Thursday, June 21, 2012

Tune of the Moment: Out of This World

The tune Out of this World by Harold Arlen has been on my mind a lot recently-- I've been listening to John Coltrane's recording of it on the album Coltrane, then it came up in the Elvin afro feel frenzy, then I learned an old friend who I associated with that recording died, and then it came up on the Bill Evans/Jimmy Giuffre record, which took me a minute to place it because it's so different from Coltrane's version. You can view a chart for it on the probably-illegal jazzpla.net-- it's a two pager, so hit 'next' at the end of the page.

It's a pretty monumental tune: a 74 bar AA1BA (16-20-18-20) with a whole lot of space, which Coltrane extends further by playing two measures of 3/4 for each measure of the tune, and adding 8 measures between the second A and the bridge. He does not double up the last four written bars of the bridge-- they just become four bars of 3/4. The line he plays before the start of the tune (from 0:18-0:43) is not on the other versions I have-- either it's something he wrote, or maybe it's the verse of the tune-- a very short verse. If anyone knows, please tell me about it in the comments. It occurs again between the tenor and piano solos, and before the second tenor solo, but not at the beginning of the head out. On the head out there appear to be four measures added to the end of the first A section. The solos are over a modal vamp.

On YouTube the track is split in two:



The rest of the track, and some other recordings of the tune after the break:






From Coltrane's Live in Seattle-- here they almost don't make it to the bridge:



Part 2 | Part 3


A (naturally) Coltrane-like interpretation By Pharoah Sanders:



Part 2


Kenny Burrell with Coleman Hawkins:




Mel Tormé and George Shearing:



Donald Byrd and Pepper Adams:




Here's a nice pop version by Gloria Lynne:




Here's a version by Johnny Griffin with Kenny Washington copping Vernel Fournier's Poinciana groove:




Ella Fitzgerald:




A TV music version:




Vegas style, by Sammy Davis, Jr.




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