Duke Ellington and Barney Bigard, music · Irving Mills, lyrics · Recorded by Ellington's orchestra in October 1930
Mood Indigo
Mood Indigo is a 32-bar ballad by Duke Ellington and Barney Bigard, first recorded in 1930. Players like the blues colour it gives a major-key ballad, and the room it leaves for new arrangements. You will hear it from Ellington's band, Frank Sinatra, Nina Simone, Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus.
▶ Plays the whole path in order, one recording after another.
- 1 Learn the song Duke Ellington✓
- 2 Hear it with words Frank Sinatra✓
- 3 Hear it as a piano trio Thelonious Monk✓
- 4 Hear voice with piano trio Nina Simone✓
- 5 Hear a saxophone take the lead Duke Ellington and Coleman Hawkins✓
- 6 Hear the co-composer play Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington✓
- 7 Hear it stretched out Duke Ellington✓
- 8 Hear it reworked Charles Mingus✓
How the tune works
Mood Indigo runs 32 bars in two strains of 16, and every bar sits in A♭. Each strain has four four-bar phrases. The first phrase moves from A♭maj7 to B♭7, then to B♭m7 and E♭7♯5, and settles back on A♭maj7. The second phrase starts the same way and then steps down from E7 to E♭7. In the third phrase, A♭7 in bar 10 leads to D♭6 in bar 11, and G♭7 in bar 12 leads back to A♭maj7. The fourth phrase repeats the first. The second strain follows the same plan with small changes. It adds an F7 after A♭maj7 at the start of its first, second and fourth phrases, and it uses B♭m7 and E♭7 in bar 3 of its first and fourth phrases. Its last bar splits between A♭6 and E♭7.
Read each line as four bars. Two chords in one bar share it equally. The whole tune stays in A♭, so only the first bar carries a key tag. This chart has no written introduction.
Source is one published chord chart in A♭, 32 bars, marked Ballad and 4/4. Bars 3 and 15 read E♭m7 on the chart image; they are written B♭m7 here, as in the matching bars 19 and 31 and in JazzStandards.com's reading of the opening as I, II, ii7 and V7♯5. JazzStandards.com gives A♭ major as the original key and Standard Repertoire gives A♭ as the common key. Players differ on small details, so check the chart against your own lead sheet.
Listen in this order
Play all 8 on YouTube ↗The path starts with Ellington's 1930 record, then adds a sung version with an orchestra, a piano trio and a voice with piano, bass and drums. It goes on to a tenor saxophone feature, Louis Armstrong and Ellington with the co-composer on clarinet, Ellington's 15-minute concert arrangement and a 1963 Mingus reworking.
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Step 1 · Learn the song Now playing
Duke Ellington and His Orchestra (credited as the Jungle Band) 1930
Brunswick single
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
- Listen for
- Follow the two 16-bar strains. In the three-horn front line, the trombone plays near the top of its range and the clarinet near the bottom, which turns the usual order of the voices upside down.
- Try this
- Play the first 16 bars of the chart slowly, one chord per bar. Then listen to the record and mark the bar where the first strain ends.
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Step 2 · Hear it with words Now playing
Frank Sinatra (Nelson Riddle, arranger and conductor) 1955
In the Wee Small Hours
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
- Listen for
- The record opens with an eight-bar introduction for reeds and a muted trumpet before Sinatra sings. Afterward, listen for the reeds and the trumpet playing around his voice.
- Try this
- Sing the melody once on your own, then sing it with the record. Mark the bar where each 16-bar strain begins.
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Step 3 · Hear it as a piano trio Now playing
Thelonious Monk 1955
Thelonious Monk Plays the Music of Duke Ellington
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
- Listen for
- A trio of piano, bass and drums plays the song through in about three minutes. Compare the chords you hear with the chart on this page.
- Try this
- Play the chart's chords on piano or guitar, one chord per bar. Then listen to the record and write down any bar where the trio sounds different from the chart.
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Step 4 · Hear voice with piano trio Now playing
Nina Simone 1957
Little Girl Blue
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
- Listen for
- Simone sings and plays piano in her own arrangement, with only bass and drums beside her.
- Try this
- If you sing, learn the first 16 bars and sing them in your own range. If you play piano, accompany yourself with the chart's chords, slowly, one chord per bar.
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Step 5 · Hear a saxophone take the lead Now playing
Duke Ellington and Coleman Hawkins 1962
Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
- Listen for
- Listen for the tenor saxophone taking the main part of the record, with the rest of the group around it. Count how many times Hawkins plays through the 32-bar form.
- Try this
- Follow the chart while Hawkins plays and mark each place where the 32 bars start over. Playing a solo over the changes takes more experience; a smaller step is to play only the root of the first chord in each bar.
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Step 6 · Hear the co-composer play Now playing
Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington 1961
Together for the First Time
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
- Listen for
- Listen for Bigard's clarinet next to Armstrong's trumpet, with Ellington at the piano and a trombone in the group.
- Try this
- Play the melody on your instrument one 16-bar strain at a time. Start the second strain only when the first feels easy.
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Step 7 · Hear it stretched out Now playing
Duke Ellington and His Orchestra 1950
Masterpieces by Ellington
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- Listen for
- Listen for the section in waltz time and for the moves into new keys. A singer, Eve Duke, takes part, credited as Yvonne Lanauze.
- Try this
- Listen once through and write down the minute where the feel changes to waltz time. No playing needed; a smaller step is to listen to the first five minutes only.
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Step 8 · Hear it reworked Now playing
Charles Mingus 1963
Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
- Listen for
- Listen for a large band led by a bassist playing Ellington's tune in under five minutes. Compare how many instruments you hear with the three-horn front line of the 1930 record.
- Try this
- Play the chart's chords at the piano, then listen to the record and mark the first place where Mingus's band sounds different from the chart.
More great versions
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Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra with Ivie Anderson 1940
linked take is on Ivie and Duke, Vol. 2
Ellington's first vocal version of the tune, sung by Ivie Anderson with the band, ten years after the first record.
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Duke Ellington and His Orchestra 1957
Ellington Indigos
Shorty Baker takes the trumpet solo spot on this 1957 Ellington orchestra record, taken from the album Ellington Indigos.
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Charles Mingus and His Jazz Groups 1959
Mingus Dynasty
Mingus's earlier studio record of the tune, made in November 1959 by a septet and running over eight minutes.
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Clark Terry and Bob Brookmeyer 1966
Gingerbread Men
A quintet record that pairs Clark Terry's trumpet with Bob Brookmeyer's trombone, with Hank Jones listed alongside them.
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Dee Dee Bridgewater with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra 1996
Prelude to a Kiss: The Duke Ellington Album
Bridgewater sings the tune with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra on her 1996 all-Ellington album.
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Jim Campilongo and Luca Benedetti 2020
Two Guitars
A duet for two guitars, from the 2020 album Two Guitars.