Misty
Misty is a jazz standard composed in 1954 by pianist Erroll Garner . With the text of Johnny Burke added later , the song also became an evergreen in the field of pop music .
The song
Misty allegedly originated on a flight from San Francisco via Denver to Chicago in the face of an impressive rainbow and fine rain curtains that passed by. Garner initially did not write down the ballad and even changed the chord progression and the beat sequence in early performances. In 1955 the song was finally in the song form AA 'BA' in 32 bars and the key of it - Major fixed. The chord progression of the A parts is similar to that of the jazz standard Cherokee by Ray Noble .
In 1955 Johnny Burke wrote a text that was sentimental from the start with the title Misty ("foggy, veiled, hazy"), but emphasized that love and tenderness are better than worry or orientation towards yesterday. Then a thousand violins would also play.
Impact history
Garner's first recording, an instrumental version, was not only released on the album Contrasts in 1954 , but was also released on a single that reached number 30 in the American charts and remained available for fifteen years. In 1957 he played a large orchestral version with the Mitch Miller orchestra , which not only played in the jukeboxes , but also became the theme tune for the NBC morning program Today . Other successful versions of the title on the Billboard Hot 100 were the vocal versions of:
- Johnny Mathis (1959, # 12)
- Lloyd Price (1963, # 21)
- Ray Stevens (1975, # 14)
Stevens received a Grammy for the arrangement (as a country song ) . Other pop versions are from Earl Grant (1961), Julie London , The Shadows (instrumental version) and Clay Aiken .
The piece developed into a jazz standard early on and was covered by Ella Fitzgerald , Sarah Vaughan (1959), Billy Eckstine (1960), Frank Sinatra , Peggy lee , Dakota Staton , Etta James , June Christy and Carmen McRae . Pianists like Ahmad Jamal , Duke Jordan , George Shearing , Oscar Peterson or John Hicks have reinterpreted the piece. Ben Webster , Benny Waters , Dexter Gordon , Eddie Lockjaw Davis , Ricky Ford and Dave Koz recorded saxophone interpretations that are well worth listening to . Bob Brookmeyer played the song in 1964 with Stan Getz and Herbie Hancock . The Five Trombones by Frank Rosolino interpreted Misty with the singing group Freshmen The Four . Guitarists like Jim Hall (1976) or Larry Coryell (1993) also presented the piece.
The song played a key role in Clint Eastwood's thriller Play Misty for Me (1971).
Misty was awarded a prize by the ASCAP in 1986 as one of the most performed compositions. Garner's version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1991, and Johnny Mathis's version in 2002.
literature
- Hans-Jürgen Schaal (Ed.): Jazz standards. The encyclopedia. 3rd, revised edition. Bärenreiter, Kassel u. a. 2004, ISBN 3-7618-1414-3 .