Composed by Morgan Lewis , with lyrics by Nancy Hamilton
This song became a famous bebop anthem in the early 1940s. The boppers clearly liked the chord changes better than the melody, and when Charlie Parker composed his also oft-played song “Ornithology,” he kept the former and dis- carded the latter. I have often heard jazz musicians interpolate the opening phrase of “Ornithology” into their solos on “How High the Moon,” but I would advise against this now hackneyed confl ation of standards. I recall an evening when a soloist quoted Parker’s melody one time too many, and a group of mu- sicians in the audience, less than impressed with this predictable motif, imme- diately started singing along with the riff —not because they liked it but merely to show that they found this choice of notes all too banal.
The song, which originated in the 1940 Broadway production Two for the Show, was the sole jazz standard composed by Morgan Lewis—a double threat who could choreograph dance numbers as well as write songs—with the assis- tance of lyricist Nancy Hamilton, better known for her clever wordplay than poetic nuance. For my part, I don’t fi nd this song convincing as a lover’s decla- ration; the rigorous patterns pursued by the harmony and melody undermine the passion. That said, I can comprehend the appeal of this piece for impro- visers, but more as a type of puzzle to solve than a source of emotional catharsis.
Benny Goodman was the fi rst to appreciate the jazz potential of “How High the Moon,” and enjoyed the fi rst hit recording in a version that featured Helen Forrest on vocals. Stan Kenton also placed on the charts with his treatment of “How High the Moon” in July 1948, relying on a Neal Hefti chart that show- cased June Christy and off ered a half-chorus solo spot to Art Pepper. But Les Paul and Mary Ford achieved the biggest success of all with this song, reaching a huge crossover audience with a hard-swinging over-dubbed recording—a technological marvel at the time that allowed Ford to sing in harmony with her own voice—which stayed on top of the chart for nine weeks. Their version of “How High the Moon” was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
The beboppers could not match the sales of these recordings, but ultimately they put a lasting stamp on how this song would be played by later generations. “How High the Moon” might have been originally conceived by its composer as a ballad, and found acceptance with swing bandleaders as a vocal feature. But its destiny was to become a jam session workhorse, a meeting ground for bat- tling soloists, and a springboard for virtuosic displays. Guitarist Charlie Chris- tian, who was a member of Goodman’s band when the latter had his hit with “How High the Moon,” is the likely linchpin, the person who brought the song from the dance halls to the Harlem late night jams where the bebop vocabulary
How High the Moon 151
was refi ned. Virtually all of the leaders of the “new thing” in 1940s jazz left behind recordings of the song (or of variants based on the same harmonies) in the years following World War II.
Yet Ella Fitzgerald did more than anyone to put a stamp of ownership on “How High the Moon.” More than 15 surviving recordings testify to her lasting fascination with the song, which she typically employed as a vehicle for her scat- singing chops. Given the number of times she tackled the song, we can perhaps forgive the Grammy judges who in 2002 decided to put her recording of “How High the Moon” in their Hall of Fame, alongside the Les Paul/Mary Ford ver- sion, but left fans unclear which recording they wanted to honor. Somehow they listed 1960 as the year of the performance—no doubt referring to her ver- sion from the LP Ella in Berlin —but also commemorated Decca (the company for whom she had recorded this song in 1947, but not in 1960) as the label. Add- ing to the confusion, Ella left behind an outstanding version of the same song recorded at Carnegie Hall with Dizzy Gillespie a few weeks before the Decca session, and this lesser-known performance, which fi nds her exchanging licks with the trumpeter, may be the most historically important of the lot—serving as a symbolic (and perhaps actual) moment when “How High the Moon” was handed off from the boppers to the First Lady of Song.
The next year, in the same setting, Duke Ellington also featured “How High the Moon,” and the contrast with Gillespie and Fitzgerald could hardly be more striking. For this high-profi le concert, Duke invited Ben Webster to sit in with the band, and Webster shows that a saxophonist could push this song to its limits without borrowing anything from the modern jazz idiom. Since that time, fans have witnessed a few other attempts to wrest this song away from the beboppers and scat-singers—John Coltrane, for example, composed a piece (“Satellite”) loosely based on “How High the Moon,” where he tried to update the harmonic movement and create a diff erent kind of mood. Abbey Lincoln also shook things up with her 6/8 version, mingling French and English in her adaptation of the lyrics. But for the most part, this composition has resisted tinkering, and remains today much what it was back in the 1940s: a show-off number to excite the fans with lightning-fast phrases.
recommended versions
Benny Goodman, New York, February 7, 1940
Dizzy Gillespie (with Ella Fitzgerald), live at Carnegie Hall, New York, September 29, 1947
Stan Kenton (with June Christy and Art Pepper), New York, December 21, 1947 Duke Ellington (with Ben Webster), live at Carnegie Hall, New York, November 13,
1948
152 How Insensitive
Les Paul and Mary Ford, New York, January 4, 1951
Sonny Stitt (with Barry Harris), from Burnin’, Chicago, August 1, 1958
Ella Fitzgerald, from Ella in Berlin , live at Deutschlandhalle, Berlin, February 13, 1960 Joe Pass, from Virtuoso , Los Angeles, August 28, 1973
Abbey Lincoln (with Clark Terry and Jackie McLean), from The World Is Falling
Down , New York, February 21–27, 1990
Ray Brown (with Joe Lovano), from Some of My Best Friends Are . . . Sax Players , New York (November 20–22, 1995) and Los Angeles (February 13, 1996)