Harold Arlen, music · Ted Koehler, lyrics · Cotton Club Parade, Harlem, 1934
Ill Wind
Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler wrote this slow, aching love song for the Cotton Club in 1934. Its turn in unexpected ways, and its sections run ten or twelve instead of eight. Lena Horne, Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald sang it; Horace Silver and Lee Morgan led bands that played it.
Listen in this order
The path starts with the singers who made the song a standard, then moves to small groups that play it without words. It ends with a piano trio and a long, modern band version.
Ella Fitzgerald with the Oscar Peterson Quartet1957 · Swing
The Ben Webster Quintet1957 · Swing
The Horace Silver Quintet1958
1960sHampton Hawes Trio1964 · Bebop
Lee Morgan1965 · Hard bop
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Hear the song with its singer
Lena Horne (Lou Bring, conductor) · 1941
Victor 27819 single
Lena Horne recorded it for Victor in Hollywood on December 15, 1941, with Lou Bring conducting and Ned Freeman arranging. Victor issued it on a 78 in April 1942 and in the album Moanin' Low.
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Listen for
One voice in front of an orchestra, finished in about two and a half minutes. Follow the shape of the song: the opening idea, a contrasting middle part, then the return.
Try it on your instrument
Play or hum the first four of the melody over the , , and , one bar each. The smaller version is to play just those four chords slowly with the record.
Frank Sinatra (arranged and conducted by Nelson Riddle) · 1955 · Swing, Vocal
In the Wee Small Hours
Frank Sinatra sang it in February 1955 at KHJ Studios in Hollywood with Nelson Riddle arranging. Capitol released it that April on In the Wee Small Hours, an album of songs about lost love.
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Listen for
A slow, close-up reading: the voice sits right at the front and the story unfolds without hurry. The whole album was built around this mood of lost love.
Try it on your instrument
Sing or hum the melody slowly while you play the root note of each in the first (B♭, A, D, G, D, E♭, A♭). Hold each note for its whole or half bar.
Ella Fitzgerald with the Oscar Peterson Quartet · 1957 · Swing, Vocal
Ella and Louis Again
Ella Fitzgerald sang it in Los Angeles on July 23, 1957, backed by Oscar Peterson's piano, guitar, bass and drums. Verve issued it on Ella and Louis Again.
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Listen for
Ella's voice carries the song while a piano, guitar, bass and drums play behind her. With only four players there is space to pick out each one.
Try it on your instrument
Count the sections as the record plays: two of 10 each, a of 8 bars, and a last A of 12 bars. Tap one beat per bar, with a bigger tap on the first bar of each section.
Ben Webster recorded it on October 15, 1957, in Los Angeles with Oscar Peterson's trio and drummer Stan Levey. It is on his Verve album Soulville.
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Listen for
Webster's tenor saxophone plays the melody itself. Piano, guitar, bass and drums stay behind him.
Try it on your instrument
Play the melody on any instrument, then loop the 's first two , and , slowly to hear the music leave B♭. Soloing over the bridge takes more practice, so the smaller version is to hold those two chords alone.
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers · 1956 · Hard bop
Originally
Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers recorded it in New York on April 5, 1956, with Donald Byrd, Hank Mobley, Horace Silver and Doug Watkins. Columbia did not issue it until 1982.
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Listen for
Blakey plays the drums with brushes, which gives a soft, swishing sound under the trumpet and tenor saxophone. The record lasts under three minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Listen with the chart open and write down the time when the melody comes round again. The smaller version is to clap the first beat of each for one 40-bar .
Horace Silver's quintet recorded it at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, on January 13, 1958. Blue Note put it on Further Explorations.
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Listen for
At nearly seven minutes this runs more than twice as long as the Jazz Messengers' record. The lineup has trumpet, tenor saxophone and piano, so pick one of them and follow him through.
Try it on your instrument
Pick one player on the record and count how many he plays. This needs only counting, no playing.
Hampton Hawes recorded it with bassist Monk Montgomery and drummer Steve Ellington at the Contemporary Records studio in Los Angeles on February 17, 1964. It is on The Green Leaves of Summer.
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Listen for
Piano, bass and drums only. Hawes plays the melody himself, so you hear a pianist's whole take on the song.
Try it on your instrument
If you play piano, play the first two of the melody with your right hand and the and with your left. The smaller version is to play only the left-hand chords while you hum the melody.
Lee Morgan recorded it on September 18, 1965, at Van Gelder's studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, with Hank Mobley, Herbie Hancock, Larry Ridley and Billy Higgins. Blue Note issued Cornbread in 1967.
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Listen for
Morgan's trumpet carries the tune, and the record runs nearly eight minutes. Hank Mobley's tenor saxophone and Herbie Hancock's piano are in the lineup, so listen for them filling out the sound.
Try it on your instrument
Play the , , and slowly in a loop. Soloing over them takes more skill, so the smaller version is to play the chords alone and hum the melody above.
Arlen and Koehler write it for the Cotton Club Parade of 1934, where Adelaide Hall sings it. Arlen sings it himself on Eddy Duchin's record, which JazzStandards.com says rose to number three.
1940s
Lena Horne records it for Victor in Hollywood in December 1941, with Lou Bring conducting. Victor issues it on a 78 in April 1942 and in an album called Moanin' Low.
1950s
Frank Sinatra sings it on In the Wee Small Hours in 1955. Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers record it in 1956, and Ben Webster plays it on tenor saxophone in 1957.
1960s
Sarah Vaughan sings it with only guitar and bass in 1961. Hampton Hawes plays it with his trio in 1964, and Lee Morgan's band plays it for nearly eight minutes in 1965.
More great versions
5 more, from 1955 to 1961. Tap a cover to play it here.
“Ill Wind (You're Blowin' Me No Good)”, The Genius of Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Hawkins played it on tenor saxophone with Oscar Peterson, Herb Ellis, Ray Brown and Alvin Stoller at Capitol's Los Angeles studio in October 1957. It runs over five minutes on The Genius of Coleman Hawkins.
Sarah Vaughan sang it on July 18, 1961, with only Mundell Lowe on guitar and George Duvivier on bass. It is on After Hours, her first album with just those two players.
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
40 barsA · A · B · A form
B♭ major → away from B♭ → B♭ majorkey centers
A10 bars
A10 bars
B8 bars · bridge
A12 bars
B♭
away from B♭
B♭
Each A opens on , then moves through , and . Bars 5 to 8 run Dm7 G7, , B♭6 and . The first A adds two ( G7, Cm7 ) and the repeat adds two different ones (B♭maj7 , B♭maj7), so both come to 10 bars. The , 8 bars, leaves B♭: , , G7 , , then the first four bars again and G7 and Cm7♭5 back to the last A. That A is 12 bars: it changes bars 7 and 8 (B♭6, E♭m7 A♭7), rests on B♭maj7 for three bars and ends on Cm7 F7.