Harold Arlen, music · Ted Koehler, lyrics · Introduced in the Cotton Club revue Rhythmania, 1931
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler wrote it in 1931 for a revue at New York's Cotton Club. Players like the , where the music lifts into a brighter before finding its way home. Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk and Keith Jarrett's trio all recorded it.
Listen in this order
The path starts with Cab Calloway's 1931 record, made after the song's debut in a Cotton Club revue, then follows Louis Armstrong and the Boswell Sisters in 1932. It continues with a 1937 session in Paris with Django Reinhardt, Milt Jackson and Cannonball Adderley in the 1950s, Thelonious Monk alone at the piano, and Keith Jarrett's trio in 2009.
The Boswell Sisters with the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra1932
Dicky Wells1937
1940s
1950sMilt Jackson Quartet1951
Cannonball Adderley1956
1960sThelonious Monk1967 · Bebop
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000sKeith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette2009 · Contemporary jazz
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Hear where the song began
Cab Calloway and His Orchestra · 1931
Brunswick 6209
The song came from the 1931 Cotton Club revue Rhythmania, which starred Cab Calloway in front of his orchestra. Calloway recorded it for Brunswick in New York on October 21, 1931.
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Calloway sings the tune himself, with his trumpets, trombone and saxophones playing behind him. The record lasts just over three minutes.
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Play the slowly, two beats per where the chart shows two: , , Fmaj7, Gm7 C7, , , Gm7 C7, C7. Smaller version: play only Fmaj7, Gm7 and C7.
Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra recorded it on January 25, 1932, and Armstrong takes a trumpet solo. OKeh issued the record as 41550 and Columbia as 2600-D.
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Armstrong sings and also takes a trumpet solo. A second trumpet, a trombone, saxophones and a play behind him.
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Play the last four of the on a loop: , , , C7. Smaller version: play only the roots, C, F, B♭, E♭, G, C, F, C.
Dicky Wells and His Orchestra (with Django Reinhardt) · 1937
Swing
Trombonist Dicky Wells led an American band in Paris on July 7, 1937, with the French guitarist Django Reinhardt as a guest. The session produced several records, and this was one.
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Django Reinhardt's guitar and Dicky Wells's trombone stand out in a band of two trumpets, bass and drums. The record is under three minutes long.
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Play the last four of the , which steer the music back to : , , , . Smaller version: play only Fm6, A♭7, G7 and C7.
Vibraphonist Milt Jackson recorded it in New York on August 24, 1951, with John Lewis on piano, Ray Brown on bass and Kenny Clarke on drums. It was issued by the Dee Gee label.
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Milt Jackson's vibraphone leads, with John Lewis on piano, Ray Brown on bass and Kenny Clarke on drums behind him. It runs about two and a half minutes.
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Play the whole tune once: A, A, , A, using the in the form section below. Smaller version: play the first A and the bridge only.
Cannonball Adderley led a ten-piece band for his EmArcy album In the Land of Hi-Fi. This track was recorded at Capitol Studios in New York on June 8, 1956.
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Cannonball Adderley plays alto saxophone in front of a band of trumpets, trombones, other saxophones and a . The track runs three and a half minutes.
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Play the twice, first with one per bar, then with two chords per bar as written: , , Fmaj7, Gm7 C7, , , Gm7 C7, C7. Smaller version: play only the first four bars.
Thelonious Monk recorded it alone at the piano in New York on January 10, 1967. The other three tracks from that session were played with his quartet, and all four went on the Columbia album Straight, No Chaser.
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Monk plays by himself at the piano for seven and a half minutes, with no band to follow.
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Play the tune alone: left hand on the root of each , right hand on the chord, one slow . Smaller version: play only the this way.
The song comes from the 1931 Cotton Club revue Rhythmania. Cab Calloway's orchestra records it that October, Louis Armstrong's follows in January 1932, and the Boswell Sisters record it that March.
1950s
Milt Jackson records it with a vibraphone quartet in 1951, Oscar Peterson with guitar and bass in 1954, and Cannonball Adderley with a ten-piece band in 1956.
1960s
Thelonious Monk plays it alone at the piano in January 1967. The take runs over seven minutes and appears on his Columbia album Straight, No Chaser.
1990s
André Previn records it with guitarist Mundell Lowe and bassist Ray Brown for the Telarc album Uptown, released in 1990.
2000s
Keith Jarrett's trio plays it live in Lucerne on July 11, 2009. ECM releases it on the album Somewhere in 2013, and the track runs about ten minutes.
More great versions
6 more, from 1939 to 1990. Tap a cover to play it here.
1930sCount Basie1939
1940s
1950sThe Oscar Peterson Trio1954 · Swing
The Hampton Hawes Quartet1956
Blossom Dearie1957 · Vocal
Tal Farlow1959 · Post-bop
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990sAndré Previn, Mundell Lowe, Ray Brown1990
Count Basie and His Orchestra (vocal: Helen Humes)
1939
Okeh single
Count Basie's orchestra recorded it in 1939 with Helen Humes singing. The lineup includes Buck Clayton on trumpet and Lester Young on tenor saxophone.
Oscar Peterson's trio, with Herb Ellis on guitar and Ray Brown on bass, recorded it in Los Angeles on November 15, 1954, for the Clef album Oscar Peterson Plays Harold Arlen.
Hampton Hawes recorded this with Jim Hall on guitar, Red Mitchell on bass and Bruz Freeman on drums in Los Angeles on November 13, 1956. It runs nearly eleven minutes and came out in 1958 on All Night Session! Vol. 3.
Blossom Dearie sings and plays piano on this track from her Verve album Give Him the Ooh-La-La, recorded in September 1957. Herb Ellis plays guitar, Ray Brown bass and Jo Jones drums.
Guitarist Tal Farlow recorded this in New York in December 1959, with Frank Wess on tenor saxophone and Dick Hyman on piano. It was issued in 1960 on the Verve album Tal Farlow Plays the Music of Harold Arlen.
The tune's layout, its keys and the chord chart, for anyone who wants to play along.
Show the form and chords
How the tune works
F majorusual key
32 barsA · A · B · A form
F major → A major → C major → F majorkey centers
A8 bars
A8 bars
B8 bars · bridge
A8 bars
F
A
C
F
The is eight in : , , Fmaj7, Gm7 C7, , , Gm7 C7, C7. The first A ends on C7, which leads back to the top. The second A ends on (the iReal Pro chart's second ending, F6 E7), which pulls the music up into the . The bridge, bars 17 to 24, opens in for four bars ( , E7, played twice), then turns to with , and , and C7 steer the music back to F. The last A, bars 25 to 32, repeats the first A and ends on F6 C7. These follow the iReal Pro chart; other lead sheets may spell some differently.