Benny Golson, music · Leonard Feather, lyrics · Written with Dizzy Gillespie's big band, 1956
Whisper Not
Benny Golson wrote it in 1956 while he played in Dizzy Gillespie's big band. When Leonard Feather added words, singers picked it up as readily as instrumentalists. Hear it from Gillespie's band, Wynton Kelly, Art Blakey, Ella Fitzgerald and Keith Jarrett.
Listen in this order
The path starts with the big band Benny Golson was playing in when he wrote the tune, then his own recording. It moves through a piano and guitar quartet, a live Art Blakey set, a guitar and organ trio, Ella Fitzgerald's vocal and a vibraphone quintet, and ends with Keith Jarrett's trio live in Paris in 1999.
Benny Golson wrote it in 1956 while he played in Dizzy Gillespie's big band. The band recorded it in New York on April 8, 1957, for the Verve album Birks' Works.
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Listen for
A full big band plays the tune, and four soloists step out: Dizzy Gillespie, the alto saxophonist Ernie Henry, Benny Golson and the pianist Wynton Kelly. The record runs 5:17.
Try it on your instrument
Play the eight of the , two to the bar: , , , , , Em7♭5 A7♭9, Dm7 , . Hum the melody over them, slowly.
Benny Golson recorded it with his own group in New York in October 1957. It came out in 1958 on Contemporary as Benny Golson's New York Scene, with Art Farmer on trumpet and Wynton Kelly on piano.
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Listen for
Benny Golson plays tenor saxophone next to the trumpeter Art Farmer. Four more horns join them on this track: a trombone, a French horn, an alto saxophone and a baritone saxophone.
Try it on your instrument
Play the eight of the , one to the bar: , , , , , , , . Hum the melody over them, then go back to the .
Wynton Kelly recorded it in New York on January 31, 1958, with Kenny Burrell on guitar, Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums. Kelly had played it already on Dizzy Gillespie's record and on Benny Golson's.
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Wynton Kelly leads on piano with Kenny Burrell's guitar beside him, over bass and drums. The track runs 7:08.
Try it on your instrument
Play the last four of the , two to the bar: , , Dm7 , . Loop them and find the melody on top. If the chords are new, play only the first chord of each bar: Dm7, Em7♭5, Dm7, Fm7.
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers · 1958 · Hard bop
Olympia Concert
Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers played it live at the Olympia in Paris in December 1958, with Benny Golson on tenor saxophone and Lee Morgan on trumpet. Fontana issued the concert in 1959.
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Listen for
This is a concert recording. Benny Golson, who wrote the tune, plays tenor saxophone next to Lee Morgan on trumpet, with Art Blakey on drums. The track runs 7:11.
Try it on your instrument
Play the whole form once, two to the bar in the and one in the , in the order A, A, bridge, A. Use as the last bar of the second A and Fm7 as the last bar of the first and third. If that is too much, play only the root of each chord in the first four bars: C B♭ A D G F E A.
Wes Montgomery recorded it in New York on October 5 and 6, 1959, with the organist Melvin Rhyne and the drummer Paul Parker. It is on the Riverside album The Wes Montgomery Trio.
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Only three players take part: Wes Montgomery on guitar, Melvin Rhyne on organ and Paul Parker on drums. The track runs 4:41.
Try it on your instrument
Play the root of each through one , one note per chord: C B♭ A D G F E A D B E A D E F G. Then hum the melody over your own line.
Ella Fitzgerald recorded Leonard Feather's words in Hollywood in 1966, with Marty Paich arranging and conducting, and named her Verve album after the song.
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Ella Fitzgerald sings Leonard Feather's words with a small group behind her, arranged and conducted by Marty Paich. The track runs 3:04.
Try it on your instrument
Hum the melody on a single syllable through one full , 32 : A, A, , A. Mark where the bridge starts, at bar 17, and where the last A starts, at bar 25.
Bobby Hutcherson recorded it with his quintet at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley in October 1985. It came out in 1986 on the Landmark album Color Schemes.
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Bobby Hutcherson leads on vibes, with Mulgrew Miller on piano, John Heard on bass, Billy Higgins on drums and Airto on percussion. The track runs 6:54.
Try it on your instrument
Play the end of the twice. After seven , the first time through, the last bar is and you return to the top. The second time, it is Fm7 and you go on to the . Notice how the two endings sound.
Benny Golson writes it in 1956 while in Dizzy Gillespie's big band, which records it in 1957. Golson cuts his own version that October, and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers play it live in Paris in 1958.
1960s
Ella Fitzgerald sings it in 1966 with Marty Paich conducting, and the Oscar Peterson Trio plays it live in Chicago in 1961.
1980s
The vibes player Bobby Hutcherson records it with his quintet in Berkeley in 1985, and it comes out in 1986 on Color Schemes.
1990s
Keith Jarrett's trio plays it live in Paris in 1999. ECM names the two-disc album after the tune and releases it in 2000.
More great versions
3 more, from 1957 to 1962. 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
C minorusual key
32 barsA · A · B · A form
C minor · G minor · D minorkeys it moves between
A8 bars
A8 bars
B8 bars · bridge
A8 bars
C m
G m
D m
C m
G m
D m
C m
G m
D m
C m
G m
D m
C m
The iReal Pro chart runs 32 in : A (8 bars), A (8), B (8, the ) and A (8). Each A has two to the bar. It opens in C minor with , then visits with and , and with , , Em7♭5 A7♭9 and Dm7 , before pulls back to C minor. The first A closes with Fm7 G7♭9, which returns to the top. The second A closes with Fm7 , which leads into the bridge. The bridge has one chord to the bar: Am7♭5, D7♭9, Gm7 and Gm7/F stay around G minor, then Em7♭5, A7♭9, and G7♭9 lead home. The last A repeats the first and closes on Fm7 G7♭9.