was (1972), previously unreleased from his Intensity (1960) sessions
Edith Piaf – sang both French and English versions on December 24, 1950, on the radio program The Big Show[25]
Louis Prima – The Call of the Wildest (1957)
Frank Sinatra – Where Are You? (1957)
Mel Tormé – Live at Marty's (1963)
McCoy Tyner – Today and Tomorrow (1963)[1]
Sarah Vaughan – Crazy and Mixed Up (1982)
Ben Webster and the Georges Arvanitas Trio – Autumn Leaves (1972)[26][27]
Andy Williams – Lonely Street (1959)
Kathryn Williams – Resonator (2016) with Anthony Kerr, vibes.
Roger Williams – made the song a number-one hit in the U.S. in 1955,[1] the first piano instrumental to reach number one.[28]

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References

Gioia, Ted (2012). The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire. New York City: Oxford University Press. pp. 24–26. ISBN 978-0-19-993739-4.
Massin, Brigitte (1999). Les Joachim: Une famille de musiciens. Paris: Fayard. ISBN 978-2213604183.
"Les Feuilles mortes; Cora Vaucaire". Bibliothèque nationale de France. 1950.
"Les Feuilles mortes; Yves Montand". Bibliothèque nationale de France. 1950.
Baudoin, Philippe (2012). "History and Analysis of "Autumn Leaves"". Current Research in Jazz. 4. Retrieved November 23, 2019.
Spitzer, Peter (2001). Jazz Theory Handbook, p.81. ISBN 0-7866-5328-0.
Kostka, Stefan; Payne, Dorothy; Almén, Byron (2013). Tonal harmony with an introduction to twentieth-century music (7th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. pp. 46, 238. ISBN 978-0-07-131828-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
"Autumn Leaves". AllMusic.com.
Anonymous. "1987 Programs & Ticket Stubs". The Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps. Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2006-11-07. As listed in 1987 program
"CLAPTON by Eric Clapton - MP3 Downloads, Streaming Music, Lyrics". Eric Clapton Official Website.
Poet, J. "One by One". AllMusic. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
"Jonathan More (Coldcut): Philosophy". Sound On Sound. January 1994. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
"A Bing Crosby Discography". BING magazine. International Club Crosby. Retrieved December 30, 2018.
Cf. Miles Davis discography by Peter Losin.
"Sergio Franchi". Gemm.com. Archived from the original on 2017-03-01. Retrieved 2018-10-29.
François, Corinne (2000). Jacques Prévert, Paroles. Editions Bréal. ISBN 978-2-84291-702-9. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
Yanow, Scott. "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing". AllMusic. Retrieved February 5, 2020.
Jazz Impressions at AllMusic. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
North Beach at AllMusic. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
Campbell, Al. Essential Standards at AllMusic. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
Campbell, Al. The Definitive Vince Guaraldi at AllMusic. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
damiimVEVO (2018-02-15), Dami Im - Autumn Leaves, retrieved 2018-06-16
Flanagan, Rob. "As Is". AllMusic. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
"allmusic.com". allmusic.com. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
The Big Show. "BigShow-02". BigShow. Archived from the original on 26 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-25. As carried on Internet radio at
"Ben Webster: Autumn Leaves - Digipak - Futura Et Marge". Jazz Messengers. Archived from the original on 2015-02-13. Retrieved 2016-08-22.
Autumn leaves: Ben Webster et le Trio Georges Arvanitas (Music). 2016-06-29. OCLC 476668093.
Anonymous. "Roger Williams". Nebraska Music Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2006-11-07. In 1965, Williams added a chorus and charted it again at no. 10 Billboard Easy Listening as "Autumn Leaves - 1965."

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[Gioia-1] Gioia, Ted (2012). The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire. New York City: Oxford University Press. pp. 24–26. ISBN 978-0-19-993739-4.

[Massin-2] Massin, Brigitte (1999). Les Joachim: Une famille de musiciens. Paris: Fayard. ISBN 978-2213604183.

[3] "Les Feuilles mortes; Cora Vaucaire". Bibliothèque nationale de France. 1950.

[4] "Les Feuilles mortes; Yves Montand". Bibliothèque nationale de France. 1950.

[5] Baudoin, Philippe (2012). "History and Analysis of "Autumn Leaves"". Current Research in Jazz. 4. Retrieved November 23, 2019.

[6] Spitzer, Peter (2001). Jazz Theory Handbook, p.81. ISBN 0-7866-5328-0.

[Kostka23846-7] Kostka, Stefan; Payne, Dorothy; Almén, Byron (2013). Tonal harmony with an introduction to twentieth-century music (7th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. pp. 46, 238. ISBN 978-0-07-131828-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

[8] "Autumn Leaves". AllMusic.com.

[9] Anonymous. "1987 Programs & Ticket Stubs". The Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps. Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2006-11-07. As listed in 1987 program

[10] "CLAPTON by Eric Clapton - MP3 Downloads, Streaming Music, Lyrics". Eric Clapton Official Website.

[coasters-11] Poet, J. "One by One". AllMusic. Retrieved 17 November 2018.

[12] "Jonathan More (Coldcut): Philosophy". Sound On Sound. January 1994. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 6 October 2019.

[13] "A Bing Crosby Discography". BING magazine. International Club Crosby. Retrieved December 30, 2018.

[14] Cf. Miles Davis discography by Peter Losin.

[15] "Sergio Franchi". Gemm.com. Archived from the original on 2017-03-01. Retrieved 2018-10-29.

[François2000-16] François, Corinne (2000). Jacques Prévert, Paroles. Editions Bréal. ISBN 978-2-84291-702-9. Retrieved 16 November 2018.

[17] Yanow, Scott. "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing". AllMusic. Retrieved February 5, 2020.

[18] Jazz Impressions at AllMusic. Retrieved 8 June 2020.

[19] North Beach at AllMusic. Retrieved 21 March 2020.

[20] Campbell, Al. Essential Standards at AllMusic. Retrieved 8 June 2020.

[21] Campbell, Al. The Definitive Vince Guaraldi at AllMusic. Retrieved 12 March 2020.

[22] VEVO (2018-02-15), Dami Im - Autumn Leaves, retrieved 2018-06-16

[manfred-23] Flanagan, Rob. "As Is". AllMusic. Retrieved 17 November 2018.

[24] "allmusic.com". allmusic.com. Retrieved June 1, 2020.

[25] The Big Show. "BigShow-02". BigShow. Archived from the original on 26 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-25. As carried on Internet radio at

[26] "Ben Webster: Autumn Leaves - Digipak - Futura Et Marge". Jazz Messengers. Archived from the original on 2015-02-13. Retrieved 2016-08-22.

[27] Autumn leaves: Ben Webster et le Trio Georges Arvanitas (Music). 2016-06-29. OCLC 476668093.

[28] Anonymous. "Roger Williams". Nebraska Music Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2006-11-07. In 1965, Williams added a chorus and charted it again at no. 10 Billboard Easy Listening as "Autumn Leaves - 1965."