Tadd Dameron, music · Carl Sigman, lyrics · Written for Sarah Vaughan, 1946
If You Could See Me Now
Tadd Dameron wrote this ballad in 1946 for the singer Sarah Vaughan, and Carl Sigman added the words. Singers and instrumentalists both took it up, though the song never made the charts. Vaughan's recording entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998, and Bill Evans and Dexter Gordon recorded it later.
Listen in this order
The path starts with Sarah Vaughan's 1946 original, then follows the song through a band led by Gil Evans, a quintet, a piano trio, a live guitar and piano set, a tenor saxophone quartet and a pianist's tribute album to Tadd Dameron. It ends with Joe Lovano's mid-sized band from 1999.
Sarah Vaughan recorded the song for Musicraft in New York on 7 May 1946, with Tadd Dameron's arrangement. According to JazzStandards.com, it became one of her signature songs, and her recording entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.
Sung versions
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Sarah Vaughan sings with a string section and a small band behind her, including Freddie Webster on trumpet.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first four of the chart slowly: , , E♭maj7, then and . Sing or play the melody over them. If you cannot play the melody yet, strum the four while the record plays.
Gil Evans recorded it for Prestige at Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, on 27 September 1957, for the first album he made as a leader. According to JazzStandards.com, the track has a trombone solo by Jimmy Cleveland.
Band arrangements
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Jimmy Cleveland plays a trombone solo. The band also has a French horn and a bassoon beside the trumpets and saxophones.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first four of the as plain : , , Am7 D7, E7. Then play the melody over them. Smaller version: play only the first two of those four bars.
Yusef Lateef's quintet recorded it at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on 16 October 1959. It came out on the New Jazz album Cry! - Tender.
Tenor saxophone
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Yusef Lateef plays the melody on tenor saxophone, and Lonnie Hillyer follows with a trumpet solo.
Try it on your instrument
Play the melody of the first slowly and let each phrase end before the next begins. Smaller version: play only the first four , with the , , E♭maj7, under them.
Bill Evans recorded it with his trio at the Sound Makers studio in New York on 17 May 1962, for the Riverside album Moon Beams. According to JazzStandards.com, he recorded the song more than a dozen times, and this was the first under his own name.
Piano trios
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Bill Evans plays the melody and then a solo that includes stretches of faster running notes. Chuck Israels on bass and Paul Motian on drums complete the trio.
Try it on your instrument
Play the melody with your right hand and one per with your left: , , E♭maj7, then . Adding running notes between the melody notes, as Evans does in his solo, needs more comfort with the chords. The smaller version is just the melody and the left-hand chords.
The Wynton Kelly Trio and Wes Montgomery recorded it live at the Half Note club in New York on 24 June 1965. Verve issued it that November on Smokin' at the Half Note, where it and No Blues were the two live tracks.
Guitar
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Wynton Kelly plays the melody first, and Wes Montgomery follows with a long guitar solo. The track runs more than eight minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play 5 and bar 6 of the as plain , one strum or block chord each: , , , then , . Soloing over them is a bigger step; the smaller version is to play only the root of each chord on the first beat.
Dexter Gordon recorded it in New York on 27 August 1970 with Wynton Kelly, Sam Jones and Roy Brooks. Prestige issued it on The Jumpin' Blues, produced by Don Schlitten.
Tenor saxophone
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Dexter Gordon plays the melody on tenor saxophone with Wynton Kelly on piano behind him, the same pianist you heard on the last step.
Try it on your instrument
Learn the closing of the first as plain : , , then , . Play the melody into them. Soloing over changes takes more practice; the smaller version is to play just the root notes.
Barry Harris recorded it at RCA Studios in New York on 4 June 1975 for Xanadu, on an album of pieces associated with Tadd Dameron. Don Schlitten produced the record.
Piano trios
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Barry Harris plays the song as a piano trio with Gene Taylor and Leroy Williams.
Try it on your instrument
Play the with your left hand while your right hand plays the melody: , , Am7 D7, E7, then Am7 , , Cm7 F7, . It needs a steady left hand; the smaller version is the first four of those eight .
Joe Lovano recorded it in New York in November 1999 for 52nd Street Themes, which Blue Note released in April 2000. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album.
Band arrangements · Tenor saxophone
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Joe Lovano leads a mid-sized band with five saxophones, a trumpet, a trombone and a . The track runs under four minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the last of the song as plain : , , E♭6, and hold the final chord. Smaller version: play only the melody's last phrase over the held E♭6.
Tadd Dameron writes the song for Sarah Vaughan, with words by Carl Sigman. She records it for Musicraft in New York on 7 May 1946, with Dameron's arrangement and a string section.
1950s
Gil Evans arranges it for his band on his first album as a leader in 1957, with a trombone solo by Jimmy Cleveland. In 1959 Yusef Lateef plays it on tenor saxophone with a quintet, and Chet Baker's sextet records it in New York.
1960s
Bill Evans records it with his trio in May 1962, and Tadd Dameron records it with a big band that year. In June 1965 Wes Montgomery and the Wynton Kelly Trio play it live at the Half Note club in New York.
1970s
Dexter Gordon records it on tenor saxophone in New York in August 1970, with Wynton Kelly on piano. Barry Harris includes it on a 1975 album of music tied to Tadd Dameron.
1990s
Joe Lovano records it in November 1999 with a mid-sized band for the Blue Note album 52nd Street Themes.
More great versions
6 more, from 1958 to 1974. Tap a cover to play it here.
Chet Baker recorded it for his Riverside album Chet at Reeves Sound Studios in New York, in sessions on 30 December 1958 and 19 January 1959. Bill Evans plays piano and Pepper Adams plays baritone saxophone.
“If You Could See Me Now (Instrumental)”, The Magic Touch
Tadd Dameron recorded his own song in New York in early 1962 for Riverside, leading a big band on the album The Magic Touch. The linked track is the instrumental version; the album take features Barbara Winfield.
Sheila Jordan sings it with guitar, bass and drums on Portrait of Sheila, her first album, recorded for Blue Note at Van Gelder Studio in autumn 1962. Alfred Lion produced it.
Wynton Kelly recorded it with Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb at Van Gelder Studio on 5 February 1965, months before the Half Note recording with Wes Montgomery. Verve issued it on Undiluted.
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 → B♭ → E♭key centers
A8 bars
A8 bars
B8 bars · bridge
A8 bars
E♭
G
B♭
E♭
The runs 32 in four sections of eight: A, A, B, A. Each A opens in E♭ with , , E♭maj7 and . Bar 5 moves through , and , and bar 6 is . The first A closes with and Fm7 B♭7, which lead back to the top. The second A closes with and E♭6. The starts with , , Am7 D7 and E7, which suggest without settling there. Then Am7 and Gm7 arrive in B♭, and Cm7 F7 and Fm7 B♭7 lead home. The last A repeats the opening and ends on E♭6 and Fm7 B♭7. JazzStandards.com gives as the original .