The Early Autumn Story and 10 Faves

In 1946, at the height of Stravinsky's and modern classical's influence on big band jazz, arranger Ralph Burns brought a three-part suite to bandleader Woody Herman called Summer Sequence, Parts 1-3. Herman recorded the three parts in September '46, when saxophonist Flip Phillips was the band's chief saxophone soloist. But in the 78 era, three parts of anything was doomed. Four sides of two records needed to be filled, so Columbia, Herman's label at the time, shelved the masters.

A year later, in the fall of '47, Herman formed a new band, commissioning arrangements that emphasized his reed section. The five saxophones featured Sam Marowitz (as), Stan Getz, Zoot Sims and Herbie Steward (ts) and Serge Chaloff (bs). When Marowitz left shortly after, Herman stepped in to play the alto part. Burns was commissioned to write Part IV of Summer Sequence, which the band recorded on December 27, 1947, just days before the start of the second American Federation of Musicians' recording ban.

My guess is that with a paralyzing recording ban bearing down on the music industry that fall, Columbia exhumed everything it had in the vaults and prepared it for market. This included Summer Sequence, for which Burns was asked to write a fourth part.

The big surprise in Part IV came two minutes into the recording, when Getz (above) took a beautiful, yearning eight-bar solo that was considered revelatory at the time. And the melodic reed writing by Burns that followed Getz's solo hinted at a new song waiting to be born.

By the time the recording ban ended in the fall of 1948, Herman had left Columbia for Capitol. Struck by the second portion of Summer Sequence Part IV, Herman had Burns re-arrange it as a new reed-centric song called Early Autumn. with Getz as the featured soloist.

In 1952, Herman asked Johnny Mercer to write lyrics, and Herman wound up with a co-writing credit on the vocal version. Jo Stafford was first pop vocalist to record the song on June 24th, with Ella Fitzgerald coming next, two days later, on the 26th. Herman recorded his vocal version in July. Early Autumn quickly became a jazz standard.

Here's Summer Sequence Part IV with Stan Getz's solo about two minutes in 1946...



Here's Woody Herman and Ralph Burns's Early Autumn in 1947...



Here's Johnny Mathis in 1956, with an arrangement by Percy Faither...



Here's Anita O'Day with the Marty Paich Orchestra in 1958...



Here's Stan Kenton in 1958...



Here's Bill Holman's arrangement for Charlie Barnet in 1958...



Here's Les Brown from his Swing Song Book in 1959...



Here's Sun Ra and His Intergalactic Arkestra off of his Holiday for Soul Dance album in 1960, with Ricky Murray on vocal...



Here's the George Shearing Quintet in 1960...



And here's the VIP Trio from their Standard Album in 1988, featuring Cedar Walton (p), Pat Senatore (b) and Bill Higgins (d)...



Bonus: Here's my favorite Stan Getz solo on Early Autumn, from the 40th anniversary Carnegie Hall Concert in 1976. Move the sound bar to 25:24. The alto solo is Woody Herman's followed by Pat Coil's piano and then Getz...