Dave Brubeck, music · Iola Brubeck, lyric · First released on Brubeck Plays Brubeck, 1956
In Your Own Sweet Way
Dave Brubeck wrote this ballad around 1952, and it was first released in 1956 on his solo piano album. The unhurried pace gives players room, and several versions on this page run past eight minutes. Hear it from Brubeck, Miles Davis, Wes Montgomery, Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett.
Listen in this order
The path starts with Dave Brubeck at the piano alone and then with his quartet, and goes on to Miles Davis, Stan Getz and Wes Montgomery. It finishes with the Bill Evans trio, Norma Winstone singing with a piano, and a long live set from Keith Jarrett.
Dave Brubeck plays the tune alone at the piano on April 18, 1956. It was the song's first release, on the album Brubeck Plays Brubeck, and he plays three improvised .
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Brubeck plays without a band, so every part of the tune comes from the piano. The track runs just under five minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first four of the chart slowly, two beats on each : and , and , and , then and . Keep a steady count and listen to how the chords step toward B♭maj7.
The Dave Brubeck Quartet plays the tune live at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 6, 1956, with Paul Desmond on alto saxophone. It was the first quartet version released, on the album Dave Brubeck and Jay & Kai at Newport.
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Paul Desmond plays alto saxophone in front of Brubeck's piano, bass and drums, with the Newport crowd listening. At nine and a half minutes, it runs nearly twice as long as the solo record.
Try it on your instrument
Play the on its own, 17 to 24: , , Em7 , Dmaj7, , , , Dm7 G7. Loop it until feel familiar.
Miles Davis records the tune with John Coltrane on May 11, 1956, about two months after a first version with Sonny Rollins. According to Ted Gioia, Davis probably deserves as much credit as Brubeck for making it a standard.
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Davis leads on trumpet with John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, backed by Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums. Compare this two-horn sound with the single saxophone on the Brubeck quartet's record.
Try it on your instrument
Play 5 to 8 slowly: , , , . Listen for how bar 8 settles on B♭maj7 after the have wandered away from it.
Stan Getz's quartet plays the tune in Kildevælds Church in Copenhagen in January 1960, with Jan Johansson on piano. It was issued by Verve as part of Stan Getz at Large.
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Getz is the only horn, so his tenor saxophone carries the tune with piano, bass and drums behind it. The track runs just over six minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the last two of the and the first bar of the next over and over: , , then . Hear how the carry you from the bridge back to the start.
Wes Montgomery records the tune in New York in January 1960 for his Riverside album The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery. Tommy Flanagan plays piano, with Percy Heath on bass and Albert Heath on drums.
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Montgomery's guitar plays the tune with piano, bass and drums behind it. The track runs just under five minutes, about half the length of the Newport version.
Try it on your instrument
Play the opening eight twice. The first time, play only the lowest note of each ; the second time, play the full chords: , , , , , , , B♭maj7.
“In Your Own Sweet Way (take 1)”, How My Heart Sings!
Bill Evans records the tune with Chuck Israels and Paul Motian in New York on June 5, 1962. This first take is the one released on How My Heart Sings! in 1964, and a second take followed on the 1989 reissue.
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Evans shares the tune with Israels on bass and Motian on drums. The track runs almost seven minutes, longer than the Brubeck solo and the Wes Montgomery record.
Try it on your instrument
The chart ends with eight on . Hold that in the left hand with a steady pulse for all eight bars, then go back to the opening bar, . This is the pause that players put between rounds of the tune.
Norma Winstone sings the tune with John Taylor on piano at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London in August 1988. The recording came out in 2019 on the album In Concert.
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Winstone sings with only Taylor's piano beside her, so the voice and the piano share the whole track. It is a live recording of about eight and a half minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Hum or sing the melody while you play the for 1 to 4: , , , . If doing both at once is too much, sing the four bars once, then play the chords once.
Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette play the tune in their first set at the Blue Note in New York on June 3, 1994. It appears in the 1995 box At the Blue Note: The Complete Recordings.
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The trio plays for almost eighteen minutes, the longest version on this path. Jarrett's piano, Peacock's bass and DeJohnette's drums have room to take their time.
Try it on your instrument
Loop the first eight of the chart ( , , , , , , , B♭maj7) and change how you play them each time round. Improvising a full solo over all 32 bars is a much bigger step and is not needed here.
Dave Brubeck writes the tune around 1952 and first releases it in 1956 on a solo piano album. That year his quartet plays it at Newport and Miles Davis records it twice, first with Sonny Rollins and then with John Coltrane.
1960s
Stan Getz plays it on tenor saxophone in a Copenhagen church in January 1960, and Wes Montgomery records it on guitar the same month. Bill Evans follows in 1962 with his trio.
1970s
Kenny Drew's trio records it in Copenhagen in May 1974, with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen on bass and Albert Heath on drums.
1980s
Chet Baker's trio plays it in Holland in 1983, and Pharoah Sanders records it with pianist William Henderson in 1987. Norma Winstone sings it with John Taylor in London in August 1988.
1990s
Keith Jarrett's trio plays it at the Blue Note in New York on June 3, 1994, in a version that runs almost eighteen minutes.
More great versions
6 more, from 1956 to 1987. Tap a cover to play it here.
1950sMiles Davis Quintet1956 · Bebop
Phil Woods Quartet1957 · Bebop
1960sMcCoy Tyner Trio1960
1970sKenny Drew Trio1974 · Hard bop
1980sChet Baker Trio1983
Pharoah Sanders and William Henderson1987 · Soul jazz
Phil Woods plays the tune on alto saxophone with a quartet at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York in 1957. It was released in 1958 on the Epic album Warm Woods.
Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, McCoy Tyner
McCoy Tyner records the tune in a trio with Steve Davis on bass and Elvin Jones on drums on the afternoon of October 24, 1960, hours before a John Coltrane Quartet session in the same studio. The track came out in 1977 on an Atlantic album credited to Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett and McCoy Tyner.
Kenny Drew's trio plays the tune in Copenhagen on May 22, 1974, with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen on bass and Albert Heath on drums. It comes from the sessions for the SteepleChase album Dark Beauty.
Chet Baker plays the tune with pianist Michel Graillier and bassist Ricardo Del Fra in Monster, Holland on May 25, 1983. It was released in 1984 on the Timeless album Mister B.
Pharoah Sanders and pianist William Henderson record the tune at Hyde Street Studios in San Francisco in September 1987. It came out in 1989 on the album A Prayer Before Dawn.
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 · C form
B♭ major · G♭ major · D major · C major · A♭7sus vampkeys it moves between
A8 bars
A8 bars
B8 bars · bridge
A8 bars
C8 bars · interlude
B♭
G♭
B♭
B♭
G♭
B♭
D
C
B♭
G♭
B♭
A♭7sus vamp
The tune is a , followed by an eight-bar interlude that players usually put between (the chart writes it as a fifth section, C). Each runs the same eight bars: and in bar 1, and in bar 2, and in bar 3, and and in bar 4. Bar 5 moves to and , bar 6 to and , bar 7 is and , and bar 8 settles on B♭maj7. The (bars 17 to 24) starts in with and and , then repeats that pattern with Em7 and and Dmaj7. Bars 21 and 22 are and , and bars 23 and 24 are and Dm7 G7, which lead back to the last A. The interlude holds for all eight bars.