George Gershwin, music · Ira Gershwin, lyrics · From the musical Strike Up the Band, Philadelphia 1927, Broadway 1930
Strike Up the Band
George Gershwin wrote it in 1927, with words by his brother Ira, for a stage musical. The show failed in Philadelphia that year, and a rewritten version reached Broadway in 1930. Hear it from Red Nichols, Sonny Stitt, Tony Bennett with Count Basie, the Oscar Peterson Trio and Branford Marsalis.
Listen in this order
The path starts with Red Nichols's orchestra in 1930, the year the show reached Broadway, then moves through a quartet, a cool tenor quartet, and a clarinet and piano record with an orchestra. Tony Bennett with Count Basie, a tenor with a piano trio and a live piano trio from Tokyo follow, and Branford Marsalis's 1986 quartet comes last.
1960sStanley Turrentine with The Three Sounds1960 · Cool jazz
1970sOscar Peterson Trio1972
1980sBranford Marsalis1986 · Hard bop
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Hear it from the show's year
Red Nichols Strike Up the Band Orchestra · 1930
Brunswick 4695
Red Nichols led the orchestra on this record, made in New York on January 17, 1930, the year the revised musical reached Broadway. It was issued on Brunswick 4695.
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This is the oldest record on the page, and it runs 2:45. Listen to how the whole orchestra plays the tune together and how quickly it is over.
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Play the first section, eight : , E♭maj7, , E°7, , , E♭maj7, then and for two beats each. Play the melody over it if you know it.
Sonny Stitt recorded it in New York on January 26, 1950, with Bud Powell on piano, Curly Russell on bass and Max Roach on drums. Prestige issued it as the single Prestige 758 in 1951 and later collected it on Sonny Stitt, Bud Powell, J.J. Johnson (1956).
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Stitt plays tenor saxophone, with Bud Powell on piano, Curly Russell on bass and Max Roach on drums. Follow the saxophone first, then play the track again and follow the piano.
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Play the second section, eight : , A♭maj7, , A°7, , , then A♭maj7 and , then and for two beats each. Hum the melody over the .
Stan Getz recorded it in New York on December 10, 1950, with Horace Silver on piano. Roost issued it as the single Roost 520, paired with Tootsie Roll.
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Compare Getz's tenor saxophone here with Sonny Stitt's earlier in 1950. Horace Silver plays piano, with Joe Calloway on bass and Walter Bolden on drums.
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Play the third section, eight : , E♭maj7, , , , , , . If the move from Dm7♭5 to G7♭9 is new, play those two alone four times first.
Buddy DeFranco and Oscar Peterson Play George Gershwin
Buddy DeFranco on clarinet and Oscar Peterson on piano recorded it in Los Angeles on December 7, 1954, with Russell Garcia's orchestra. It came out in 1955 on Norgran as Buddy DeFranco and Oscar Peterson Play George Gershwin.
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A clarinet and a piano lead, with an orchestra of horns and strings behind them. At 2:27 it is one of the shortest tracks on the path.
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Play the last section, eight : , E♭maj7, , , , , E♭maj7, then Fm7 and B♭7 for two beats each. Play the move from E♭maj7 to Gm7♭5 slowly first.
Tony Bennett & Count Basie and His Orchestra · 1959
Strike Up the Band
Tony Bennett sings it with Count Basie's orchestra on the album named for this song. The sessions were in New York on January 3 and 5, 1959, and Roulette released the record that May.
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Bennett sings with the Basie orchestra behind him. At 1:34 it is the shortest track on the path.
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Play the last of each section, where two share the bar: and , then and , then and . Give each chord two beats.
Stanley Turrentine recorded it with the Three Sounds at Van Gelder Studio in New Jersey on June 29, 1960. It appears on the 2000 set Blue Hour: The Complete Sessions.
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Turrentine plays tenor saxophone with the Three Sounds: Gene Harris on piano, Andrew Simpkins on bass and Bill Dowdy on drums. At 5:26 it gives the players more room than the 1950s records on the path.
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Play the last four of the tune on loop: , , , then Fm7 and B♭7 for two beats each. Playing a solo over them needs some practice with tones; the smaller version is to play only the root of each chord, one note per bar.
The Oscar Peterson Trio played it in the Golden Room of the Palace Hotel in Tokyo on May 27, 1972. Peterson, bassist Michel Donato and drummer Louis Hayes made the recording that Denon issued as The Oscar Peterson Trio in Tokyo.
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A piano, a bass and drums, recorded live in Tokyo. At 4:33 the trio has room to stretch the tune.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first section with your left hand on the roots, one note held for each : E♭, E♭, E, E, F, B♭, E♭, then B♭ and E♭ for two beats each. Add the melody with your right hand if you can.
Branford Marsalis recorded it at RCA Studio A in New York in March 1986, with Larry Willis on piano, Charnett Moffett on bass and Tain on drums. It is the third track on Royal Garden Blues, released by Columbia that year.
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A quartet led by a tenor saxophone, with piano, bass and drums. It is the newest record on the path, from 1986.
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Play the whole tune once through at a slow tempo, sections A, B, C and D with the on this page. If you can already play over , take one slow ; the smaller version is to play the melody once and the chord roots once.
The song comes from a 1927 stage musical that ran in Philadelphia without success. A rewritten version of the show reached Broadway in 1930.
1930s
Red Nichols leads an orchestra through it in New York in January 1930, the year the revised show reached Broadway.
1950s
Sonny Stitt plays it with Bud Powell in 1950, and in 1959 Tony Bennett sings it with Count Basie's orchestra on an album named for the song.
1960s
Stanley Turrentine and the Three Sounds record it at Van Gelder Studio in June 1960. The track appears on the 2000 set Blue Hour: The Complete Sessions.
1970s
The Oscar Peterson Trio plays it live in the Golden Room of the Palace Hotel in Tokyo in May 1972.
1980s
Art Pepper plays it with Pete Jolly's piano in Hollywood in 1980, and Branford Marsalis records it in New York in 1986 for Royal Garden Blues.
More great versions
1 more, from 1957 to 1957. Tap a cover to play it here.
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
E♭ majorusual key
32 barsA · B · C · D form
E♭ major · A♭ major · C minor · B♭ major · F minorkeys it moves between
A8 bars
B8 bars
C8 bars
D8 bars
E♭
A♭
E♭
C m
B♭
E♭
F m
E♭
The iReal Pro chart runs 32 in , in four different eight-bar sections: A, B, C and D, with no repeats. A opens on for two bars and for two, then , , E♭maj7 and , which points toward A♭. B moves to with for two bars and for two, then B♭m7, E♭7, A♭maj7 with , and Fm7 B♭7 back toward E♭. C returns to E♭maj7 for two bars, then and lead to , follows, and Fm7 B♭7 closes the section. D opens with E♭maj7 for two bars, then and lead to Fm7, B♭7 and E♭maj7, and Fm7 B♭7 ends the .