Kurt Weill, music · Ogden Nash, lyrics · Introduced by Mary Martin and Kenny Baker in One Touch of Venus
Speak Low
Speak Low is a 1943 song by Kurt Weill and Ogden Nash from the Broadway show One Touch of Venus. Jazz players kept returning to it, among them Bill Evans and Sonny Clark with John Coltrane. Mary Martin and Kenny Baker introduced it, and Guy Lombardo's band had the 1944 hit single.
Listen in this order
The path starts with the Broadway introducers in 1943 and one jazz singer in 1956. Then come a piano trio, two horn bands, a second trio, a guitar and organ quartet, and a tenor sax quartet from 1987.
1940sMary Martin and Kenny Baker, Maurice Abravanel conducting1943
1950sBillie Holiday1956 · Swing
Bill Evans Trio1956 · Cool jazz
Sonny Clark Sextet1957 · Bebop
Hank Mobley Quintet1958
1960sMcCoy Tyner Trio1962 · Post-bop
Grant Green Quartet1965 · Modal jazz
1970s
1980sPharoah Sanders Quartet1987 · Contemporary jazz
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Mary Martin and Kenny Baker, Maurice Abravanel conducting · 1943
Speak Low
Mary Martin and Kenny Baker introduced the song in the Broadway show One Touch of Venus in 1943. They recorded it for Decca in New York in November 1943, with Maurice Abravanel conducting an orchestra and .
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Two singers, a woman and a man, share the song with an orchestra and a behind them. The record runs just over three minutes.
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Play the first four of the A part at your instrument: , , Gm7, C7, one per bar, in . Then add bars 5 and 6, where Gm7 and C7 each get two beats.
Billie Holiday and Her Orchestra · 1956 · Swing, Vocal
All or Nothing at All
Billie Holiday recorded it in Los Angeles on 14 August 1956 for Verve, with Harry Edison, Ben Webster and Jimmy Rowles in the band. It came out on the album All or Nothing at All.
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Billie Holiday's voice sits in front of a band of trumpet, tenor sax, piano, guitar, bass and drums. Ben Webster plays the tenor sax and Harry Edison the trumpet.
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Hum the melody over a slow , pattern, one per , for four bars. Then play the same four bars again and leave a gap after each chord, the way a singer leaves room.
Bill Evans recorded it at Reeves Sound Studios in New York in September 1956, with Teddy Kotick on bass and Paul Motian on drums. It came out on his album New Jazz Conceptions in 1957.
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A trio of piano, bass and drums plays the whole song, so the piano carries both the tune and the . Follow the bass line under the piano.
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Play the A part's 7 to 12 slowly: , , then , , B♭m7, E♭7. The song leaves here and returns in bar 13.
Sonny Clark led a sextet with Donald Byrd, Curtis Fuller and John Coltrane at Van Gelder's studio in Hackensack on 1 September 1957. Blue Note put it on Sonny's Crib in 1958 and on a single.
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Trumpet, trombone and tenor sax join the piano trio, so you hear the song with a full . John Coltrane plays the tenor sax; the track runs almost seven minutes.
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Play the 16 of the A part from the chart, then the opening of B: for two bars, for two. B opens on Fm7.
Hank Mobley and Lee Morgan recorded it at Van Gelder's studio in Hackensack on 9 February 1958, with Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers and Charlie Persip. It came out on Peckin' Time in 1959.
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A trumpet and a tenor sax lead a quintet through more than seven minutes. Wynton Kelly's piano, Paul Chambers's bass and Charlie Persip's drums keep the beat going underneath.
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Soloing over takes more skill. A smaller version: play only the roots of the A part's first four , G, C, G, C, one note per bar, as a bass line.
Grant Green recorded it at Van Gelder's studio in Englewood Cliffs on 31 March 1965, with Hank Mobley, Larry Young and Elvin Jones. Blue Note put it on I Want to Hold Your Hand, released in 1966.
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Guitar leads, with an organ and a tenor sax in the band and Elvin Jones on drums.
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Play 9 to 12 of the A part on your instrument: , , B♭m7, E♭7. Then play bars 13 and 14, and , to come home to .
Pharoah Sanders recorded it at Studio 44 in Monster, Holland, on 11 March 1987, with John Hicks, Curtis Lundy and Idris Muhammad. It came out on the Timeless album Africa the same year.
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Pharoah Sanders plays tenor sax in front of piano, bass and drums, and the track runs more than eight minutes. Compare it with the Mobley record from 1958.
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Play the B part's last six : , , , , , then and D7 to lead back to the top.
Kurt Weill and Ogden Nash write the song for One Touch of Venus. Mary Martin and Kenny Baker record it for Decca in November 1943, and Guy Lombardo's orchestra has the 1944 hit single.
1950s
Billie Holiday sings it with a six-piece band in 1956, and Bill Evans plays it in a piano trio a month later. Sonny Clark's sextet adds John Coltrane on tenor sax in 1957, and Hank Mobley's quintet follows in 1958.
1960s
McCoy Tyner plays it in a trio with Elvin Jones in 1962. Grant Green records it with an organ and a tenor sax in 1965.
1980s
Pharoah Sanders plays it with a quartet in Holland in 1987 for the Timeless album Africa.
2010s
Sophie Milman sings it on her 2011 album In the Moonlight.
More great versions
1 more, from 2011 to 2011. Tap a cover to play it here.
2010sSophie Milman2011
Sophie Milman
2011
In the Moonlight
Sophie Milman recorded it for her 2011 album In the Moonlight, released by Entertainment One Music.
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
F majorusual key
46 barsA · A · B form
F · G m · A♭ · F m · E♭keys it moves between
A16 bars
A16 bars
B14 bars
F
G m
A♭
F
F
G m
A♭
F
F m
E♭
F
The chart in iReal Pro has three parts in . A runs 16 and plays twice. Bars 1 to 4 are , , Gm7, C7, and bars 5 and 6 give Gm7 and C7 two beats each. Bar 7 is , bar 8 is , then bars 9 to 12 are , , B♭m7, E♭7, which takes the song up a step. Bars 13 and 14 are and Gm7 C7. Bars 15 and 16 are and D7 the first time, and F6 and F6 the second. B runs 14 bars: for two bars, for two, for two, D♭7, C7, Am7♭5, D7, Gm7, C7, F6, and a last bar of Am7 D7 that leads back to the top.