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“...after gradually
varying the melody and the words,
adding new ideas more extensively
in the third chorus, she moves into
a beautifully blues-oriented coda.” |
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- Leonard Feather
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As popular
improvisational vehicles, many songs
did not endure the transition from
the loose Dixieland style of the
“Roaring Twenties” to the smooth
swing sound of the 1930’s. They
were unceremoniously dropped from
jazz musicians’ catalogs, performances
and recordings, and, over time,
relegated to period collections
and specialty bands. There are,
however, a handful of songs written
in the mid-twenties or earlier that
have persisted as the topmost jazz
standards:
WC Handy’s “St.
Louis Blues” (1914) and George
and
Ira Gershwin’s “The
Man I Love” (1924) and “Oh,
Lady Be Good” (1924).
The song with more endurance
than any of the aforementioned,
though, is “Sweet Georgia Brown,”
which has been recorded by Count
Basie, Eddie Condon, Dave Brubeck,
Benny Carter, Sonny Criss, Herb
Ellis, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz,
Dizzy Gillespie, Stephane Grappelli,
Coleman Hawkins, Gene Krupa, Charlie
Parker, Oscar Peterson, Bud Powell,
Django Reinhardt, Sonny Stitt, Art
Tatum, Mel Torme, Anita O’Day, Ben
Webster, and Lester Young, to name
a few.
“Sweet Georgia Brown” was immediately
popular. Ben Bernie and His Orchestra’s
hit recording stayed on the pop
charts for 13 weeks, resting in
the number one slot for five weeks
in a row. Also charting with the
song in 1925 were
Isham Jones and His Orchestra,
rising to number five, and Ethel
Waters, reaching number six. In
1932, a
Bing Crosby recording of “Sweet
Georgia Brown” (accompanied by
Isham Jones and His Orchestra)
reached the number two position
for three weeks. A Brother Bones
and His Shadows recording reached
number ten in 1949 and would later
gain fame and recognition as the
anthem for the Harlem Globetrotters,
complete with whistled chorus.
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Georgia Brown was a devil-sent
vamp in the 1940 Broadway hit
Cabin in the Sky. George Balanchine
choreographed the musical play with
the help of Katherine Dunham, who
played Georgia. Starring Ethel Waters
and with a score by
Vernon Duke and John La Touche,
Cabin in the Sky opened on
October 25,1940, at the Martin Beck
Theatre and ran for 156 performances.
The 1943 film adaptation of
Cabin in the Sky also starred
Ethel Waters, Lena Horne, and Eddie
“Rochester” Anderson with appearances
by
Louis Armstrong and
Duke Ellington. But neither
production featured the song “Sweet
Georgia Brown.”
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Many jazz standards seem to possess a magic,
some quality that makes them work yet defies analysis.
This is not the case with “Sweet Georgia Brown”
as musicologists and performers are quick to point
out its appeal and its difficulties. With an A-B-A-C
form “Sweet Georgia Brown” is at once familiar as
well as challenging. Chord progressions based on
the “circle of fifths” define the first 16 bars,
and the song takes some surprising harmonic detours.
“Sweet Georgia Brown” seems to have been designed
with jazz improvisation in mind, and there has been
no shortage of improvisers. Jackie McLean based
his “Donna” on “Sweet Georgia Brown” and Miles Davis
recorded it as “Dig” (1951). On Monk’s Dream
(1962),
Thelonious Monk included only one new composition,
“Bright Mississippi,” which is also based on the
chord changes of “Sweet Georgia Brown.”
The verse of the song is rarely sung as it merely
paraphrases what’s coming in the chorus, its lines
having no punch. The soft-pedaling stops there,
however, as the chorus is one lively declaration
after another describing Georgia. While not as mean
as “Hard Hearted Hannah,” Georgia’s loaded with
appeal and doesn’t mind casualties. When the fellows
sigh and die, she cools them down and knocks them
dead. -JW
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Musical analysis of
“Sweet Georgia Brown”
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| Original
Key |
Ab major |
| Form |
A1 – A2 or
A – B – A – C, depending on whether it’s
divided into sixteen-bar or eight-bar phrases |
| Tonality |
Primarily
major |
| Movement |
Generally
upward by steps with intermittent skips
downward, creating a jumpy, “jagged” ascent |
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Comments
(assumed
background)
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The melodic line is challenging, requiring
a fair amount of dexterity to perform properly.
Harmonically, this goes through almost every
key imaginable, but, since the changes are
arranged in a circle of fifths (“A”) or
in a i – V7 – i context (“B”), they are
not difficult to follow. Even the chromatically
descending progression in the final four
measures of the song is used so commonly
as a “turnaround” (especially in Dixieland)
that it should be part of every performer’s
repertoire. |
K. J. McElrath - Musicologist for JazzStandards.com
Check out K. J. McElrath's book of Jazz Standards Guide Tone Lines at his web site (www.bardicle.com). |
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“Sweet Georgia Brown”
was included in these films:
- Widow from Chicago (1930)
- Bring on the Girls (1937,
Jerry Goff and Jack Kerr)
- Waterfront (1939)
- Dangerously They Live (1942)
- Broadway(1942)
- Follow the Boys (1944, Louis
Jordan Orchestra)
- Young Man with a Horn (1950)
- Harlem Globe Trotters (1951)
documentary
- The Helen Morgan Story (1957,
Cara Williams)
- Some Like It Hot (1959)
- Jazz on a Summer’s Day (1959,
Anita O’Day, documentary)
- American Pop (1981)
- To Be or Not to Be (1983,
Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft)
- The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989)
- Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989,
Coleman Hawkins All Stars)
- Oscar (1991,
Bing Crosby)
- The Babe (1992, Orbert Davis
and The Speakeasys)
- Sweet and Lowdown (1999, dubbed
on guitar for Sean Penn by Howard Alden)
And on Broadway:
- Bubbling Brown Sugar (1976,
Lonnie McNeil, Vivian Reed, Newton Winters)
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Click on a CD for more details
at Amazon.com
Anita O’Day
Ultimate Anita O’Day
1999, Verve
Original recording, 1956
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| The performances for this compilation
were selected and annotated by fellow vocalist
Alan Paul of the Manhattan Transfer. “Sweet
Georgia Brown” became a signature song for
O’Day who opens it here with a Native American
rhythm and takes it through several tempo
changes. |
Matthew Gee
Jazz By Gee!
1996, Original Jazz Classics 1884
Original recording, 1957
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| Trombonist Gee and his group give
everything they’ve got in this rousing,
dizzying version of the song. |
John Pizzarelli
Dear Mr. Cole
1995 Novus 63182
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| Guitarist Pizzarelli, with Benny
Green at the piano and Christian McBride
on bass, delivers a jaunty, airtight rendition
of the song worthy of the great trios of
the past. |
Ella Fitzgerald
Whisper Not
2002, Universal
Original recording, 1966, Verve
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| A tremendously entertaining performance
by an incredible vocalist. Fitzgerald begins
delicately, drawing the listener into a
momentum that does not give up until the
explosive ending. |
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From its composition in 1925, “Sweet Georgia
Brown” was a jazz musician’s favorite. It was recorded
many times, but Red Nichols’ recording of 1930 stands
out, not only musically but historically, for the
session included four musicians who became prominent
band leaders later in 1930s:
Benny Goodman,
Glenn Miller, Gene Krupa and Jack Teagarden.
Cornetist Nichols, not the jazziest of players,
always surrounded himself with exceptional talent
and featured them prominently, as is the case with
“Sweet Georgia Brown.” Goodman and pianist Joe Sullivan
get a chorus apiece, but there’s a special “bluesy”
coda by trombonist Jack Teagarden, utilizing just
the slide section of the instrument played into
a highball glass, an effect he became famous for.
Chris Tyle - Jazz Musician and Historian
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| This section shows the jazz standards
written by the same writing team. Click on a name
to see all of a writer's jazz standards.
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Additional information on “Sweet Georgia Brown” may be found in:
3 paragraphs including the following types of information: music analysis.
1 paragraph including the following types of information: film productions, history, performers and style discussion.
Includes the following types of information: song lyrics.
1 page including the following types of information: lyric analysis and music analysis.
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