Autumn in New York
Oct 14th, 2008 by oldfogey
It’s autumn - and this is London. This week has been something of an indian summer, with sunny days and temperatures in the 60s. But that hasn’t halted the season’s march, and the first reds and golds are showing on the trees at the bottom of my garden. The horse chestnuts have all gone brown prematurely, on account of some bug that has got into them, but the conkers are still prolific. Walking down the avenue of chestnuts towards St Mary’s Church last week was hazardous - more than once falling conkers bounced off my bald head.
Still this isn’t really the place to be in autumn - or the Fall as Americans so poetically put it. It is over there. A place, I sadly confess, I have never been to. But here’s how in my dreams it would be - in New York. A young Frank Sinatra singing, in 1947, this wonderful Vernon Duke song.
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Sinatra? Schimatra! Give me the Ella & Louis version any day!
Autumn in New York song was one of the highlights of their 56/57 sessions with their voices, Louis’ trumpet and the simple arrangements all combing perfectly for three golden minutes.
I suspect that AinNY was one of the songs where the first take was so good it that they kept it, and it made it on to the album, certainly Louis’ shaky pronunciation was uncorrected (the “greemy” rooftops at sundown, the gay “divorces”).
I think that explains the freshness for above all they all seem to be *enjoying themselves* so much on that track.
botogol - Yes, Ella and Louis are very good. In my own defence I will say only that Sinatra singing it straight and simply doesn’t take our attention away from the song. With Ella and Louis (Louis especially) I find I’m listening more to what they are doing with the song rather than purely to the song. But they are inimitable.