J. Fred Coots, music · Sam M. Lewis, lyrics · Introduced by Morton Downey on his radio show
For All We Know
For All We Know is a 1934 ballad by J. Fred Coots and Sam M. Lewis. Its lyric looks at parting, and the music moves at a slow ballad pace. Nat King Cole's 1949 trio record brought it back, and Billie Holiday sang it on Lady in Satin.
Listen in this order
The path begins with the King Cole Trio's 1949 vocal and moves through saxophone groups, Billie Holiday with an orchestra and an organ band, then ends with Bill Evans at the piano and a piano and bass duet. This is the 1934 song by Coots and Lewis, not the Carpenters' hit of the same name.
1950sThe Dave Brubeck Quartet with Paul Desmond1953 · Cool jazz
Stan Getz and Cal Tjader1958
Billie Holiday with Ray Ellis1958 · Big band
The Paul Desmond Quartet1959 · Cool jazz
1960sGrant Green1963 · Soul jazz
1970sBill Evans1979 · Post-bop
1980s
1990s
2000sKeith Jarrett and Charlie Haden2007 · Contemporary jazz
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The King Cole Trio · 1949
For All We Know / Don't Cry, Cry Baby
Cole recorded it for Capitol in New York in March 1949. According to JazzStandards.com, this record brought the song back into the mainstream 15 years after it was written.
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Listen for
Cole sings the words himself and plays piano, with guitar, bass and bongo behind him. The record lasts about three minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the melody with the record. Then play the of the first four , one chord per bar: | | | Fm7 . The record may be in another , so move the chords to match.
The Dave Brubeck Quartet with Paul Desmond · 1953 · Cool jazz
Jazz at the College of the Pacific
Recorded live at the College of the Pacific in Stockton in December 1953. According to JazzStandards.com, saxophonist Paul Desmond's long relationship with the song starts with this concert.
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Paul Desmond plays the song on alto saxophone, with Dave Brubeck's piano, a bass and drums behind him. The track lasts almost six minutes, about twice the length of Cole's record.
Try it on your instrument
Play the melody on your instrument over the of 1 to 8: | | | Fm7 | | | Fm7 | . A smaller version is the first four bars alone.
Recorded in San Francisco in February 1958. According to JazzStandards.com, the session teamed tenor saxophonist Stan Getz with vibraphonist Cal Tjader, pianist Vince Guaraldi and bassist Scott LaFaro.
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Stan Getz plays tenor saxophone and Cal Tjader plays vibraphone, with piano, guitar, bass and drums behind them. The track runs close to six minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the melody over the of 9 to 16: | | | | | | Fm7 | B♭7. If that is too much at once, play bars 9 to 12 and stop.
Recorded in New York in September 1959, six years after Desmond's first record of the song, with Jim Hall on guitar. It was the first of five albums Desmond made with Hall and drummer Connie Kay.
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Desmond plays alto saxophone over Jim Hall's guitar, with bass and drums beneath. Compare it with the Brubeck quartet's record from six years earlier.
Try it on your instrument
Play 25 to 32 as , one chord or two per bar: | | | | | | | Fm7 B♭7. A smaller version is the first four of those bars.
Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in New Jersey in May 1963 and issued by Blue Note in 1964. The track runs almost fourteen minutes.
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Grant Green's guitar shares the track with trumpet, tenor saxophone, organ and drums. At nearly fourteen minutes, it is far longer than the earlier records.
Try it on your instrument
Play 9 to 16 as a loop: | | | | | | Fm7 | B♭7. Soloing over them is a bigger step, so a smaller version is to play the melody once on each pass.
“For All We Know (We May Never Meet Again)”, We Will Meet Again
Evans recorded it in New York in August 1979 for We Will Meet Again, his last studio album. The session listing at jazzdisco.org names Evans alone on this track.
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Only the piano plays on this track, so the tune and its come from one pair of hands. It lasts under four minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first eight with both hands, in the left hand and melody in the right: | | | Fm7 | | | Fm7 | . A smaller version is the left-hand chords alone.
Recorded at Cavelight Studio in Oxford, New Jersey, in March 2007 and released by ECM in 2010 on the album Jasmine.
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Only two players, Keith Jarrett on piano and Charlie Haden on double bass. The track lasts nearly ten minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the of 1 to 8 slowly with a friend or a recording of a bass line, then swap who plays melody. A smaller version is to play only the root of each chord on a bass instrument.
J. Fred Coots and Sam M. Lewis write the song in 1934, and Morton Downey introduces it on radio. Hal Kemp's orchestra, with Skinnay Ennis singing, takes it to number three on the charts that year.
1940s
The King Cole Trio records it in March 1949. According to JazzStandards.com, that record brought the song back into the mainstream 15 years after it was written.
1950s
Paul Desmond plays it with Dave Brubeck's quartet in 1953 and with Jim Hall in 1959. Stan Getz and Cal Tjader and Billie Holiday with Ray Ellis's orchestra record it in 1958.
1960s
Grant Green's organ band stretches it to almost fourteen minutes in 1963, and Wes Montgomery records it with an organ trio the same year. According to JazzStandards.com, Dinah Washington took it to number 88 in 1962.
1970s
Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway record it as a duet in 1971 for an album released in 1972. Bill Evans records it in August 1979 for We Will Meet Again.
1980s
Chet Baker's quartet plays it at a concert in Tokyo in June 1987. Johnny Hartman's version is later used in the 1995 film The Bridges of Madison County.
2000s
Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden record it as a duet in March 2007, and ECM releases it in 2010 on the album Jasmine.
More great versions
3 more, from 1957 to 1980. Tap a cover to play it here.
1950sNina Simone1957 · Soul jazz
1960s
1970sRoberta Flack and Donny Hathaway1971 · Soul & R&B
Simone sings and plays piano with Jimmy Bond on bass and Al Heath on drums. It was recorded in 1957 among the sessions for her first album, and a Bethlehem compilation issued it in 1960.
A duet from the album Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway, recorded in 1971 and released in April 1972. Flack plays electric piano and Arif Mardin arranged the strings.
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
32 barsA · B · A · C form
E♭ majorkey centers
A8 bars
B8 bars
A8 bars
C8 bars
E♭
The tune runs 32 in four sections of eight bars, , and stays in throughout. Section A runs , , , Fm7 with , then with , with , Fm7, and with . Section B starts on E♭maj7 and , then Fm7, B♭7, , F7, Fm7 and B♭7. The second A repeats the first. Section C opens on E♭maj7, then with , with , with , Fm7 with and with B♭7, and closes on E♭6 with Cm7 and Fm7 with B♭7, ready for the next . These follow the iReal Pro chart. JazzStandards.com gives the form as A B A C and the published as .