Origin:

Introduced in the Broadway musical Great Day.

Style:

Swing, taken at a variety of tempos.

Form:

A-A-B-A (56 Bars) [16-16-8-16]

Key:

Most commonly played in Eb Major.

Harmony/Overview:

The harmony of this composition is very functional and remains almost entirely diatonic. The A sections begin on IMaj7 before a II - V of IV  resolves to IVMaj7 - bVII7. This 4 bar progression is repeated again before the final 8 bars of the section continue with a slightly  different theme. Bar 9 is usually treated as either IMaj7 or IIImi7, and  bar 10 is typically treated with either bIIIdim or a IIImi7 - VI7. The  final 4 bars of the A section are commonly approached with a I - VI - II  - V, although it is also common to hear the diatonic progression of  IMaj7 - IVMaj7 - IIImi7 - IImi7 to return back to the tonic. The bridge is only 8 bars long and is also relatively straightforward, beginning on IVMaj7 before finishing by briefly tonicizing IIImi.

Recordings:

This song has been recorded over 200 times to date. It was first introduced in the 1929 Broadway Musical The Great Day by Lois Deppe & Russell Woodling's Jubilee Singers. It lasted only one month on Broadway due to the stock market crash of 1929 and MGM’s planned 1930 film adaptation was halted during production and was never finished. Some of the earliest recordings come from the Orchestras of Roger Wolfe Kahn and Paul Whiteman. The crash also stunted the growth of  the song and it did not begin returning back into the repertoire of leading bands until the 1940's. Many notable jazz musicians have left behind seminal recordings of this tune and it continues to be performed to this day.

JGC Top Picks:

Sonny Rollins, The Bridge, 1962

Joe Henderson, The Kicker, 1967

Adam Rogers, Sight, 2008