Richard Rodgers, music · Lorenz Hart, lyrics · From the Broadway musical The Boys from Syracuse, 1938
Falling in Love with Love
Falling in Love with Love is a waltz from the 1938 Rodgers and Hart musical The Boys from Syracuse. Muriel Angelus introduced it in the show. Several records here run nine minutes or longer, which leaves room for long solos. You can hear it from Clifford Brown, Jimmy Smith, Wes Montgomery, Sarah Vaughan and Keith Jarrett's trio.
Listen in this order
The path starts with Helen Merrill's 1954 vocal and Cannonball Adderley's 1955 saxophone with strings. It then follows Clifford Brown's Stockholm session, a live Oscar Peterson trio, an organ sextet, Kenny Dorham's quintet, Wes Montgomery's guitar and Keith Jarrett's live trio.
1950sClifford Brown and Art Farmer with the Swedish All Stars1953
Helen Merrill with Quincy Jones1954 · Contemporary jazz
Cannonball Adderley with strings1955 · Hard bop
The Oscar Peterson Trio1956
Jimmy Smith Sextet1957
Kenny Dorham Quintet with Sonny Rollins1957 · Bebop
Wes Montgomery with Monk and Buddy Montgomery1959
1960s
1970s
1980sKeith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette1985 · Post-bop
Progress can't be saved in this browser.
Step 1 of 8 Now playing✓ Heard
Hear the song sung
Helen Merrill with Quincy Jones and His Orchestra · 1954 · Contemporary jazz
Helen Merrill
Helen Merrill recorded this in New York on December 24, 1954, with Quincy Jones arranging and conducting and Clifford Brown on trumpet. It came out on her 1955 EmArcy album Helen Merrill.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Merrill sings the tune in under four minutes while Clifford Brown's trumpet and a small band play around her.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first eight with the of the iReal Pro chart: for four bars, for two, for two. Smaller version: hold only B♭maj7 for four bars while you hum the tune.
Cannonball Adderley recorded this with a string orchestra in New York on October 27, 1955, directed by Richard Hayman with string arrangements by Bill Russo. It was issued that year on Julian Cannonball Adderley and Strings.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
An alto saxophone plays the tune over a string orchestra, and the whole track lasts about two and a half minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the eight that follow the opening four with the of the iReal Pro chart: for two bars, for two, Cm7 for two, F7 for two. Smaller version: play only the roots, C and then F, two bars each.
Clifford Brown and Art Farmer with the Swedish All Stars · 1953
Clifford Brown, Art Farmer and the Swedish All Stars
Quincy Jones arranged and directed this September 15, 1953 session in Stockholm, which paired trumpeters Clifford Brown and Art Farmer with Swedish players. According to JazzStandards.com, the solos begin with baritone saxophonist Lars Gullin.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
An eight-piece band plays an arrangement; try to name each solo voice as it steps out, starting with the baritone saxophone.
Try it on your instrument
Follow the 32 while a soloist plays: for bars 1 to 4, and for bars 5 to 12, B♭maj7 for bars 13 to 20, then and , and , Cm7 and F7, two bars each. This is hard without a chart, so the smaller version is to tap the 32 bars once with the band.
The Oscar Peterson Trio at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival
The Oscar Peterson Trio played this live at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival in Canada on August 8, 1956, with Herb Ellis on guitar and Ray Brown on bass. The song comes from a musical based on Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Piano, guitar and bass play the tune for just over six minutes; listen for which of the three has the lead at each moment.
Try it on your instrument
Play the as a lead sheet: melody in the right hand, the iReal Pro in the left, bars 1 to 12 first (, , , Cm7, F7). Smaller version: play only bars 1 to 4, which stay on B♭maj7.
Jimmy Smith led this sextet at Manhattan Towers in New York on February 11, 1957, with Donald Byrd, Lou Donaldson, Hank Mobley, Eddie McFadden and Art Blakey. The take runs 12:06 and was issued on A Date with Jimmy Smith, Volume One.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
An organ, a guitar and drums sit under three horns for twelve minutes; listen for how the organ's sound changes the feel compared with the earlier tracks.
Try it on your instrument
Pick one from the chart, such as , and play it with as a pair, the way bars 5 to 8 and 9 to 12 do. Smaller version: alternate just the notes C and F, one per bar.
Kenny Dorham Quintet with Sonny Rollins · 1957 · Bebop
Jazz Contrasts
Kenny Dorham recorded this at Reeves Sound Studios in New York on May 21, 1957, with Sonny Rollins, Hank Jones, Oscar Pettiford and Max Roach. According to JazzStandards.com, Dorham was one of the trumpeters who came to the fore after Clifford Brown died in 1955.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Trumpet and tenor saxophone share the for about nine minutes, with Max Roach's drums behind them.
Try it on your instrument
Play the stretch of bars 21 to 32 slowly: and , and , and , two bars each. Smaller version: play only the roots A, D, G, C, C, F, two bars each.
Wes Montgomery with Monk and Buddy Montgomery · 1959
Montgomeryland
Wes Montgomery recorded this in Los Angeles on October 1, 1959, with his brothers Monk and Buddy, Pony Poindexter and Louis Hayes. It came out in 1960 on Montgomeryland.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Wes Montgomery's guitar and Pony Poindexter's alto saxophone lead the quintet for about six minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the melody on one string or one hand, over a steady count, while someone plays the chart's first twelve : for four bars, then , , Cm7, F7, two bars each. Smaller version: play the melody alone and tap the bars.
Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette · 1985 · Post-bop
Standards Live
Keith Jarrett's trio recorded this live at the Palais des Congrès in Paris on July 2, 1985, and ECM issued it on Standards Live in 1986.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Piano, bass and drums play for 8:41 in front of an audience; listen for how the three share the lead over that time.
Try it on your instrument
Play the full chart once through, 32 , with the from the iReal Pro chart. This takes some practice with ; the smaller version is to play bars 1 to 12 only and stop.
Rodgers and Hart write the song for The Boys from Syracuse, which opens on Broadway in 1938 with Muriel Angelus introducing it. According to JazzStandards.com, a Frances Langford record with Harry Sosnik's orchestra charts in 1939 and reaches number 18.
1950s
Clifford Brown plays it in Stockholm in 1953 and again behind Helen Merrill in 1954. In 1957 an organ sextet and a quintet with Sonny Rollins each stretch it past nine minutes.
1960s
Grant Green plays guitar on a 1961 quintet record, Ahmad Jamal's trio plays it live in San Francisco, and Sheila Jordan sings it on a 1962 Blue Note album.
1980s
Keith Jarrett's trio plays it live in Paris on July 2, 1985, in a version that runs 8:41. It comes out on Standards Live in 1986.
1990s
Oscar Peterson plays it live at the Salle Pleyel in Paris on June 25, 1996. The 9:26 recording is released on Oscar in Paris in 1997.
More great versions
6 more, from 1957 to 1996. Tap a cover to play it here.
1950sMal Waldron Sextet with John Coltrane1957 · Hard bop
1960sThe Ahmad Jamal Trio1961
Dave Bailey Quintet with Grant Green1961 · Hard bop
Mal Waldron led this sextet with John Coltrane at Van Gelder Studio on April 19, 1957. It was first issued in 1965, on Status's The Dealers and Prestige's Side Steps.
Drummer Dave Bailey's quintet recorded this at Nola's Penthouse in New York on March 15, 1961, with Grant Green on guitar. It was issued on Jazztime as Reaching Out.
Sheila Jordan sang it on Portrait of Sheila, recorded for Blue Note in September and October 1962. According to the sleeve notes, Alfred Lion decided to record her after hearing her at the Page Three Club in Greenwich Village.
Oscar Peterson played it at the Salle Pleyel in Paris on June 25, 1996, forty years after his Stratford recording. Telarc issued it on Oscar in Paris in 1997.
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
B♭ majorusual key
32 barsA · B form
B♭ major → G minor → F major → Back toward B♭ majorkey centers
A16 bars
B16 bars
B♭
G m
F
Back toward B♭
The song is a waltz in , three beats to the , and one is 32 bars. In the iReal Pro chart the first half, bars 1 to 16, plays for four bars, for two, for two, Cm7 for two, F7 for two, then B♭maj7 for four. Bars 17 to 20 stay on B♭maj7. The last twelve bars, 21 to 32, play and , then and , then Cm7 and F7, two bars each, which leads back to the top. On the last time through, the chart swaps in a different closing line: , , Cm7, , Cm7, F7, then B♭maj7, Gm7, Cm7, F7. Other lead sheets may divide the bars differently.