Honeysuckle Rose (song)

Honeysuckle Rose is a composition of Fats Waller with lyrics by Andy Razaf from the year 1928. Due to the harmony scheme, this song was the basis for further pieces of modern jazz (so-called bebop head).

Formation and characteristics of the piece

Honeysuckle Rose is an early swing number with 32 bars in the song form AABA. The melodic structure preferably half notes -swing in the A-section; the piece is in a major tonality. It was originally to be played at a moderate pace. The authors wrote the song for the Harlem Showload of Coal wrote, which was performed in the night club Connie 's Inn. The piece was created within a short time. Razaf first wrote the text and forwarded it to Waller on the phone who then wrote the melody during the same call.

It's a cheeky and frivolous cabaret song about a love that is sweeter than any honey flower, however, is full of ambiguity (eg, " Do not buy sugar, you just have to touch my cup" ).

Effective history

Just a few days after the first performance was presented on the radio in Paul Whiteman's Old Gold Show Show Honeysuckle Rose by Mildred Bailey, where she recited it at a faster pace. 1930 McKinney 's Cotton Pickers took and 1931 Frankie Trumbauer and his orchestra on the song; their records were, however, no hits. Only a recording of the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra in 1933 reached number 18 of the charts. Other recordings confirmed the hit potential of the song:

• Red Norvo and His Orchestra (1935, with Mildred Bailey as a singer, # 9)
• Fats Waller (1935, # 17)
• The Dorsey Brothers Orchestra (1935, with vocalist Don Mattison, Skeets Herfurt and Roc Hillman, # 17)
• A- side of an RCA Victor "All Star Group " Single ( Title A Jam Session At Victor ); with Bunny Berigan, Tommy Dorsey, Fats Waller, Dick McDonough and George Wettling (1937, # 4 )

1943 Honeysuckle Rose was played in the film Thousands Cheer.

The ambiguity of the song lyrics was " always translated into public appeal comedy - often as a parodic Love duet" of entertainers. So Louis Jordan, Louis Armstrong, Slim Gaillard, Joe Carroll, but also Fats Waller played even with the joke of the song. In contrast, Ella Fitzgerald " rather distracted by fleet scats from the frivolity of the text. "

The piece became one of the most played jam session - pieces of the swing era. Benny Carter laid in 1937 an arrangement for four saxophones, jointly recording also Coleman Hawkins was involved, which grossed the piece again and again. He also formed the basis for significant compositions of bebop, as Marmaduke or Scrapple from the Apple by Charlie Parker. Even in the modern jazz of the title of pianists such as Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Peterson, Abdullah Ibrahim and Uri Caine was played. Furthermore, Ray Brown and Joe Pass are mentioned. A special version has recorded 1981 John Carter's Clarinet Summit in the Public Theatre in New York.