David Mann, music · Bob Hilliard, lyrics · Introduced by Frank Sinatra, 1955
In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning
David Mann and Bob Hilliard wrote this slow ballad, and Frank Sinatra recorded it first in 1955. Its slow, late-night mood has suited singers, horn players, guitarists and piano trios alike. You can hear it on records by Ella Fitzgerald, Art Blakey, Wes Montgomery and Keith Jarrett.
Listen in this order
The path starts with Frank Sinatra's 1955 record, then hears Ella Fitzgerald in a Chicago club and Ben Webster's saxophone with Oscar Peterson. It goes on through the Peterson trio live, a trombone-led sextet, Art Blakey's band and Wes Montgomery's guitar with strings. It ends with Keith Jarrett's trio live in 1994.
Composers David Mann and Bob Hilliard played the song for Sinatra and arranger Nelson Riddle in New York, and Sinatra wanted to record it at once. He cut it on February 17, 1955, in Hollywood, and it opens his Capitol album In the Wee Small Hours.
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Listen for
Sinatra's voice leads, with a string orchestra and a harp behind him and a small of piano, guitar, bass and drums.
Try it on your instrument
Play 1 to 4 slowly with the melody on top: , , Cmaj7, then to . A smaller version: hold Cmaj7 for three bars and play Dm7 to G7 in bar 4.
“In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning (Live)”, Live at Mister Kelly's
Ella Fitzgerald sang it with a piano trio at Mister Kelly's in Chicago on August 10, 1958, three years after Sinatra's record. Verve released the tape in 2007 as Live at Mister Kelly's.
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Listen for
This is a late-show set in a club, so only a piano, bass and drums sit behind Ella. At four minutes it runs a minute longer than Sinatra's record.
Try it on your instrument
Play the whole 18 as : A is bars 1 to 8 and B is bars 9 to 18. B opens like A, with and , and turns in bar 11, where to take over. A smaller version: play only A twice.
Tenor saxophonist Ben Webster recorded it in New York on November 6, 1959, with Oscar Peterson's trio, for the Verve album Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson. It is the first version on the page where a horn, not a voice, carries the tune.
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Listen for
Ben Webster's tenor saxophone leads, and Peterson's piano, Ray Brown's bass and Ed Thigpen's drums stay behind him. It runs just over three minutes, close to Sinatra's length.
Try it on your instrument
Learn 6 to 8 of A, where the step upward: to , to , then , A7, and . A smaller version: play only the first chord of each bar (Em7♭5, F♯m7♭5, Em7).
Oscar Peterson's trio played it live at the London House in Chicago on July 28, 1961, and Verve issued it that year on the album The Trio. The track runs just over eight minutes.
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Listen for
Only piano, bass and drums play. At eight minutes the track is nearly three times as long as Sinatra's, so the trio goes round the tune many times.
Try it on your instrument
Play the last six of B (bars 13 to 18) slowly: , , Dm7, , , then Dm7 G7. Listen for the A♭7♯11 dropping to G7. A smaller version: play A♭7♯11, G7 and C6 as three .
Trombonist Curtis Fuller recorded it with a sextet, with Freddie Hubbard on trumpet and Jimmy Heath on tenor saxophone, at Capitol Studios in New York on November 16, 1961. It came out on Impulse! in 1962.
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Listen for
Three horns lead here: trombone, trumpet and tenor saxophone, with piano, bass and drums behind them. At nearly five minutes it is longer than the Sinatra and Webster tracks.
Try it on your instrument
In 1 to 3 the stay on C and change a little at a time: , , , C+, Cmaj7, C+. Play them as written under a held melody note. A smaller version: play Cmaj7 for the bar and add C7 only in bar 1.
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers · 1962 · Hard bop
Caravan
Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers recorded it on October 23 or 24, 1962, at Plaza Sound Studios in New York, for the Riverside album Caravan. Curtis Fuller is in this band too, a year after his own version.
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Listen for
Drummer Art Blakey leads a sextet of trumpet, trombone, tenor saxophone, piano and bass. Compare the band with Fuller's sextet from a year earlier, which also has Freddie Hubbard, Curtis Fuller and Cedar Walton.
Try it on your instrument
Play all 18 as at a steady medium-slow pace, two beats to a chord where the chart has two. Soloing over takes more practice. A smaller version: play the melody over bars 1 to 8 and stop.
Guitarist Wes Montgomery recorded it with a string orchestra arranged and conducted by Jimmy Jones, at Plaza Sound Studios in New York on April 18 or 19, 1963. It is on the Riverside album Fusion!.
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Listen for
Wes Montgomery's guitar plays the tune with a string orchestra behind him, much as Sinatra's record has strings behind a voice. The track is under three minutes, the shortest on the path.
Try it on your instrument
Play the melody and the together as a solo piece: the chord underneath, the tune above. A smaller version: chords only, 1 to 4 ( , C+, Cmaj7 C+, ).
Keith Jarrett's trio with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette played it in the second set at the Blue Note in New York on June 3, 1994. ECM issued it in 1995 in the six-disc At the Blue Note.
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Listen for
The same instruments as the Peterson trio, piano, bass and drums, in a club again, and at almost nine minutes it is even longer. Compare how each trio fills that time.
Try it on your instrument
Play the 18 as , then go straight from the last bar's back to and play it again, twice. Improvising over the loop takes more practice. A smaller version: play just the first chord of each bar.
Mann and Hilliard's song debuts on Frank Sinatra's 1955 album In the Wee Small Hours. Ella Fitzgerald sings it live at a Chicago club in 1958, and Ben Webster plays it on tenor saxophone with Oscar Peterson's trio in 1959.
1960s
The Oscar Peterson Trio plays it live in Chicago in 1961, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers record it in 1962, and in 1963 Wes Montgomery plays it with a string orchestra.
1990s
Keith Jarrett's trio plays it at the Blue Note in New York in June 1994, and the track runs nearly nine minutes. Stacey Kent sings it on her Candid album Love Is... The Tender Trap.
2000s
Jamie Cullum records it for his 2002 album Pointless Nostalgic, on the Candid label.
More great versions
5 more, from 1957 to 2002. Tap a cover to play it here.
Gerry Mulligan's sextet recorded it for the Philips album Night Lights in New York in 1963, in sessions on September 12 and October 3. Mulligan plays baritone saxophone, with Art Farmer, Bob Brookmeyer and Jim Hall.
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
C majorusual key
18 barsA · B form
C majorkey centers
A8 bars
B10 bars
C
The tune runs 18 : A takes 8 and B takes 10. A opens with and in bar 1, and C+ in bar 2, and Cmaj7 and C+ in bar 3. to fills bars 4 and 5, to and to take bars 6 and 7, and bar 8 runs , A7, Dm7, G7. B starts the way A does, with Cmaj7 C7 and C6 C+ in bars 9 and 10. Bar 11 moves from Cmaj7 to Em7♭5, and A7 fills bar 12. Dm7 and share bar 13, Em7 and A7 bar 14, Dm7 bar 15, and and G7 bar 16. C6 in bar 17 settles it, and Dm7 to G7 in bar 18 sends the back to the top. The follow the iReal Pro chart; players often vary them.