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Favorite recordings of.......How High the Moon?

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 4:00 am
by Eyeball
WNEW All-Stars from 1947

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 3:44 pm
by julius
Ella Live in Berlin

Pretty pyrotechnic (again, not great for dancing at all). Also, her pianist for that gig (and for many years) was Paul Smith who is the next closest thing to Art Tatum alive today. I saw him live at the Hollywood Park Casino and it was, uhhh...kind of mindblowing.

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 4:07 pm
by lipi
what julius said.

the montreux '75 one is really good, too.

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 4:16 pm
by Matthew
Benny Goodman, from the JSP box.

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 4:20 pm
by JesseMiner
Not really a tune you often hear at a swing dance, as opposed to the other threads recently about common dance tunes ("Moten Swing", "Flying Home", "King Porter Stomp", etc...).

But once in a while I will bust out Sarah Vaughan's groovy swinging version found on the Verve Jazz Masters 18 compilation (along with the very awesome and long-ago popular "Sassy's Blues"). I love how she sings it like Ella, including the lyrics "Ella sings this song real, real, real crazy...".

And look through my collection, I also found a mellow swinging version by Lionel Hampton off of his collection Hamp. Might be nice to spin in a late-night setting.

Jesse

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 4:35 pm
by Eyeball
JesseMiner wrote:Not really a tune you often hear at a swing dance, as opposed to the other threads recently about common dance tunes ("Moten Swing", "Flying Home", "King Porter Stomp", etc...).

But once in a while I will bust out Sarah Vaughan's groovy swinging version found on the Verve Jazz Masters 18 compilation (along with the very awesome and long-ago popular "Sassy's Blues"). I love how she sings it like Ella, including the lyrics "Ella sings this song real, real, real crazy...".

And look through my collection, I also found a mellow swinging version by Lionel Hampton off of his collection Hamp. Might be nice to spin in a late-night setting.

Jesse
That Sarah V version is so GREAT!

HHtMoon is a 1940 song that basically went nowhere until the boppers hit it.

The Kento version with June Christy is really good.

The only 1940 version I know is a ballad rendition by James/Haymes which isnlt so cool or dancable.

It would be interesting to hear it done as a Swing arrangement.

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 4:47 pm
by Campus Five
Without getting too technical, the chord changes are real bebop friendly, and I've noticed a lot musicians, who otherwise play good swing stuff, will sort of default to bebop-y style when playing this tune. They'll start running endless lines, not playing riffs or rhythmically. (For those who know, it's because the song is mostly ii-V changes, which are they part of bebop).

Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 2:51 pm
by GemZombie
Which is probably why I don't really care for the song much...

Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 11:38 am
by SpuzBal
I like Django's version on Django Reinhardt and His American Friends. Or with. Whichever's the 4-disc set.

*Edit: God, my avatar photo's old. I'd change it if I were at home.

Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 8:07 am
by Greg Avakian
Violinist Antoine Silverman has a nice instrumental version on his album "Swing shift". The guitar provides a nice pulsing odd-even rhythm (not a great bal), it's very well recorded and doesn't get too crazy. I think the tempo is a brisk 200BPM, but the feeling is so relaxed it doesn't sound that fast at all...