The autumnal equinox and first day of fall is being celebrated Sunday, and I’ve got autumn tunes running through my head. Though there is music that celebrates the pagan holiday and harvest festival of Mabon, I’ll be exploring tunes that have become jazz standards, in both instrumental and vocal forms today. Some of them are wistful, others are celebratory. They are all evocative of change.
”Black Music Sunday” is a weekly series highlighting all things Black music, with over 225 stories covering performers, genres, history, and more, each featuring its own vibrant soundtrack. I hope you’ll find some familiar tunes and perhaps an introduction to something new.
Like many jazz lovers, I am a huge fan of John Coltrane’s music, and his impact on the jazz genre. I have written about him frequently over the years here, including his influence on me personally growing up close to where he lived, and being befriended by his wife Naima. It was because of Coltrane that I was exposed to the vocal artistry of Johnny Hartman.
Dr. Gregg Akkerman, director of jazz studies and commercial music at USC Upstate, profiled him at JazzStandards.com.
John Maurice Hartman was a critically acclaimed, though never widely known, baritone jazz singer who specialized in ballads. Born in Louisiana, but raised in Chicago, he began singing and playing the piano by age eight. … He sang as an Army private during WWII but his first professional work came in September 1946 when he won a singing contest awarding him a one-week engagement with Earl Hines. Seeing potential in the singer, Hines hired him for the next year. Although Hartman’s first recordings were with Marl Young in February 1947, it was the collaboration with Hines that provided notable exposure. After the Hines orchestra broke up, Dizzy Gillespie invited Hartman to join his big band in 1948 during an eight-week tour in California. Dropped from the band about one year later, Hartman worked for a short time with pianist Erroll Garner before going solo by early 1950.
Writer, educator, and artist Karen D. Brame continues his biography at BlacklistedCulture, which she founded. She outlines his struggles to achieve commercial recognition, which continued to elude him until his collaboration with Coltrane.
John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman was heralded an enormous music success by critics and listeners, causing the label, Impulse, to commit to four more recordings of Hartman. Johnny Hartman would be the only singer with whom John Coltrane would collaborate. While this labeled Hartman as a “jazz” singer, it also allowed him greater leverage in being a singer of more diverse styles, including classical, gospel and pop, backed by orchestras. … In 1981, Hartman was nominated for a Grammy Award for “Best Male Jazz Vocalist” for his album, Once in Every Life. His last album of newly-recorded material, This One’s for Tedi, celebrated his love for his wife.
Cultivating a musical career that spanned five decades, Hartman passed away from lung cancer on September 15, 1983; he was sixty years old. … The inclusion of his songs in the Clint Eastwood-helmed film, Bridges of Madison County, introduced Hartman to a new audience of listeners. Jazz singer and songwriter, Kurt Elling created an album, Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman in honor of the original Hartman and Coltrane collaboration. Kevin Mahogany recorded an LP, To Johnny Hartman … Live in Birdland, in salute to the quintessential balladeer.
In 1984, the New York City Council designated the traffic triangle, formed by Amsterdam Avenue, Hamilton Place and W. 143rd Street, in Hamilton Heights of the Manhattan borough as “Johnny Hartman Plaza”.
From the album, here’s “Autumn Serenade.” The music was written by Peter De Rose, lyrics written by Sammy Gallop and it was first released in 1945. Coltrane and Hartman’s cover is from July 1963.
Any combo of Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald is a guaranteed classic, and their duet of “Autumn in New York” is no exception. It was written by Russian immigrant composer Vernon Duke (Vladimir Dukelsky) for a Broadway revue in 1934. Armstrong and Fitzgerald released their version in 1957.
Whenever we talk about autumn or fall, the discussion turns to which part of the country has the most magnificent leaf display of changing colors. One of the most recorded tunes about this seasonal change is “Autumn Leaves.”
Tom Schnabel at KCRW-FM gives some background on the original “Autumn Leaves”:
“Autumn Leaves“ has been covered many times by different singers. The 1945 French original was called “Les Feuilles Mortes” (as in “Dead Leaves,” which might be more appropriately translated to “Dry Leaves” or “Still Leaves”), with lyrics penned by Jacques Prévert. The French poet and screenwriter ran with the bohemian left bank set after World War II and found fame writing the screenplay of Marcel Carné’s epic film, Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise). Yves Montand, among other French chansonniers, recorded entire albums of Prévert’s poems. “Les Feuilles Mortes” was originally set to music written by Joseph Kosma for another one of Carné’s films, Les Portes de la Nuit (The Gates of the Night).
Interestingly, many English variations of the lyrics exist as loose translations of the original poem. Johnny Mercer penned the most popular English version, recorded by Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and others.
Discogs has a list of 1,793 recorded versions, both the French and English! Here’s Nat King Cole’s hit version:
An instrumental version of ”Autumn Leaves” on the Hammond organ is a must hear. It was recorded by Trudy Pitts, a female instrumentalist whose keyboard skills have often been overlooked.
AllAboutJazz has this background introduction to Pitts, written before she joined the ancestors:
Trudy is a native Philadelphian who began playing piano at age six. Her mother, too, was a musician and inspired this family tradition. "My family was deeply involved in the church community," says Trudy, "and I started playing piano for Sunday school when I was about nine or ten. As time went on, I was introduced to the church organ, and I played organ in Sunday school."
[...]
Earning a degree in music education was only natural for this talented prodigy. She studied at Philadelphia's Musical Academy, Temple University, and Julliard, among other institutions. During these years she reached out to the classics and built a base from which future compositions and arrangements would spring.
[...]
Trudy became a sensation on the Hammond organ, and everybody who is anybody knows why: she has a strong foundation on which to build her new sound and a musical genius that is matched only by her determination to succeed. …Trudy and Mr C at the 1992 Organ Jam in Philadelphia Trudy Pitts emerged in the world of Jazz organ and was soon swinging away with Mr. C alongside such greats as Ben Webster, Gene Ammons, and Sonny Stitt. She recorded four albums for Prestige, appearing with Willis Jackson, Pat Martino, and later Rahsaan Roland Kirk. She handled herself formidably in an arena of musicians made up mostly of men. Her musical prowess would have taken her much further down the halls of fame, some have speculated, were it not for her noble decision to maintain the integrity of her family.
"It's not easy to be a wife, a mother, and a career person at the same time. That is no harder today than it was yesterday." Trudy's decision was a supreme commitment to the family.
Here’s her 1968 rendition of “Autumn Leaves.”
Yet another jazz standard is “Early Autumn” which was composed by Ralph Burns and Woody Herman with the lyrics written by Johnny Mercer, recorded for the first time in 1952. As a huge vocalese fan here’s one of my favorite versions, recorded in 1962 by The Double Six of Paris.
Johnny Mathis crooned it on his second album, ”Wonderful, Wonderful,” which was released in 1957.
Yet another classic autumn standard, “Autumn Nocturne,” with music written by Joe Myrow and lyrics from Kim Gannon, was first recorded in 1941, and has gone on to be covered by a whole host of musicians. It’s hard to pick one, but I decided to go with Lou Donaldson’s 1958 cover, since I haven’t featured him here before. He’ll soon be celebrating his 98th birthday.
Here’s a little more about Donaldson:
Born on November 1, 1926, Lou is the second of four children born to father, Louis Sr., a minister and graduate of Livingstone College, and mother, Lucy, a graduate of Cheney University. Lucy was a music teacher, music director and concert pianist who recognized Lou’s expert ear for music and introduced him to the clarinet. At age 15, he matriculated to North Carolina A&T College in Greensboro NC where he was a member of the marching band playing clarinet. His education was interrupted by World War II when in 1945 he was drafted and entered the United States Navy. He was accepted into the Great Lakes Navy Band at Camp Robert Smalls where he played clarinet and began playing alto saxophone. …. While in the Navy, Lou took liberty in Chicago on several occasions and, after hearing Charlie Parker, embraced this style of playing and made the saxophone his instrument. He went on to develop his own sound, becoming known for his sweet ballads and earning him his legendary nickname ― “Sweet Poppa Lou,” an honorific first bestowed upon him by renowned jazz producer and broadcaster Bob Porter.
When Lou was released from the Navy, he returned to Greensboro to complete his studies and received a Bachelor of Science degree in May 1948. His thesis titled The Change from Swing to Bebop was incorporated into a book that became required reading for students completing the music major program. In 1972 his alma mater established the Lou Donaldson Award for Excellence in Instrumental Performance, awarded to the most gifted jazz musician pupil. While in college, Lou played club dates throughout North Carolina with the Rhythm Vets, a combo that consisted of North Carolina A & T alumni who were Navy veterans. They recorded the soundtrack to the musical comedy titled Pitch a Boogie Woogie in Greenville, NC in 1947. … All were impressed with Lou’s playing, and Illinois Jacquet and members of Dizzy Gillespie’s band especially advised him to move to New York to propel his career. Lou took the advice of these luminaries and moved to New York in late 1949 where he attended the Darrow Institute of Music…. In New York, Lou got to hear all the celebrated jazz musicians of the day and is proud to have had the opportunity to play with many of them, including his idol, Charlie Parker…. In 1963, he moved to “The Valley” neighborhood in the Bronx where up-and-coming rappers who lived there were inspired by his soul-jazz, jazz-funk tunes and call “The Valley” their music’s birthplace. Lou’s music has been sampled numerous times. It is said that he is Blue Note Record’s most sampled musician ever…. He continued to delight audiences around the world with his soulful, thoroughly swinging, and steeped-in-the-blues performances until after his 90th birthday when he later retired to South Florida.
This impeccable vocal performance of “Autumn Nocturne" from Samara Joy, which was performed in St. Paul's Chapel in 2022, must be heard.
I’ll close with a little humor. Here’s Red Foxx and Smiley Rodgers singing “‘Tis Autumn” on “Sanford and Son.”
Join me in the comments below for more, and I hope you will post some of your favorites.
Happy fall!
