It's no secret I love ballads. At their original slow tempos, they're relatively easy to play, yet they present a huge challenge with long notes and a greater need for expressiveness and good time. This month's ballad has been recorded at least 248 times by at least 100 artists, from Audrey Hepburn to Bon Jovi. There's a whole story behind the long and checkered life of the song on The Great American Songbook. I read somewhere that the song suffered because it has the little bluesy twist (the flatted third) at the ends of the A sections. By the way, one might think this is about infidelity like everyone thought the other "How Long" by Ace. It's weirdly about a young woman's first romantic kiss. The intro has several different versions of lyrics but the intro is not in the material here. The Ace tune was supposedly written about the bass player working with someone else!
Here's one of my favorite versions, by Boz Scaggs, released in 2003. Some serious tenor here, in my opinion.
Boz Scaggs, vocals; Paul Nagel, piano and arrangements; Eric Crystal, saxophone; John Shifflett, bass; Jason Lewis, drums.
View: https://youtu.be/e-v9--D-TdE
Ray Charles kills in this magnificent piece of work with The Count Basie Orchestra:
View: https://youtu.be/Kwzbfa-5SlM
Fast bossa: Sarah Vaughn starts with the long intro (1 1/2 minutes of the 6 minutes), the faster part is irreverent in a way that tickles me.
View: https://youtu.be/EbydK6ILi8w
In this very old Gershwin song, the charts show a lot of changes over a pretty simple melody. Unless you're deeply schooled in harmony, when you approach this, I recommend trying to play off the melody, rather than straining to make all the changes. I've generated two versions of backing tracks, one typical slow ballad tempo and one fast bossa groove, based on the Sarah Vaughn version I get a kick out of.
Traditionalists will like Ben Webster's version. Or, Chet Baker's. Here's a score reading video of it that may help hear the harmony.
Here is a playlist with 19 different versions of the tune.
I must thank @nigeld for his work, as I am incapable of preparing sheet music.
Here are the files you need to contribute, and I hope you will. I've included the lyrics, a MuseScore file (thanks again, Nigel), a BiaB to generate your own backing track and the dots and mp3.
Here's one of my favorite versions, by Boz Scaggs, released in 2003. Some serious tenor here, in my opinion.
Boz Scaggs, vocals; Paul Nagel, piano and arrangements; Eric Crystal, saxophone; John Shifflett, bass; Jason Lewis, drums.
Ray Charles kills in this magnificent piece of work with The Count Basie Orchestra:
Fast bossa: Sarah Vaughn starts with the long intro (1 1/2 minutes of the 6 minutes), the faster part is irreverent in a way that tickles me.
In this very old Gershwin song, the charts show a lot of changes over a pretty simple melody. Unless you're deeply schooled in harmony, when you approach this, I recommend trying to play off the melody, rather than straining to make all the changes. I've generated two versions of backing tracks, one typical slow ballad tempo and one fast bossa groove, based on the Sarah Vaughn version I get a kick out of.
Traditionalists will like Ben Webster's version. Or, Chet Baker's. Here's a score reading video of it that may help hear the harmony.
Here is a playlist with 19 different versions of the tune.
I must thank @nigeld for his work, as I am incapable of preparing sheet music.
Here are the files you need to contribute, and I hope you will. I've included the lyrics, a MuseScore file (thanks again, Nigel), a BiaB to generate your own backing track and the dots and mp3.
How Long - Google Drive
drive.google.com
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