George Fragos, Jack Baker and Dick Gasparre, words and music · Hit records by Jimmy Dorsey and Charlie Barnet, 1941 · Sung by Tony Martin in the 1952 film Clash by Night
I Hear a Rhapsody
Fragos, Baker and Gasparre wrote the song in 1940, and it became a hit the next year. Jimmy Dorsey's record reached number one, and Charlie Barnet's reached number two. Jazz players later took it as a slow ballad, a medium swing and a faster tune.
Listen in this order
The path starts with Jimmy Dorsey's 1940 hit and Frank Sinatra's 1952 single, then turns to jazz with Jackie McLean's alto saxophone and John Coltrane's tenor, both from 1957. It ends with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, the Bill Evans and Jim Hall duo, Zoot Sims's quartet and Keith Jarrett's live piano trio.
1960sArt Blakey and the Jazz Messengers1961 · Hard bop
Bill Evans and Jim Hall1962 · Post-bop
1970sZoot Sims and Jimmy Rowles1977 · Post-bop
1980sKeith Jarrett Trio1989 · Post-bop
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Learn the song
Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra (vocal Bob Eberly) · 1940
Decca 78 rpm single, B-side of The Mem'ry of a Rose
Jimmy Dorsey's orchestra recorded it on December 9, 1940, with Bob Eberly singing, and Decca issued it in April 1941. According to JazzStandards.com, it spent ten weeks on the 1941 charts, two of them at number one.
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Listen for
Bob Eberly sings the tune with the orchestra behind him. Learn this melody first, because the later versions all build on it.
Try it on your instrument
Play the melody in , slowly, one phrase at a time. Smaller version: hum it along with the record and tap the beat.
Frank Sinatra recorded it for Columbia on January 7, 1952, with Axel Stordahl arranging and conducting. According to JazzStandards.com, the single, with the Jeff Alexander Choir, spent three weeks on the charts and peaked at number 24.
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Listen for
Sinatra leads, and the Jeff Alexander Choir sings behind him. Listen for how Stordahl's arrangement frames his voice.
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Sing the melody along with Sinatra, then play it in . Add for the first four : , , , . Smaller version: plain , , B♭ and E♭ chords.
Jackie McLean recorded it with Mal Waldron's piano at Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, on February 15, 1957. New Jazz first issued it on Makin' the Changes in 1960.
swing · medium tempo
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Listen for
The track begins out of tempo, then the band settles into a medium swing. Listen for the moment the steady beat arrives.
Try it on your instrument
Play the melody once with no steady beat, then again in a medium swing, the way this record does. Smaller version: play the first phrase freely and tap a steady beat for the second.
Coltrane recorded it on May 31, 1957, with Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Albert Heath on drums. Prestige issued it in 1961 on the album Lush Life.
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Listen for
Coltrane's tenor saxophone plays the song at a faster pace than McLean's, with piano, bass and drums behind him. Compare the tempo with the last step.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first eight along with the record, starting well below its tempo and speeding up a little each time. Smaller version: tap the beat at the record's pace and hum the melody.
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers · 1961 · Hard bop
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers
Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers recorded it at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on June 13, 1961, with Lee Morgan, Curtis Fuller, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Timmons and Jymie Merritt. Impulse! released the album that September.
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Listen for
Trumpet, trombone and tenor saxophone play above a led by Blakey's drums. After the smaller groups before it, listen for the bigger sound.
Try it on your instrument
Play the melody in against a steady beat from a metronome or a drum loop at a medium pace. Smaller version: play only the first two phrases.
Bill Evans and Jim Hall recorded it as a duo at Sound Makers in New York on April 24, 1962, and United Artists issued it that year on Undercurrent. According to JazzStandards.com, they play it as a slow ballad.
ballad · slow tempo
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Listen for
Only a piano and a guitar play, at a slow ballad pace. With so little going on, you can follow what each one is doing.
Try it on your instrument
Play the melody slowly, at about half the speed of the Coltrane record, and let each ring. With a friend, one plays the tune while the other plays the chords.
Zoot Sims recorded it with pianist Jimmy Rowles, bassist George Mraz and drummer Mousie Alexander at RCA Studios in New York in October 1977. Pablo issued the album in 1978.
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Listen for
Sims leads on tenor saxophone and Jimmy Rowles plays piano, with bass and drums behind them. Sims had recorded the song in 1956, so listen to how it sounds 21 years later.
Try it on your instrument
Pick a phrase of the melody and play it two ways, straight and then with the rhythm bent the way a jazz player would. Smaller version: play it straight twice.
Keith Jarrett's trio, with Gary Peacock on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums, played it live at the Philharmonie in Cologne on October 15, 1989. ECM issued the concert as the album Tribute in 1990.
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Listen for
A live piano trio spends 11:19 on one song, the longest track on the path. Listen for how the music changes over those minutes, and for the three players sharing the long stretch.
Try it on your instrument
Soloing over the whole form takes practice. A smaller version: loop the first four (, , , ), play the melody's first phrase over them, then try a short line of your own in the same bars.
Fragos, Baker and Gasparre write the song in 1940. Charlie Barnet records it in October and Jimmy Dorsey in December, and both records reach the 1941 charts.
1950s
Frank Sinatra records it for Columbia in January 1952, and the single peaks at number 24. In 1957 Jackie McLean and John Coltrane both record it at Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey.
1960s
Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers record it for Impulse! in June 1961. Bill Evans and Jim Hall follow in April 1962 with a slow piano and guitar duet.
1970s
Bill Evans plays it live at the Montreux festival in 1970. In 1977 Zoot Sims records it with pianist Jimmy Rowles in New York for the Pablo label.
1980s
Dave Brubeck's quartet records it in San Francisco in 1981, and Chick Corea's trio plays it live in Europe in 1984. Keith Jarrett's trio plays it in Oslo and Cologne in October 1989.
1990s
Enrico Pieranunzi's trio records it in March 1994 for the album Seaward, which Soul Note releases in 1996.
2000s
Ahmad Jamal plays it on A Quiet Time, released in 2009 on the Dreyfus label, with a percussionist added to his .
More great versions
6 more, from 1970 to 2009. Tap a cover to play it here.
1970sBill Evans Trio1970 · Modal jazz
1980sThe Dave Brubeck Quartet1981 · Cool jazz
Chick Corea, Miroslav Vitous and Roy Haynes1984 · Contemporary jazz
The Bill Evans Trio played it at the Montreux Jazz Festival on June 19, 1970, with Eddie Gomez on bass and Marty Morell on drums. It came out that year on the album Montreux II.
Dave Brubeck's quartet recorded it in San Francisco in September 1981, with Jerry Bergonzi on tenor saxophone, Chris Brubeck on electric bass and Randy Jones on drums. Concord issued it on Paper Moon in 1982.
Chick Corea, Miroslav Vitous and Roy Haynes played it live at concerts in Willisau and Reutlingen in September 1984. ECM issued it on Trio Music, Live in Europe in 1986.
Jarrett's trio played it at the Konserthus in Oslo on October 7, 1989, eight days before the Cologne concert. ECM issued it on Standards in Norway in 1995.
Enrico Pieranunzi recorded it on March 3 or 4, 1994, with Hein Van de Geyn on bass and André Ceccarelli on drums. It came out on the album Seaward in 1996.
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 · A · B · A form
E♭ → G m → B♭ → C m → E♭key centers
A8 bars
A8 bars
B8 bars · bridge
A8 bars
E♭
G m
B♭
C m
E♭
The iReal Pro chart runs 32 in : A (8 bars), A (8), B (8) and A (8). Each A opens on , then and lead to with , and with heads for Fm7 and , which settle on E♭maj7 in bar 7. The first A closes with and , which send it back to the top. The second A ends with E♭maj7 and with , which point into the . The bridge sits in for three bars (, Am7♭5 with D7♭9, Gm7), then Cm7 and lead to a bar of . Fm7, Dm7♭5 with and G9♯5 turn back toward Cm7 and the last A.