August Song Of The Month: Out Of Nowhere

MikeK

This month's tune is a classic jazz standard that was written by Johnny Green (music) and Edward Heyman (lyrics). It was first recorded by Bing Crosby (in 1931) and became his first #1 song. Django recorded it twice--in 1937 (with Coleman Hawkins) and again in 1939 with QHCF, with Stephane playing the head.

Many great artists have recorded it over the years, but some of my favorite recordings of it include those by Chet Baker, Ella Fitzgerald and Charlie Parker.

Of Django's recordings, I prefer the Hot Club version from '39 and here's a link to it:

https://youtu.be/8pnIe7ZvohA

Usually it's played in G. For a little fun with it, you can mess with the theme to Star Trek (the original series, which I must admit I love dearly), over the changes on the A-section. I'll post the chart that my band uses for it later. I usually call it as a bossa.

billyshakes

This song has a nice lyric. I always liked this version that the Robin Nolan Trio did with Randy Greer. He does a great vocal and the whole album is nice to listen to. I find it is approachable especially for people who might not be so into jazz because it does have the lyric line to guide them. I feel they can better understand the song structure and the melody that the soloist is improvising over because they can sing it.

Paul Meader once told me a story about this session and it sounded like they went pretty large the night before recording. You couldn't tell from the finished result, I think it is a lovely record.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjpYgMObZ9M&list=OLAK5uy_lpyY5GXvxbwdWThZ0KF9HXuiHFIf786Y0&index=6

MikeK

Interesting comments, Billy. I agree, it's easy for us jazzers to forget that most "normal people" are drawn to music primarily through their connection to the vocals. I've noticed on my gigs that we tend to get more applause (and tips!) when a good singer joins us, which is relatively infrequent.

Here's the chart my band uses: