How high the moon

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

How High the Moon is the title of jazz standards (composed by William Morgan "Buddy" Lewis, Jr. with a text by Nancy Hamilton ) that as part of the Broadway - revue Two for the show was staged in 1940 and became an independent later.

History of origin

The revue Two for the Show takes place in London during the war and contained a total of 13 pieces of music and dance songs, Alfred Drake played the leading role. The musical had 124 performances at the Booth Theater between February 8, 1940 and May 25, 1940. How High the Moon appeared as the fifth of 8 songs in the first act, in the second act there were 5 more pieces. It is sung by 8 people in evening wear on a London street. William Morgan Lewis wrote the music as a slow ballad in the A-B'-AB "form , using a descending chord progression. Because of its complex and interesting chord progressions, the song later appeared in several bebop versions, so it has been since then higher pace will be carried forward. It was the only Jazz standard, which Lewis had written. Nancy Hamilton's text actually supports today's high-speed version. the story tells the story of an unattainable love, as far away as the moon. Both authors are not among the professional Composers, for whom only 19 titles are registered with ASCAP . How High the Moon stood out clearly from the other songs in the revue and was therefore published in numerous versions.

Benny Goodman - How High the Moon

original

Benny Goodman's Original with singer Helen Forrest was made on February 7, 1940 in New York, the day before the premiere of the musical. The outstanding piano solo comes from Wally Krauss. The other line-up consisted of Toots Mondello and Buff Estes (alto saxophone), Buss Bassey (tenor saxophone), Irving Goodman, Ziggy Elman and Jimmy Maxwell (trumpet), Red Ballard, Ted Vesely and Vernon Brown (trombone). The single How High the Moon / The Fable of the Rose (Columbia 35391) made it to number 6 on the US hit parade after its release in February 1940.

Important cover versions

There are at least 94 cover versions that underline the cross-style usability of the title. In addition to jazz recordings, there are pop versions, a soul version and a disco version. Mitchell Ayres and his Fashions in Music (with Mary Ann Mercer, vocals; recording date: February 8, 1940) reached number 18 with their first cover version of the hit parade, Freddie Rich & Orchestra with Rosemary Calvin recorded the piece on February 14, 1940, Harry James & Dick Haymes (in the Southland Café in Boston) on March 19, 1940. Ella Fitzgerald sings it live with Dizzy Gillespie's Orchestra at the sold-out Carnegie Hall on September 29, 1947, her first recording was on December 20, 1947 with the Daydreamers . She recorded the song over 15 times with her signature scat vocals. Django Reinhardt recorded him with his improvisations as the guitarist of the Jazz Club Mystery Hot Band on January 25, 1945 in Paris.

Lionel Hampton followed on April 2, 1947, Goodman again as Goodman Septet on April 7, 1947, Stan Kenton's instrumental version dates from December 21, 1947. The still unknown Dave Brubeck chose the song to help him with his newly formed octet in Presented in 1948 for an audition rehearsal at NBC. Duke Ellington (with Ben Webster ) performed it live at Carnegie Hall on November 13, 1948. The Charlie Parker Quintet immortalized him on December 18, 1948, and Erroll Garner on October 7, 1950.

Les Paul & Mary Ford - How High the Moon

The version by the duo Les Paul / Mary Ford , one of the first overdub recordings in music history, stayed at number one for nine weeks. Guitarist Les Paul, who also dealt with guitar construction (the Gibson Les Paul is named after him) and recording technology, developed a reverberation process ( delay ) that can be heard for the first time on his home recording on January 4, 1951 and has since become one of the usual Heard the sound effects of the recording technology. He put a total of eight identical tracks on top of each other with a time delay, whereby he had to accept a degeneration of the quality. Paul's version hit the charts on March 23, 1951 , where it stayed for 25 weeks. No other duet stayed at number one on the US charts for 9 weeks. His version also reached number one on the rhythm and blues hit parade as the first recording by a white performer . Les Paul's version sold 1.5 million copies, making it the most successful version of How High the Moon . Due to its cultural and historical significance for the United States, the jazz standard in the version of the duo Les Paul / Mary Ford was added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress on January 27, 2003 .

Sarah Vaughn recorded the title between October 25 and 27, 1955, Sonny Stitt followed on August 1, 1958. A memorable recording was made by Ella Fitzgerald when she presented it in Berlin's Deutschlandhalle on February 13, 1960 (to be found on the LP Ella in Berlin ; 1960), Marvin Gaye released a soul version in June 1961, the disc version of Gloria Gaynor (November 1975) was not a big hit for her.

The sequence of chords forms the framework for Charlie Parker's composition Ornithology . Ella Fitzgerald, Lionel Hampton and others used Ornithology in their solo performance of How High the Moon . Miles Davis ' composition Solar is based on parts of the chord structures of How High the Moon .

cinemamovies

The song was also used in the following films :

literature

Web links

See also

Bebop head

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ted Gioia, The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire , 2012, pp. 150 ff.
  2. ↑ a b Producer & Engineer: Les Paul , SoundonSound from January 2007.
  3. ↑ Glen Jeanssonne / David Luhrssen, Elvis Presley: Reluctant Rebel , 2011, p. 70.
  4. ^ How High the Moon in the National Recording Registry. Retrieved August 14, 2017 .