Autumn Leaves (1945 song)

"Autumn Leaves" is a popular song and jazz standard composed by Joseph Kosma with original lyrics by Jacques Prévert in French, and later by Johnny Mercer in English. An instrumental version by pianist Roger Williams was a number 1 best-seller in the US Billboard charts of 1955.

"Les feuilles mortes"
Song by Yves Montand and Irène Joachim
English title"Autumn Leaves"
Written1945
Released1946 by Enoch & Cie (fr)
GenreJazz, pop
Composer(s)Joseph Kosma
Lyricist(s)Jacques Prévert (French), Johnny Mercer (English)

Background

Kosma was a native of Hungary who was introduced to Prévert in Paris. They collaborated on the song Les Feuilles mortes ("The Dead Leaves") for the 1946 film Les Portes de la nuit (Gates of the Night) where it was sung by Irène Joachim.[1] The poem was published, after the death of Jacques Prévert, in the book "Soleil de Nuit" in 1980. Kosma was influenced by a piece of ballet music, "Rendez-vous" written for Roland Petit, performed in Paris at the end of the Second World War, which was itself borrowed partially from "Poème d'octobre" by Jules Massenet.[2] The first commercial recordings of "Les Feuilles mortes" were released in 1950, by Cora Vaucaire[3] and by Yves Montand.[4] Johnny Mercer wrote the English lyric and gave it the title "Autumn Leaves". Mercer was a partner in Capitol Records at the time, and Capitol recording artist Jo Stafford made the first English-language recording in July, 1950.[1] The song was recorded steadily throughout the 1950s by leading pop vocalists including Bing Crosby (1950), Nat King Cole (1955), Doris Day (1956), and Frank Sinatra (1957). It was also quickly adopted by instrumental jazz artists including Artie Shaw (1950), Stan Getz (1952), Erroll Garner and Ahmad Jamal (separately in 1955), Duke Ellington (1957), and Cannonball Adderley and Miles Davis (together in 1958). In 2012, jazz historian Philippe Baudoin called the song "the most important non-American standard" and noted that "it has been recorded about 1400 times by mainstream and modern jazz musicians alone and is the eighth most-recorded tune by jazzmen."[5] The Les Feuilles Mortes performance by Yves Montand video was officially uploaded to YouTube in 2010; it has over 10 million views as of December 2020.

Structure and chord progression

The song is in AABC form.[6] "Autumn Leaves" 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 is originally in G minor.

The song's iv7–VII7–IIImaj7–VImaj7–iiø7–V7–i chord progression is an example of the circle-of-fifths progression.[7]

Other versions

As a jazz standard, "Autumn Leaves" has accumulated more than a thousand commercial recordings.[8] Among those by notable performers:

References

  1. Gioia, Ted (2012). The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire. New York City: Oxford University Press. pp. 24–26. ISBN 978-0-19-993739-4.
  2. Massin, Brigitte (1999). Les Joachim: Une famille de musiciens. Paris: Fayard. ISBN 978-2213604183.
  3. "Les Feuilles mortes; Cora Vaucaire". Bibliothèque nationale de France. 1950.
  4. "Les Feuilles mortes; Yves Montand". Bibliothèque nationale de France. 1950.
  5. Baudoin, Philippe (2012). "History and Analysis of "Autumn Leaves"". Current Research in Jazz. 4. Retrieved November 23, 2019.
  6. Spitzer, Peter (2001). Jazz Theory Handbook, p.81. ISBN 0-7866-5328-0.
  7. Kostka, Stefan; Payne, Dorothy; Almén, Byron (2013). Tonal harmony with an introduction to twentieth-century music (7th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. pp. 46, 238. ISBN 978-0-07-131828-0.
  8. "Autumn Leaves". AllMusic.com.
  9. Anonymous. "1987 Programs & Ticket Stubs". The Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps. Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2006-11-07. As listed in 1987 program
  10. "CLAPTON by Eric Clapton - MP3 Downloads, Streaming Music, Lyrics". Eric Clapton Official Website.
  11. Poet, J. "One by One". AllMusic. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
  12. "Jonathan More (Coldcut): Philosophy". Sound On Sound. January 1994. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
  13. "A Bing Crosby Discography". BING magazine. International Club Crosby. Retrieved December 30, 2018.
  14. Cf. Miles Davis discography by Peter Losin.
  15. "Sergio Franchi". Gemm.com. Archived from the original on 2017-03-01. Retrieved 2018-10-29.
  16. François, Corinne (2000). Jacques Prévert, Paroles. Editions Bréal. ISBN 978-2-84291-702-9. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
  17. Yanow, Scott. "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing". AllMusic. Retrieved February 5, 2020.
  18. Jazz Impressions at AllMusic. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  19. North Beach at AllMusic. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  20. Campbell, Al. Essential Standards at AllMusic. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  21. Campbell, Al. The Definitive Vince Guaraldi at AllMusic. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
  22. damiimVEVO (2018-02-15), Dami Im - Autumn Leaves, retrieved 2018-06-16
  23. Flanagan, Rob. "As Is". AllMusic. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
  24. "allmusic.com". allmusic.com. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  25. The Big Show. "BigShow-02". BigShow. Archived from the original on 26 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-25. As carried on Internet radio at
  26. "Tara Tiba". www.taratiba.com. Retrieved 2020-09-16.
  27. "Ben Webster: Autumn Leaves - Digipak - Futura Et Marge". Jazz Messengers. Archived from the original on 2015-02-13. Retrieved 2016-08-22.
  28. Autumn leaves: Ben Webster et le Trio Georges Arvanitas (Music). 2016-06-29. OCLC 476668093.
  29. Anonymous. "Roger Williams". Nebraska Music Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2006-11-07. In 1965, Williams added a chorus and charted it again at no. 10 Billboard Easy Listening as "Autumn Leaves - 1965."
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