Sophisticated Lady

Sophisticated Lady is a 1932 Jazz Standard incurred by Duke Ellington ( melody ) and its publisher Irving Mills and Mitchell Parish ( text).

Structure of the songs and content

The piece was composed in 1932 as an instrumental track. As the author of the tune applied since the release of the song Duke Ellington, while after Ellington biographer Stuart Nicholson was the original car race drying at Ellington, Otto Hardwick, Lawrence Brown and Mills. According to Lawrence Brown, the first few bars of it and the middle part of Hardwick come. The consistently held in a major tonality piece is written in the classic song form AABA. In the A-section, there is first a arpeggierende up and then a chromatic descent, while the melody in the B section makes sound jumps from third to seventh in both directions. The composition already contains some harmony phrases that differ from the conventional scheme and so far ahead take aspects of modern jazz; Alec Wilder she still appeared as " witchcraft "

Only then is a text was added by Mitchell Parish. There the sad story of a wealthy, smoking, drinking and not thinking about tomorrow woman is told who still mourns her love after many years and cries when no one is nearby. After Ellington's view, the text was wonderful, even if it did not fit his original idea, since the composition rather reminded him of the adeptness of his school teachers. However, the text corresponded with the melody in every detail: If smoking, drinking and dancing is addressed in the text, for example in the melody an apparent waltz heard.

Effective history

The piece was first announced in the first, by the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1933 -rehearsed version: Lawrence Brown (trombone ) presented the melody in the two A- entities. Otto Hardwick (alto saxophone) plays at the end of the song once the A- part. The piece contained in this purely instrumental recording solos by Hardwick, Barney Bigard ( clarinet), Brown and bandleader Ellington on piano, the " stunned " " with a new tone Introduction" and a " virtuoso variation " of the B- part. Ellington's recording came on 27 May 1933, the charts and stayed there for sixteen weeks ( it reached number three on the charts ).

Other recordings that reached the charts were:

Other orchestral versions come from Jimmie Lunceford, Glenn Miller, Boyd Raeburn and Stan Kenton. The piece, which remained in the repertoire of the Ellington band later (even several times was taken from him, about 1940 in duo with Jimmy Blanton and the 1956 appearance of his orchestra at the Newport Jazz Festival ( Ellington at Newport ) ). It was partially used in versions with Ellington, in the following movies:

  • Hit missiles - Festival of Hearts (1960 )
  • Paris Blues ( 1961)
  • The Natural (1984 )
  • Sophisticated Lady (1989 )
  • Ulee 's Gold (1997)
  • The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001)

Furthermore, the piece found in the following Broadway productions using:

In the 1950s, the play " to modern Schmacht ballad par excellence " and also on the sessions of the Jazz at the Philharmonic tours was often used.

Cover versions

According to Jazz Standards In addition to the orchestral versions already mentioned, the interpretation of Earl Hines (1932 ), Thelonious Monk, Dexter Gordon, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan and James Carter particularly worthy of mention. Also versions by Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Ram Ramirez, Gene Ammons, Charles Mingus, Archie Shepp, Ella Fitzgerald, Rosemary Clooney, Betty Carter, Wolfgang Sauer or Al Jarreau are known. Even pure saxophone ensembles such as the World Saxophone Quartet or the Cologne Saxophone Mafia himself to composition have accepted. 1995, the fusion band Chicago has recorded the standard; Tito Puente has put it in the salsa context. The classic brass quintet Canadian Brass has recorded an interpretation of the classic.

Lawrence Brown (musician) Chromatic scale Broadway theatre James Carter (musician) Jazz fusion Chicago (Band) Salsa music Adelaide Hall
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