Welcome to Week 3 of The Definitive Version, a new weekly feature of my website. You can read more about the project here.
Song: How High The Moon
Composer: Morgan Lewis
Lyricist: Nancy Hamilton
Form: ABAB’, 32-bar
Standard Key: G Major
The song was composed for a Broadway variety show in 1940, but quickly adopted by jazz musicians as a standard – the first recording was by Benny Goodman in February, 1940. The consistent ii-V-I patterns and the interesting harmonic shifts. (several times the I chord of a ii-V-I shifts in the next bar to a minor seventh chord to become the next ii chord.) Two other harmonic patterns of note: more than once there is a minor ii-V-I that cadences on the major chord, and vice versa, adding subtle harmonic surprises, and the last four bars include a chromatic bassline pattern that is an exciting transition from the rest of the piece.
Definitive Version: Ella Fitzgerald (1960) (Album: The Complete Ella in Berlin: Mack The Knife)
Form: Medium swing chorus, up swing chorus, followed by many, many choruses of improvisation.
Feel: Medium (170bpm)/Up-tempo swing (~300bpm)
Key: E-flat Major
Instrumentation: Rhythm section
Look no further than Ella’s 7-minute long, utterly virtuosic tour de force version of How High The Moon. Ella has it all – phrasing, note choice, rhythmic vitality, creativity, witty quotes and references to everything from “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” to Ferde Grofe’s Grand Canyon Suite. Her musicianship as a singer is unparalleled and this recording is a prime example.
Once you’ve gotten your head around this version (maybe transcribe a chorus or two to start?), consider checking out her many other live recordings. It’s a masterclass in what improvisation really means to hear her versions of this song at various points in the 1950’s and 1960’s – what changes, what stays the same? There is definitely a set form to her performance, and many elements stay the same musically; nevertheless her performance has an improvisatory feeling and is great jazz by any definition of the word.
Also Recommended:
- Les Paul & Mary Ford (1951)
- Dianne Reeves (2005, from Good Night & Good Luck)
- Sarah Vaughan (1957, Live at Mister Kelly’s) – this is a great compare/contrast scat solo
- Mel Tormé (1961, Swinging On The Moon) – includes the great, often overlooked verse