Brooks Bowman, music and lyrics · Introduced in Stags at Bay, the 1934 Princeton Triangle Club show
East of the Sun (and West of the Moon)
Brooks Bowman wrote it in 1934 for Stags at Bay, a Princeton student show. A Tom Coakley dance-band record topped the 1935 charts, and Tommy Dorsey recorded it with Sinatra in 1940. Charlie Parker played it with strings in 1950, and Billie Holiday, Zoot Sims and Stan Getz followed.
Listen in this order
The path opens with Tommy Dorsey's band and Sinatra, then a slow Lester Young ballad and Sarah Vaughan's version. It goes on to Charlie Parker with strings, a long Zoot Sims quartet record, Billie Holiday and a Stan Getz quintet, and ends with Paul Desmond and the Modern Jazz Quartet in concert.
1940sTommy Dorsey and His Orchestra, vocal by Frank Sinatra1940
Lester Young1947 · Swing
1950sSarah Vaughan with George Treadwell1950 · Vocal
Charlie Parker with Strings1950 · Bebop
Zoot Sims Quartet1951
Billie Holiday1952 · Vocal
Stan Getz1955 · Bebop
1960s
1970sPaul Desmond and the Modern Jazz Quartet1971 · Cool jazz
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Hear a swing-era hit
Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra, vocal by Frank Sinatra · 1940
“East of the Sun (And West of the Moon)”, 78 rpm single, reissued on The Essential Frank Sinatra with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra
According to JazzStandards.com, this April 1940 record by Tommy Dorsey's orchestra was probably the best-known recording of the song before World War II. Frank Sinatra, Dorsey's new singer, trades lines with the band's , and Bunny Berigan plays the trumpet solo.
Sung versions
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Listen for
Sinatra sings a line and the band's answers him, back and forth. Listen also for the trumpet solo.
Try it on your instrument
Play the melody slowly along with the record, one phrase at a time. Then play just the first eight (the ) with the from the chart.
“East of the Sun”, The Complete Aladdin Recordings of Lester Young
Lester Young recorded it in New York on December 29, 1947, as a ballad with a of piano, guitar, bass and drums. Leonard Feather produced the session, which is collected on The Complete Aladdin Recordings of Lester Young.
ballad · Saxophone leads
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Listen for
A gentle tenor saxophone over a quiet of piano, guitar, bass and drums. Notice how much slower it moves than the Dorsey record.
Try it on your instrument
Play the melody at a ballad pace, holding each long note for its full length. Then play it again with the from the chart, one chord at a time.
Sarah Vaughan with George Treadwell and His All-Stars · 1950 · Vocal
“East of the Sun (West of the Moon)”, Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Vaughan recorded it on May 19, 1950, with a small group that included Miles Davis on trumpet and Tony Scott on clarinet. It is the first track of her 1950 ten-inch LP, which Columbia reissued in 1955 as Sarah Vaughan in Hi-Fi.
ballad · Sung versions
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Listen for
Vaughan's voice leads, with a trumpet, a tenor saxophone and a clarinet in the small band behind her. It moves at a gentle ballad pace.
Try it on your instrument
Sing or hum the melody along with the record. Then play it on your instrument at the same easy pace.
“East of the Sun (West of the Moon)”, Charlie Parker With Strings
Charlie Parker recorded it on July 5, 1950, in New York, with a string section, harp, oboe and French horn plus piano, bass and drums. Joe Lippman wrote the arrangement, and the record came out on Mercury 11070 and later on Charlie Parker With Strings.
Saxophone leads
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Listen for
Parker's alto saxophone leads, and a string section, harp, oboe and French horn play behind him. The piano, bass and drums keep the beat underneath.
Try it on your instrument
Play the melody along with the record. If the pace is too quick, play just the first eight (the ) at half speed.
Zoot Sims led a quartet with Harry Biss on piano, Clyde Lombardi on bass and Art Blakey on drums in New York on August 14, 1951. The track runs just over eleven minutes.
swing · Saxophone leads
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Listen for
A tenor saxophone plays round after round over piano, bass and drums, for more than eleven minutes. Try to count how many times the tune's length comes around.
Try it on your instrument
Playing a solo over the takes more practice than the melody. The smaller version is to play the melody twice with the chart's chords, changing the rhythm the second time.
Billie Holiday recorded it on March 26, 1952, with a sextet led by Oscar Peterson at the piano, and Norman Granz produced. It is the last song on her first Clef album, the ten-inch LP Billie Holiday Sings.
Sung versions
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Listen for
Holiday sings over a small group with a trumpet, a tenor saxophone, piano and guitar. The record is under three minutes long.
Try it on your instrument
Sing the melody to yourself first. Then play it on your instrument and shape each phrase the way you sang it.
“East of the Sun (And West of the Moon)”, West Coast Jazz
Stan Getz led a quintet with Conte Candoli on trumpet at Radio Recorders in Los Angeles on August 15, 1955. The track is the first on the album West Coast Jazz, produced by Norman Granz.
Saxophone leads
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Listen for
A tenor saxophone and a trumpet lead a small group, with piano, bass and drums behind them. The record runs a little over six minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the melody along with the record and tap the beat with your foot. If you can already improvise, try one round over the chart. If not, play the melody again with a different rhythm.
Paul Desmond and the Modern Jazz Quartet · 1971 · Cool jazz
“East of the Sun”, Paul Desmond & the Modern Jazz Quartet
Paul Desmond joined the Modern Jazz Quartet on stage at Town Hall in New York on December 25, 1971. This track comes from that concert and runs a little over eight minutes.
Saxophone leads
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Listen for
Alto saxophone and vibraphone lead a quintet in a concert hall. At over eight minutes the tune comes around many times.
Try it on your instrument
Play the melody once through, then once more with the from the chart. Count how many times through the quartet takes it.
Brooks Bowman writes it for the Princeton Triangle Club show Stags at Bay in 1934. A Tom Coakley dance-band record with Carl Ravazza singing reaches number one in 1935.
1940s
Tommy Dorsey's orchestra records it in April 1940 with Frank Sinatra singing and Bunny Berigan on trumpet. Lester Young plays it as a ballad with a quintet in New York in December 1947.
1950s
In 1950 Sarah Vaughan and Charlie Parker, with a string section, both record it. Zoot Sims stretches it past eleven minutes in 1951, and Stan Getz plays it in Los Angeles in 1955.
1960s
Frank Sinatra sings it again in 1961 on I Remember Tommy..., a tribute album. Cal Tjader's album Breeze From the East, released in 1964, carries a version too.
1970s
Paul Desmond joins the Modern Jazz Quartet at Town Hall in New York on Christmas Day 1971, and they play it for more than eight minutes.
1990s
Diana Krall sings it at the piano on her 1999 album When I Look in Your Eyes, with Russell Malone on guitar and Ben Wolfe on bass.
More great versions
3 more, from 1959 to 1999. Tap a cover to play it here.
1950sPaul Desmond Quartet with Jim Hall1959 · Cool jazz
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
G majorusual key
36 barsA · B · A · C form
Gkey centers
A8 bars
B8 bars
A8 bars
C12 bars
G
The iReal chart runs 36 in four sections: A (8 bars), B (8), A again (8) and a longer C (12), all in . A holds for two bars, then to , for two bars, then to . B is a run of short two-chord turns: Am7 to , with to , then Em7 to , and Am7 to D7 to lead back to A. The last A repeats the first. C starts on with , goes through F♯m7♭5 with , Em7 and A7, then Am7 and F7, Bm7, and with , before Am7, D7 and two bars of to end. According to JazzStandards.com, the form is A, B, A, C with a four-bar extension, which matches the 12-bar C, and the resembles rhythm changes stretched out.