If You Could See Me Now
If You Could See Me Now is a jazz track composed by Tadd Dameron in 1946. The song with lyrics by Carl Sigman became a jazz standard .
Features of the song
Dameron wrote this song especially for Sarah Vaughan . The predominantly in major principal melody held after the song form A-A'-BA "is established, in the judgment of Hans-Jürgen Schaal ," a in detail balanced invention. "The catchy basic motif initially rises above a octave to to then to descend for a second (d-es-gbdc) and find a resonance “in the overcast chromaticismthe answer phrase (gba-as-bf). "The lyrics capture the character of these two input phrases:" If You could see me now / You'd see how blue I've been. "" Also in the second half of the A- In part, the melody retains its power of fascination, "as there is now movement in the harmonies and blues-like intervals (with a fifth fall in the fifth bar between two seconds - bhe-es). The B part manages without any major musical leaps. The text is about the feelings of a lover who has been dumped.
Sarah Vaughan's interpretations
Dameron arranged an accompaniment of a jazz sextet and strings for the first recording . The song didn't hit the charts, but became Vaughan's signature tune. In 1998, Vaughan's first interpretation, which many consider the definitive version, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame . Vaughan recorded the song again in the 1970s (with the basie band ) and performed it again and again in their concerts.
More shots
Numerous singers have taken over the song, such as Helen Merrill , Irene Kral , Sheila Jordan , Diane Schuur or Claire Martin ; Monica Zetterlund sang the song in Swedish. Tadd Dameron recorded the song in 1962 for his album The Magic of Tadd Dameron with Barbara Winfield. Singers like Mark Murphy , Mel Tormé (1995 with Rob McConnell ) and Andy Bey also interpreted the song.
Numerous pianists recorded the song, such as Barry Harris , Randy Weston and especially Bill Evans , who recorded the song more than twelve times. But also many guitarists (from Wes Montgomery to Kenny Burrell and Peter Leitch to Doug Raney ) played the ballad . Lyric free spirits like Chet Baker and Lee Konitz recorded the song repeatedly. The song even conquered Latin jazz with versions by Luis Bonilla and Tito Puente . Arrangers such as Gil Evans ( Gil Evans and Ten , 1957) and Manny Albam (for Nancy Marano, 1997) developed new orchestrations.
literature
- Hans-Jürgen Schaal (Ed.): Jazz standards. The encyclopedia. 3rd, revised edition. Bärenreiter, Kassel u. a. 2004, ISBN 3-7618-1414-3 .