Joseph Meyer and Roger Wolfe Kahn, music · Irving Caesar, lyrics · From the Broadway musical Here's Howe, 1928
Crazy Rhythm
Crazy Rhythm is a 1928 song from the Broadway show Here's Howe. Its melody falls between the steady beats, which makes it a good tune for learning off-beat rhythm. Coleman Hawkins, Stan Getz, Dave Brubeck, Red Garland, Tony Bennett and Benny Carter all recorded it.
Listen in this order
The path starts with the 1928 dance-band record and Coleman Hawkins's 1937 Paris session. It then moves through a 1946 live jam, two records from 1953, Tony Bennett's singing, Red Garland's piano trio and Benny Carter's 1961 octet.
1930sColeman Hawkins and His All Star Jam Band1937 · Swing
1940sDizzy Gillespie, Lester Young and others1946
1950sThe Stan Getz Quintet1953 · Cool jazz
The Dave Brubeck Quartet1953 · Cool jazz
Tony Bennett1957 · Latin jazz
The Red Garland Trio1958 · Hard bop
1960sBenny Carter1961 · Big band
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Hear the song as it began
Roger Wolfe Kahn and His Orchestra · 1928 · Big band
Crazy Rhythm
Roger Wolfe Kahn's orchestra recorded the song for Victor in New York on April 12, 1928, with Franklyn Baur singing the . That was before Here's Howe opened on Broadway on May 1, and, according to JazzStandards.com, the record charted for four weeks and peaked at number ten.
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A dance band plays the tune while Franklyn Baur sings the . He leaves out the from the show, so the record stays on the main tune.
Try it on your instrument
Play the with the melody over these , one per bar: , F6, F6, , , , then F6 and Gm7 C7♭9 sharing the last two bars. Smaller version: play only F6 and C7♭9, two bars each, under the melody.
Coleman Hawkins and His All Star Jam Band · 1937 · Swing
Honeysuckle Rose / Crazy Rhythm
The new Swing label in Paris opened with this session on April 28, 1937: Coleman Hawkins led, Benny Carter was musical director, and Django Reinhardt played guitar. According to Phil Schaap, Carter had written out the first half of this tune for the four saxophones, and the label paired it with Honeysuckle Rose on its first release.
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Four saxophones play as one team, with Django Reinhardt's guitar in the behind them. The whole record runs just over three minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the slowly, one per bar: , , , B♭maj7, , , then and sharing the last two bars. Smaller version: play only Cm7, F7, B♭maj7.
Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Young and others (Jazz at the Philharmonic) · 1946
Norman Granz' Jazz at the Philharmonic, New Volume 2
This was recorded live at a Jazz at the Philharmonic concert in Los Angeles on January 28, 1946. Dizzy Gillespie and Lester Young are in the lineup, and the track runs 8:41.
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Four horns share this 8:41 track: a trumpet, an alto saxophone and two tenor saxophones. See if you can tell the two tenors apart.
Try it on your instrument
Play the last , 25 to 32, where bars 27 and 28 sit on instead of and : F6, F6, G7, G7, , , then F6 and Gm7 . Smaller version: play only the G7 bars after two bars of F6.
Stan Getz recorded this with his quintet in Los Angeles on July 30, 1953, with Bob Brookmeyer on valve trombone. It came out in 1954 on the Norgran album Interpretations by the Stan Getz Quintet.
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Stan Getz's tenor saxophone and Bob Brookmeyer's valve trombone share the lead over piano, bass and drums. The track runs 5:52.
Try it on your instrument
Play the whole tune, 32 , as A, A, , A, one per bar, at a steady pace. Smaller version: loop only the 8-bar until it feels easy, then add the bridge.
The Dave Brubeck Quartet played this live at College of the Pacific in Stockton, California, on December 14, 1953, with Paul Desmond on alto saxophone and Joe Dodge as a new drummer. jazzdisco.org lists its release in 2002 on Jazz at the College of the Pacific, Volume 2.
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Paul Desmond's alto saxophone leads over Brubeck's piano, bass and drums. The 6:30 track was recorded live in a college hall.
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Play the melody for the first , then play it again an octave higher. Smaller version: play just the first four of the A section both ways. If you can solo over , take one using only the notes of each bar's chord.
Tony Bennett recorded this at CBS 30th Street Studio in New York on June 27, 1957, for The Beat of My Heart. The album was built around percussion, and Chico Hamilton was one of the drummers who played on it.
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Chico Hamilton's drums drive the track with a guitar and bass while Bennett sings, and the whole record lasts just over two minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play all 32 at a quick pace, one per bar, and hum along. Smaller version: play half speed with only the and bars, then add the rest.
Red Garland recorded this piano trio version at Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, on February 7, 1958, with Paul Chambers on bass and Art Taylor on drums. Prestige issued it in 1962 on the album Dig It!.
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Red Garland's piano leads, with Paul Chambers on bass and Art Taylor on drums. The track runs 3:25, so you can hear the whole tune go round a few times.
Try it on your instrument
Play the bass note of each on the first beat and the full chord on the second and fourth beats, through the . Smaller version: do it for the first four bars.
Benny Carter led an octet for Further Definitions with Coleman Hawkins, who had recorded this tune with him in Paris in 1937, in the same setup of four saxophones and a . This track was recorded in New York on November 13, 1961.
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Four saxophones, including Benny Carter's alto and Coleman Hawkins's tenor, play together much as they did on the Paris record. Play the 1937 track first and compare.
Try it on your instrument
Play the with only the bass note of each in your left hand and the melody in your right. Smaller version: do it for the first four of the bridge.
Joseph Meyer and Roger Wolfe Kahn write the music and Irving Caesar the words for the Broadway show Here's Howe. Kahn's orchestra records it for Victor in April 1928, before the show opens on May 1.
1930s
Coleman Hawkins leads a Paris session for the new Swing label in April 1937, with Benny Carter directing and Django Reinhardt on guitar. The label pairs this tune with Honeysuckle Rose on its first release.
1940s
A Jazz at the Philharmonic concert in Los Angeles plays it on January 28, 1946, with Dizzy Gillespie and Lester Young in the lineup. The recording runs 8:41.
1950s
Stan Getz's quintet and Dave Brubeck's quartet both record it in 1953. Tony Bennett sings it with a percussion-led band in 1957 on The Beat of My Heart.
1960s
Benny Carter brings Coleman Hawkins into his octet for the 1961 album Further Definitions. Carter had recorded this tune with Hawkins in Paris in 1937.
2000s
Nellie McKay sings it on her 2009 Doris Day tribute album Normal as Blueberry Pie. Rob McConnell's arrangement for the SWR Big Band is released in 2000.
More great versions
5 more, from 1954 to 2009. Tap a cover to play it here.
1950sArt Tatum1954
Chet Baker and Stan Getz1954 · Cool jazz
Zoot Sims and Henri Renaud1956
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000sRob McConnell and the SWR Big Band2000
Nellie McKay2009
Art Tatum
1954
The Art Tatum Solo Masterpieces, Vol. 3
Art Tatum plays the tune alone at the piano in a solo session recorded in Los Angeles for Norman Granz in 1954.
Chet Baker and Stan Getz played this live at the Tiffany Club in Los Angeles on August 17, 1954. It stayed unreleased until the 1997 album West Coast Live.
Zoot Sims and the French pianist Henri Renaud recorded this in Paris on March 15, 1956, with Jon Eardley on trumpet. The track runs 7:51 and appears on Night Session in Paris.
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 → B♭ major → Back toward F major → F majorkey centers
236–288 bpmhow fast players take it, across 3 transcribed solos (Weimar Jazz Database)
A8 bars
A8 bars
B8 bars · bridge
A8 bars
F
B♭
Back toward F
F
The whole tune is in apart from the . The first , 1 to 8, plays , F6, F6, , , , then F6 and Gm7 C7♭9 sharing the last two bars, which sends it round again. The second A repeats those six bars, then settles on F6, F6. The bridge, bars 17 to 24, plays , , , B♭maj7, , , then and , a run of that leads back home. The last A, bars 25 to 32, plays F6, F6, , G7, Gm7, , F6 D7♭9, Gm7 C7♭9. These follow the iReal Pro chart; other lead sheets may spell some chords differently.