Why this tune?
I’m returning to the standards this week with another tune I’ve been working to add to my repertoire of songs I can play in any key. I shared my version of the most popular jazz standard “Body and Soul” a few weeks ago. This week it’s the runner-up, “All The Things You Are,” which writer William Zinsser called “…the most perfectly constructed of all popular standards.” Jerome Kern wrote the music for his last musical, the 1939 flop “Very Warm For May.” I hope he and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II got some consolation from the massive success of at least one song from that show.
Even if you play it in only one key, it’s a harmonic workout, going through five keys on the way to the root, which is hinted at early on but only really appears at the end of the song. I think that harmonic journey is the reason for the song’s popularity among jazz players. It provides lots of chord motion to solo over and it’s a challenge to navigate the twists and turns through all those keys.
For my version, I started in the original Ab, then moved up to C.
Tunes On Tuesday Reel
Check it out
Keith Jarrett Trio
Ahmad Jamal Trio
Brad Mehldau Trio