Count Basie, Jerry Livingston and Mack David · Written 1938 · First recorded by the Count Basie Orchestra for Decca
Blue and Sentimental
Count Basie, Jerry Livingston and Mack David wrote it in 1938, and Basie's band recorded it that June. The tune runs 18 , and the first record puts Herschel Evans's tenor saxophone out front. This page runs from that 1938 Decca record to Phil Woods's 1988 session with the Tommy Flanagan trio.
Listen in this order
The path starts with the 1938 Basie record, then hears Nat King Cole's trio and Dizzy Gillespie with Don Byas in Paris. It goes on to Oscar Peterson's quartet, Ike Quebec's long tenor saxophone ballad, a live Basie band in 1969, Ella Fitzgerald with Joe Pass and a Phil Woods quartet.
Phil Woods with the Tommy Flanagan Trio1988 · Cool jazz
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Hear the song as first recorded
Count Basie and His Orchestra · 1938
Decca 78 rpm single
Count Basie's orchestra recorded it for Decca in New York on June 6, 1938, in an arrangement by Eddie Durham. It began as a feature for Herschel Evans's tenor saxophone, and Lester Young plays clarinet on it.
E♭ major · ballad · The original 1938 Decca record
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Listen for
Basie's piano opens, and Herschel Evans plays the tune on tenor saxophone. A muted trumpet and Lester Young's clarinet take short solos before Evans comes back to finish.
Try it on your instrument
Play 1 to 4 of the chart slowly: , then , F9 B♭13, and . Hum the tune over them; alone are fine.
The Complete Capitol Recordings of the Nat King Cole Trio
Nat King Cole's trio recorded it in New York on November 24, 1947, with Irving Ashby on guitar and Johnny Miller on bass. jazzdisco.org lists the 1991 Mosaic box set as the issue of this take.
Piano, guitar and bass trio
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Cole's trio plays it in 2 minutes 35 seconds, with a piano, a guitar and a bass. With so few players, the tune and the under it are easy to follow.
Try it on your instrument
Play 5 to 8 of the chart: , then , F9 B♭13, and E♭9. If that is too much, play only the first of each bar.
Dizzy Gillespie's sextet recorded it at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris on March 25, 1952, with Don Byas on tenor saxophone. It came out on the French Blue Star label, on a single with Moon Nocturne.
Trumpet and tenor in Paris
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Gillespie plays trumpet and Don Byas plays tenor saxophone, with piano, bass, drums and a conga drum behind them. The whole track runs 2 minutes 43 seconds.
Try it on your instrument
Play 9 to 12 of the chart, the short B part, one bar at a time: , then , A♭6 A°7, and E♭6/B♭ B♭7. If the names are new, play just the lowest note of each.
Oscar Peterson recorded it in Los Angeles on December 27, 1955, in a quartet with Herb Ellis, Ray Brown and Buddy Rich. It is on Oscar Peterson Plays Count Basie, a Clef album issued in 1956.
Piano quartet with guitar
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Peterson's piano leads, with Herb Ellis on guitar, Ray Brown on bass and Buddy Rich on drums. At 2 minutes 26 seconds it is the shortest track on the path.
Try it on your instrument
Play 1 to 4 of the chart one at a time: , , F9 B♭13, then . Then play them again a little faster.
Ike Quebec recorded it at Van Gelder Studio in December 1961 with Grant Green on guitar, Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums. Blue Note issued it in 1962 on the album Blue & Sentimental.
Long tenor saxophone ballad
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Quebec's tenor saxophone leads for 7 minutes 26 seconds, the longest track on the path, with Grant Green on guitar, Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums.
Try it on your instrument
Loop 1 and 2 of the chart slowly: , then . Keep the loop steady for a minute, then play the record and compare the pace.
Count Basie's orchestra played it live at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas on January 28 to 30, 1969, in an arrangement by Sammy Nestico. Harry Edison, who was on the 1938 record, solos on muted trumpet.
Live big band
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Sammy Nestico's arrangement lets the whole saxophone section pay tribute to Herschel Evans's 1938 tenor solo, and Harry Edison solos on muted trumpet. The live track runs 4 minutes 27 seconds.
Try it on your instrument
Play 13 to 18 of the chart, the last section, one at a time: , , F9 B♭13, C9, F9 B♭13, and .
Phil Woods with the Tommy Flanagan Trio · 1988 · Cool jazz
Here's to My Lady
Phil Woods recorded it at RCA Studio A in New York on December 20 and 21, 1988, with the Tommy Flanagan trio. Chesky issued it on Here's to My Lady in 1989.
Quartet led by Phil Woods
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Phil Woods leads a quartet with Tommy Flanagan on piano, George Mraz on bass and Kenny Washington on drums. The track runs 5 minutes 7 seconds.
Try it on your instrument
Play the whole chart once, slowly, one to a bar where there is one chord and two beats each where there are two. If that is too much, stay with the A part, bars 1 to 8.
Count Basie, Jerry Livingston and Mack David write it in 1938. Basie's orchestra records it for Decca on June 6, with Herschel Evans on tenor saxophone and Lester Young on clarinet.
1940s
Don Byas's all-star quartet, with Johnny Guarnieri on piano, makes a 78 rpm record of it in 1945. The King Cole Trio, with Irving Ashby on guitar and Johnny Miller on bass, records it in New York on November 24, 1947.
1950s
Dizzy Gillespie's sextet, with Don Byas on tenor saxophone, plays it in Paris in March 1952. Oscar Peterson's quartet, with Herb Ellis on guitar, records it in December 1955 for an album of Count Basie tunes.
1960s
Ike Quebec records it in December 1961 with Grant Green on guitar, and Blue Note issues it in 1962 on the album Blue & Sentimental. Count Basie's band plays it live in Las Vegas in January 1969.
1980s
Ella Fitzgerald sings it with guitarist Joe Pass in March 1983 on Speak Love, for Pablo. Phil Woods plays it with the Tommy Flanagan trio in December 1988 for Chesky.
1990s
Archie Shepp's quartet, with John Hicks on piano, records it in New York in November 1995 for the Japanese label Venus. Teddy Edwards and Houston Person play it as two tenor saxophonists in November 1996.
More great versions
2 more, from 1954 to 1968. Tap a cover to play it here.
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
E♭ majorusual key
18 barsA · B · C form
E♭ majorkey centers
A8 bars
B4 bars · bridge
C6 bars
E♭
The chart runs 18 and stays in . A (bars 1 to 8) opens with in bar 1, then in bars 2 and 3, and in bar 4. Bars 5 to 7 repeat bars 1 to 3, and bar 8 is E♭9. B (bars 9 to 12) is , B♭7 E♭9, A♭6 A°7, then E♭6/B♭ C7 Fm7 B♭7. C (bars 13 to 18) starts like A with E♭maj7 D♭7 C9 G♭9, F9 B♭13 and F9 B♭13, then runs E♭9 C9, F9 B♭13 and a last bar of Fm7 B♭7. The 1938 record, as transcribed by Jazz at Lincoln Center, plays the form with a rubato four-bar introduction and then repeats it for each .