{"id":8757,"date":"2017-10-26T22:41:13","date_gmt":"2017-10-27T05:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=8757"},"modified":"2017-10-28T12:42:28","modified_gmt":"2017-10-28T19:42:28","slug":"autumn-leaves-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2017\/10\/autumn-leaves-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Autumn Leaves, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-8758\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Red-Maple-2017-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Red-Maple-2017-1.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Red-Maple-2017-1-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><br \/>\nImmediately to the west of the <em>Rifftides<\/em> World Headquarters deck is a large Red Maple in full glory. Sometimes these trees are called Sunset Maples. Naturally, since this blog is devoted to jazz and other matters, the <em>Rifftides<\/em> staff insisted on accompanying shots of the trees with a song featured on this blog virtually every autumn for a dozen years.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-8759\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Red-Maple-2017-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"502\" height=\"277\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Red-Maple-2017-2.jpg 502w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Red-Maple-2017-2-300x166.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Red-Maple-2017-2-360x200.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 502px) 100vw, 502px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Our rough count shows that, all told, there have been 87 recordings of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Autumn Leaves,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d although that seems a low estimate. The question this time around was, which version? We had no problem ruling out pop pianist Roger Williams playing annoying descending arpeggios to simulate falling leaves\u00e2\u20ac\u201da million seller in the 1950s\u00e2\u20ac\u201d or the Arabic version &#8220;<strong>\u00d8\u00a8\u00d9\u0160\u00d8\u00b0\u00d9\u0192\u00d8\u00b1 \u00d8\u00a8\u00d8\u00a7\u00d9\u201e\u00d8\u00ae\u00d8\u00b1\u00d9\u0160\u00d9\u0081<\/strong>&#8221; by the singer Fairouz, despite her cool voice and good tenor sax, trombone and piano solos\u00e2\u20ac\u201dor the enormously popular Melachrino Strings, with harp interjections that are only marginally less schmaltzy than Roger Williams\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arpeggios. All of those are accessible on <em>YouTube<\/em>, if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re determined to hear them.<\/p>\n<p>No, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll stay with jazz versions, just two from among dozens and dozens of possibilities. We thought it would make sense to start with a vocalist because Johnny Mercer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lyric in English is as important to the song\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s success as were the French words Jacques Pr\u00c3\u00a9vert put to Joseph Kosma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s composition. Here is Eva Cassidy (1963-1996) singing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Autumn Leaves\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in an appearance at the Washington, DC, club Blues Alley ten months before she died of melanoma.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xXBNlApwh0c\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Choosing one instrumental version of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Autumn Leaves\u00e2\u20ac\u009d presented the staff with too many possibilities\u00e2\u20ac\u201dsplendid recordings by Stan Getz, Miles Davis, Ben Webster, Chet Baker with Paul Desmond, Chick Corea with his Akoustic Band, Keith Jarrett alone in Tokyo, and dozens of others.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The winner in the 2017 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Autumn Leaves\u00e2\u20ac\u009d sweepstakes is Bill Evans. His arrangement of the piece was a highlight of his 1959 Riverside album <em>Portrait In Jazz, <\/em>itself a centerpiece of his discography. The popularity of his version encouraged him to keep it in his repertoire long after the death of bassist Scott LaFaro. LaFaro\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s loss and the eventual departure of drummer Paul Motion ended the edition of the Evans trio that had a profound influence on the development of jazz in the 1960 and beyond. Here is the Evans version of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Autumn Leaves\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by his trio with bassist Eddie Gomez and the Danish drummer Alex Riel. This was during a European tour in 1966.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UgX7h2-TvKY\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">In case you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been wondering (courtesy of <em>Wikipedia<\/em>):<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Autumn Leaves\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is in AABC form.[2] The piece 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 was originally, and is most commonly, performed in the key of G minor, but is also played in E minor and other keys. Eva Cassidy&#8217;s version is in B-flat minor.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The song&#8217;s iim7 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c V7 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c IMaj7 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c IVMaj7 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c ii7(b5) \u00e2\u20ac\u201c V7 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c im chord progression is an example of the circle-of-fifths progression<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Enjoy your practice session.<\/p>\n<div>\n<blockquote><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8760 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Screen-Shot-2017-10-26-at-10.10.31-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"62\" height=\"6\" \/><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Immediately to the west of the Rifftides World Headquarters deck is a large Red Maple in full glory. Sometimes these trees are called Sunset Maples. Naturally, since this blog is devoted to jazz and other matters, the Rifftides staff insisted on accompanying shots of the trees with a song featured on this blog virtually every [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}