124-445: " Nature Boy " is a song first recorded by American jazz singer Nat King Cole . It was released on March 29, 1948, as a single by Capitol Records , and later appeared on the album The Nat King Cole Story . It was written by eden ahbez as a tribute to Bill Pester , who practiced the Naturmensch and Lebensreform philosophies adopted by Ahbez. The lyrics of the song relate to a 1940s Los Angeles–based group called "Nature Boys",
248-518: A Liza Minnelli inspired voice with a breathy range, followed by Bennett complimenting her with the story of meeting the titular character. "Nature Boy" was released for streaming on Gaga's Vevo channel from September 16, 2014. Preceding the release, Gaga tweeted about the background of the song, about the death of flutist Horn, as well as about ahbez, saying "This composer was part of a sub-culture of nomadic hippies! We channeled our own Gypsy lives in this performance". Gil Kaufman from MTV News gave
372-574: A pop and jazz standard, with many artists interpreting the song, including Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga , who recorded it for their collaborative album Cheek to Cheek (2014). It was also used in numerous films like The Boy with Green Hair , The Talented Mr. Ripley , and the 2001 musical Moulin Rouge! , for which singer David Bowie recorded a version. In 1941, a 33-year-old George McGrew arrived in Los Angeles and began playing piano in
496-626: A "special relationship to time defined as 'swing ' ". Jazz involves "a spontaneity and vitality of musical production in which improvisation plays a role" and contains a "sonority and manner of phrasing which mirror the individuality of the performing jazz musician". A broader definition that encompasses different eras of jazz has been proposed by Travis Jackson: "it is music that includes qualities such as swing, improvising, group interaction, developing an 'individual voice', and being open to different musical possibilities". Krin Gibbard argued that "jazz
620-666: A 1972 recording that was included on Blue Note's 1995 album For Trane . Abbey Lincoln recorded a version of the song for her 1995 album A Turtle's Dream . Howard Reich from the Chicago Tribune was impressed with the cover saying that "the mood of reverie and awe [that Lincoln] expresses in 'Nature Boy' epitomize this album's haunting appeal." Natalie Cole , the daughter of Nat "King" Cole, paid tribute to her father by recording her version of "Nature Boy" for inclusion on an entire album of songs that had been, according to Alex Henderson from AllMusic , "major hits for him in
744-485: A Tramp ", American singer Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga began working on a collaborative jazz album, titled Cheek to Cheek . The recording took place over a year in New York City, and featured jazz musicians associated with both artists. Bennett's quartet was present, including Mike Renzi, Gray Sargent, Harold Jones and Marshall Wood as well as pianist Tom Lanier. Along with Evans, jazz trumpeter Brian Newman ,
868-518: A bandleader in the last season of My Three Sons , in addition to writing the theme music and serving as in-house composer for most of the show's twelve seasons. He also scored most episodes of Family Affair , including many of the same incidental music cues as My Three Sons . In 1980, he appeared in the second season of Diff'rent Strokes , in episode 22, "The Slumber Party". De Vol preferred to be credited as "Frank De Vol" for his acting appearances, and as "De Vol" for his musical work. De Vol
992-429: A bathtub scene. The song is performed at a jazz club in the film Angel Eyes , (2001). A version recorded by Jon Hassell on trumpet and Ronu Majumdar on flute is featured on the soundtrack. The writing of "Nature Boy" was the theme of a 2000 Canadian TV film of the same title, directed by Kari Skogland . Callum Keith Rennie played ahbez, writing the song for Cole, played by Terence Carson, after falling in love with
1116-596: A black artist to cross over to mainstream pop music was difficult. Author Krin Gabbard noted in his book, Jammin' at the Margins: Jazz and the American Cinema , that Cole had to wear white makeup while filming for the performance of the song. Although he had come into prominence in 1940 as a leader of the jazz trio named King Cole Trio, it was with "Nature Boy" that he received widespread recognition, and it
1240-406: A correction made to the lyrics saying "To be loved in return, is too much of a deal, and there's no deal in love.", and that instead it should read "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is to love and be loved, just to love, and be loved." Romersa has stated that, because these lyrics did not fit with the original ending melody, ahbez re-wrote it. In 1948, a second " Petrillo ban " on music recording
1364-549: A cracked Mojave Debussy slugging down the last of the absinthe from his canteen. Yiddish theatre composer Herman Yablokoff claimed in his biography, Memoirs of the Yiddish Stage , that the melody to "Nature Boy" was plagiarized from his song "Shvayg mayn harts" ("Hush My Heart"), which he wrote for his play Papirosn (1935). When met with a lawsuit in 1951 for the plagiarization, ahbez first proclaimed his innocence, and telephoned Yablokoff to explain that he "had heard
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#17327833933241488-414: A detailed positive review of the song: "Nature Boy" is so otherworldly in its melody and lyric that any number of interpretations over the decades, from Nat Cole's to Alex Chilton 's, have never been able to make it ordinary. It sounds like something that, from the minute it was written, existed out of time and place—all thousand and one Arabian Nights compressed into two and a half minutes as mediated by
1612-439: A different kind of heat." Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian said that the song was "treated with the greatest delicacy". He praised the flute sounds and the contrast between Gaga's "vulnerable" vocals and Bennett's "assured" one. Alexa Camp from Slant Magazine gave a negative review, saying that her timbre in "Nature Boy" appeared inconsistent, "shifting from soft and almost pleasant to parodic and comical, often within just
1736-473: A drum made by stretching skin over a flour-barrel. Lavish festivals with African-based dances to drums were organized on Sundays at Place Congo, or Congo Square, in New Orleans until 1843. There are historical accounts of other music and dance gatherings elsewhere in the southern United States. Robert Palmer said of percussive slave music: Usually such music was associated with annual festivals, when
1860-500: A few short bars". "Nature Boy" reached number 22 on the Billboard Jazz Digital Songs chart. In Russia, it peaked at number 259 on the official Tophit airplay chart. The song was a primary theme of the film score for The Boy with Green Hair (1948), for which the original version was used. The producers of the film reportedly paid $ 10,000 to ahbez for using the song, which was cumulatively more than what
1984-456: A form of folk music which arose in part from the work songs and field hollers of African-American slaves on plantations. These work songs were commonly structured around a repetitive call-and-response pattern, but early blues was also improvisational. Classical music performance is evaluated more by its fidelity to the musical score , with less attention given to interpretation, ornamentation, and accompaniment. The classical performer's goal
2108-410: A limited melodic range, sounding like a field holler, and the guitar accompaniment was slapped rather than strummed, like a small drum which responded in syncopated accents, functioning as another "voice". Handy and his band members were formally trained African-American musicians who had not grown up with the blues, yet he was able to adapt the blues to a larger band instrument format and arrange them in
2232-543: A long-time friend and colleague of Gaga, played on the album with his New York City based jazz quintet . Tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano and flutist Paul Horn were also enlisted as musicians. The songs were handpicked by Bennett and Gaga; they selected tracks from the Great American Songbook including "Nature Boy". It features instrumentation from flutes and drums, and has an orchestral arrangement. According to Kory Grow of Rolling Stone , Gaga sings in
2356-460: A multi- strain ragtime march with four parts that feature recurring themes and a bass line with copious seventh chords . Its structure was the basis for many other rags, and the syncopations in the right hand, especially in the transition between the first and second strain, were novel at the time. The last four measures of Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" (1899) are shown below. African-based rhythmic patterns such as tresillo and its variants,
2480-518: A pitch which he called a 'jazz ball' "because it wobbles and you simply can't do anything with it". The use of the word in a musical context was documented as early as 1915 in the Chicago Daily Tribune . Its first documented use in a musical context in New Orleans was in a November 14, 1916, Times-Picayune article about "jas bands". In an interview with National Public Radio , musician Eubie Blake offered his recollections of
2604-660: A popular music form. Handy wrote about his adopting of the blues: The primitive southern Negro, as he sang, was sure to bear down on the third and seventh tone of the scale, slurring between major and minor. Whether in the cotton field of the Delta or on the Levee up St. Louis way, it was always the same. Till then, however, I had never heard this slur used by a more sophisticated Negro, or by any white man. I tried to convey this effect ... by introducing flat thirds and sevenths (now called blue notes) into my song, although its prevailing key
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#17327833933242728-493: A positive review, saying that "This song sounds like what you imagine a smoky jazz club in 1940s New York would feel like." Grow praised it as "sublime", describing the track as a "loungier" version Gaga and Bennett's collaboration. Dave Lewis from HitFix believed that the "magic" of the song really happened once Bennett's vocals were heard, following Gaga's singing and the orchestration. Lewis said that "It's not exactly ' Do What You Want with My Body ', but Gaga and Bennett generate
2852-514: A song with message of love and peace should come to symbolize how cutthroat the pop music business was becoming". The success of "Nature Boy" soon led to the release of a number of cover versions of the track. However, due to the AFM ban, other record companies could not release full versions with strings, only a cappella tracks. Following Cole's version of "Nature Boy", the Dick Haymes recording
2976-553: A subculture of proto- hippies of which Ahbez was a member. "Nature Boy" was released during the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) ban of 1948. It reached the top of the Billboard music charts and sold over a million copies, helping to establish Cole's solo career, and introducing him to the white music market. "Nature Boy" was the subject of lawsuits, with Yiddish composer Herman Yablokoff claiming that it
3100-521: A version of "The Teddy Bears' Picnic " (Capitol Records 15420), that he arranged and sang lead vocals on. In 1966–1967, he arranged the soundtrack for the 1967 Columbia Pictures comedy film The Happening (starring Anthony Quinn ) and co-produced The Supremes recording of the theme from the film (with Motown producers Holland–Dozier–Holland ) which became a #1 American pop hit later that year. The success of "Nature Boy", recorded for Capitol Records , led to an executive position for De Vol at
3224-459: A woman named Anna Jacobs, portrayed by Tanya Allen . The song was a central theme in Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! "Nature Boy" was initially arranged as a techno song with singer David Bowie's vocals, before being sent to the group Massive Attack , whose remix was used in the film's closing credits. Bowie described the rendition as "slinky and mysterious", adding that Robert "3D" Del Naja from
3348-402: Is You: A Singer's Art , author Will Friedwald complimented Cole's version, saying that it had been the "startingly fresh" combination of the singer's vocals along with the string section, which had made "Nature Boy" a hit. Stephen Cook from AllMusic said that the song transformed Cole into "one of the most famous and beloved pop singing stars of the postwar years". Billboard noted that such was
3472-454: Is a construct" which designates "a number of musics with enough in common to be understood as part of a coherent tradition". Duke Ellington , one of jazz's most famous figures, said, "It's all music." Although jazz is considered difficult to define, in part because it contains many subgenres, improvisation is one of its defining elements. The centrality of improvisation is attributed to the influence of earlier forms of music such as blues ,
3596-693: Is a fundamental rhythmic figure heard in many different slave musics of the Caribbean, as well as the Afro-Caribbean folk dances performed in New Orleans Congo Square and Gottschalk's compositions (for example "Souvenirs From Havana" (1859)). Tresillo (shown below) is the most basic and most prevalent duple-pulse rhythmic cell in sub-Saharan African music traditions and the music of the African Diaspora . Tresillo
3720-558: Is a reminder of "an oppressive and racist society and restrictions on their artistic visions". Amiri Baraka argues that there is a "white jazz" genre that expresses whiteness . White jazz musicians appeared in the Midwest and in other areas throughout the U.S. Papa Jack Laine , who ran the Reliance band in New Orleans in the 1910s, was called "the father of white jazz". The Original Dixieland Jazz Band , whose members were white, were
3844-493: Is heard prominently in New Orleans second line music and in other forms of popular music from that city from the turn of the 20th century to present. "By and large the simpler African rhythmic patterns survived in jazz ... because they could be adapted more readily to European rhythmic conceptions," jazz historian Gunther Schuller observed. "Some survived, others were discarded as the Europeanization progressed." In
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3968-511: Is the real thing. This was such my pleasure." Initially strings and other instrumentation were added in post-production, but were later removed to maintain the simplicity of Cole's version. Aaron Neville 's interpretation of the track was released in 2003 on his jazz standard album, titled Nature Boy: The Jazz Album . That year in December, Harry Connick, Jr. released a holiday themed rendition of "Nature Boy", on his holiday album, Harry for
4092-437: Is to play the composition as it was written. In contrast, jazz is often characterized by the product of interaction and collaboration, placing less value on the contribution of the composer, if there is one, and more on the performer. The jazz performer interprets a tune in individual ways, never playing the same composition twice. Depending on the performer's mood, experience, and interaction with band members or audience members,
4216-453: The Billboard charts of April 16, 1948, and stayed there for 15 weeks, ultimately peaking at number one. It also reached a peak of number two on the R&;B charts. "Nature Boy" went on to sell a million copies in 1948 and Billboard DJs listed it as the greatest record of the year, with the song accumulating a total of 743 points. The 1940s American music market was divided by race, and for
4340-625: The Atlantic slave trade had brought nearly 400,000 Africans to North America. The slaves came largely from West Africa and the greater Congo River basin and brought strong musical traditions with them. The African traditions primarily use a single-line melody and call-and-response pattern, and the rhythms have a counter-metric structure and reflect African speech patterns. An 1885 account says that they were making strange music (Creole) on an equally strange variety of 'instruments'—washboards, washtubs, jugs, boxes beaten with sticks or bones and
4464-617: The Dixieland jazz revival of the 1940s, Black musicians rejected it as being shallow nostalgia entertainment for white audiences. On the other hand, traditional jazz enthusiasts have dismissed bebop, free jazz, and jazz fusion as forms of debasement and betrayal. An alternative view is that jazz can absorb and transform diverse musical styles. By avoiding the creation of norms, jazz allows avant-garde styles to emerge. For some African Americans, jazz has drawn attention to African-American contributions to culture and history. For others, jazz
4588-483: The Lincoln Theater in Los Angeles, handed him a tattered copy of "Nature Boy", and asked him to show it to Cole. However, his pleas were ignored and a disappointed ahbez left the sheet music of "Nature Boy" with Cole's valet, Otis Pollard. From him, Cole learned of the song and loved it. Cole began playing "Nature Boy" for live audiences, and received much acclaim. Irving Berlin , who was present during one of
4712-411: The 1920s Jazz Age , it has been recognized as a major form of musical expression in traditional and popular music . Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes , complex chords , call and response vocals , polyrhythms and improvisation . As jazz spread around the world, it drew on national, regional, and local musical cultures, which gave rise to different styles. New Orleans jazz began in
4836-563: The 1940s and early '50s." That album, Natalie Cole's Unforgettable... with Love , won several Grammy Awards in 1991 including Record of the Year and Album of the Year . Celine Dion performed the song as part of her A New Day... concert at Caesars Palace . The song appeared on her 2002 studio album, A New Day Has Come , and on her 2004 live album, A New Day... Live in Las Vegas . Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic said that
4960-418: The 1940s, De Vol wrote arrangements for the studio recordings of many top singers, including Nat King Cole , Ella Fitzgerald , Sarah Vaughan , Tony Bennett , Dinah Shore , Doris Day , Vic Damone and Jaye P. Morgan . His single most famous arrangement is probably the haunting string and piano accompaniment to Cole's " Nature Boy ", which was a United States Number One in 1948. That same year, he released
5084-833: The 1950s, De Vol's orchestra played frequently at the Hollywood Palladium under the concert name "Music of the Century". De Vol's orchestra and arrangements were available to radio stations via electrical transcriptions . His work was syndicated by Capitol Transcriptions, for which he also was musical director. De Vol wrote the scores for many Hollywood movies, receiving Academy Award nominations for four of them: Pillow Talk (1959), Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), Cat Ballou (1965) and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967). De Vol's numerous scores included Kiss Me Deadly (1955), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), McLintock! (1963), The Flight of
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5208-451: The 1950s, many women jazz instrumentalists were prominent, some sustaining long careers. Some of the most distinctive improvisers, composers, and bandleaders in jazz have been women. Trombonist Melba Liston is acknowledged as the first female horn player to work in major bands and to make a real impact on jazz, not only as a musician but also as a respected composer and arranger, particularly through her collaborations with Randy Weston from
5332-476: The 21st century, such as Latin and Afro-Cuban jazz . The origin of the word jazz has resulted in considerable research, and its history is well documented. It is believed to be related to jasm , a slang term dating back to 1860 meaning ' pep, energy ' . The earliest written record of the word is in a 1912 article in the Los Angeles Times in which a minor league baseball pitcher described
5456-638: The Black middle-class. Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre, which originated in African-American communities of primarily the Deep South of the United States at the end of the 19th century from their spirituals , work songs , field hollers , shouts and chants and rhymed simple narrative ballads . The African use of pentatonic scales contributed to
5580-464: The Caribbean. African-based rhythmic patterns were retained in the United States in large part through "body rhythms" such as stomping, clapping, and patting juba dancing . In the opinion of jazz historian Ernest Borneman , what preceded New Orleans jazz before 1890 was "Afro-Latin music", similar to what was played in the Caribbean at the time. A three-stroke pattern known in Cuban music as tresillo
5704-610: The Eutropheon, a small health food store and raw food restaurant on Laurel Canyon Boulevard . The café was owned by John and Vera Richter , who followed a Naturmensch (nature person) and Lebensreform (life reform) philosophy influenced by the Wandervogel (Wandering Bird) movement in Germany. Their followers, known as "Nature Boys", wore long hair and beards and ate only raw fruits and vegetables. McGrew adopted
5828-538: The Great Nat "King" Cole . In 1969, Gandalf recorded a cover version released on their eponymous album. A version by George Benson reached number 26 in the UK singles chart in 1977 and in 1983 soul band Central Line reached number 21. Peggy Lee 's version of "Nature Boy" was recorded in 1948, but released in 1995 as part of the compilation album, Why Don't You Do Right? Peggy Lee, 1947–1948 . Johnny Hartman made
5952-468: The Holidays . At the tenth season of American Idol , contestant Casey Abrams presented a jazz version of the song, which was received with a standing ovation from the audience, but faced criticism from the media for the "strange" musical arrangements. Rick Astley covered this song for his sixth studio album Portrait in 2005. Unfortunately, Astley and Sony BMG were unhappy with the result so
6076-633: The Night That Was" & 1969 episode: "The Organ Fund" - as Reverend Barton), Mickey starring Mickey Rooney , The Brady Bunch , Get Smart (at least 2 appearances as Professor Carleton) and The Jeffersons . He had also comic roles as Chief Eaglewood, the head of the Thundercloud Boys' Camp in 1961's The Parent Trap , and as the onscreen narrator in Jerry Lewis 's 1967 comedy film The Big Mouth . De Vol appeared as
6200-516: The Phoenix (1965), The Glass Bottom Boat (1966), The Dirty Dozen (1967), Hustle (1975), Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977) and Herbie Goes Bananas (1980). He also scored many Doris Day comedies and films for director Robert Aldrich . De Vol also composed the jingle for the Screen Gems ' "Dancing Sticks" logo (1963–1965), which appeared on all television series produced by
6324-516: The Repertoire , that all the musicians "who had created the golden age of American popular song had their quirks and idiosyncrasies, but eden ahbez demands pride and place as the most eccentric of them all". He added that, along with promoting the hippie culture, with "Nature Boy", ahbez and Cole were able to introduce a new era for black artists in white popular music. In his book, Sinatra! the Song
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#17327833933246448-665: The Starlight Roof at the famed Waldorf-Astoria Hotel . He entertained audiences with a light elegant musical style which remained popular with audiences for nearly three decades from the 1930s until the late 1950s. Jazz originated in the late-19th to early-20th century. It developed out of many forms of music, including blues , ragtime , European harmony , African rhythmic rituals, spirituals , hymns , marches , vaudeville song, and dance music . It also incorporated interpretations of American and European classical music, entwined with African and slave folk songs and
6572-589: The U.S. Female jazz performers and composers have contributed to jazz throughout its history. Although Betty Carter , Ella Fitzgerald , Adelaide Hall , Billie Holiday , Peggy Lee , Abbey Lincoln , Anita O'Day , Dinah Washington , and Ethel Waters were recognized for their vocal talent, less familiar were bandleaders, composers, and instrumentalists such as pianist Lil Hardin Armstrong , trumpeter Valaida Snow , and songwriters Irene Higginbotham and Dorothy Fields . Women began playing instruments in jazz in
6696-519: The album was poorly promoted, yet it managed to reach No 26 on the UK Albums Chart . In 2010, Allison Williams , then mostly known as the daughter of Brian Williams , performed a mashup of Nature Boy set to RJD2 's "A Beautiful Mine", the theme song for the television series Mad Men . Norwegian singer Aurora performed an acoustic version of the song during a live session in May 2015. Her cover
6820-406: The author of the story, Betsy Beaton, was paid. A recording by Kate Ceberano with an orchestral arrangement by Derek Williams was featured in the film The Crossing (1990). The tune and lyrics feature prominently in the film Untamed Heart (1993), for which Cole's version was used during the closing credits, while a piano version by Roger Williams served as the opener for the film. The song
6944-437: The background score. It was also used during the title credits of Netflix's The Andy Warhol Diaries . Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans , Louisiana , in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues , ragtime , European harmony , African rhythmic rituals, spirituals , hymns , marches , vaudeville song, and dance music . Since
7068-535: The ban. Musicraft Records released Sarah Vaughan 's a cappella version on April 8, 1948. It was a commercial success, selling 20,000 copies on the first day and peaking at number 11 on the Billboard chart. A parody named "Serutan Yob" was recorded by The Unnatural Seven, an offshoot of Red Ingle and his Natural Seven that did not include Ingle due to the 1948 AFM recording ban. "Serutan Yob" featured vocals from Karen Tedder and Los Angeles DJ Jim Hawthorne . It
7192-552: The blues are undocumented, though they can be seen as the secular counterpart of the spirituals. However, as Gerhard Kubik points out, whereas the spirituals are homophonic , rural blues and early jazz "was largely based on concepts of heterophony ". During the early 19th century an increasing number of black musicians learned to play European instruments, particularly the violin, which they used to parody European dance music in their own cakewalk dances. In turn, European American minstrel show performers in blackface popularized
7316-463: The decision to include "Nature Boy" in A New Day Has Come was inspired by the song's appearance in Baz Luhrmann 's musical, Moulin Rouge! (2001). With Billboard , Dion expressed her feelings while recording the track: "This is the one I had the most kick out of in the studio. I could hear the pedal of the piano and the touch of the keys while I was singing. We were following each other, this
7440-555: The development of blue notes in blues and jazz. As Kubik explains: Many of the rural blues of the Deep South are stylistically an extension and merger of basically two broad accompanied song-style traditions in the west central Sudanic belt: W. C. Handy became interested in folk blues of the Deep South while traveling through the Mississippi Delta. In this folk blues form, the singer would improvise freely within
7564-434: The early 1910s, combining earlier brass band marches, French quadrilles , biguine , ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation . However, jazz did not begin as a single musical tradition in New Orleans or elsewhere. In the 1930s, arranged dance-oriented swing big bands , Kansas City jazz (a hard-swinging, bluesy, improvisational style), and gypsy jazz (a style that emphasized musette waltzes) were
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#17327833933247688-509: The early 1920s, drawing particular recognition on piano. When male jazz musicians were drafted during World War II, many all-female bands replaced them. The International Sweethearts of Rhythm , which was founded in 1937, was a popular band that became the first all-female integrated band in the U.S. and the first to travel with the USO , touring Europe in 1945. Women were members of the big bands of Woody Herman and Gerald Wilson . Beginning in
7812-480: The education of freed African Americans. Although strict segregation limited employment opportunities for most blacks, many were able to find work in entertainment. Black musicians were able to provide entertainment in dances, minstrel shows , and in vaudeville , during which time many marching bands were formed. Black pianists played in bars, clubs, and brothels, as ragtime developed. Ragtime appeared as sheet music, popularized by African-American musicians such as
7936-556: The entertainer Ernest Hogan , whose hit songs appeared in 1895. Two years later, Vess Ossman recorded a medley of these songs as a banjo solo known as "Rag Time Medley". Also in 1897, the white composer William Krell published his " Mississippi Rag " as the first written piano instrumental ragtime piece, and Tom Turpin published his "Harlem Rag", the first rag published by an African-American. Classically trained pianist Scott Joplin produced his " Original Rags " in 1898 and, in 1899, had an international hit with " Maple Leaf Rag ",
8060-408: The eponymous nature boy being a child, advising on love and relationship, or an adult hippie talking about his journey and inner-love. According to author Jeffery P. Dennis, the song presented a homo-romantic theme, with the eponymous nature boy visiting Cole on a "magic day" and explaining that "the greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return". Author Raymond Knapp described
8184-459: The first jazz group to record, and Bix Beiderbecke was one of the most prominent jazz soloists of the 1920s. The Chicago Style was developed by white musicians such as Eddie Condon , Bud Freeman , Jimmy McPartland , and Dave Tough . Others from Chicago such as Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa became leading members of swing during the 1930s. Many bands included both Black and white musicians. These musicians helped change attitudes toward race in
8308-415: The first written music which was rhythmically based on an African motif (1803). From the perspective of African-American music, the "habanera rhythm" (also known as "congo"), "tango-congo", or tango . can be thought of as a combination of tresillo and the backbeat . The habanera was the first of many Cuban music genres which enjoyed periods of popularity in the United States and reinforced and inspired
8432-459: The group had "put together a riveting piece of work", and that Bowie was "totally pleased with the end result". Both Bowie's version and Massive Attack's remix appeared on the soundtrack. The version used in Moulin Rouge! was sung by John Leguizamo , as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec , during the introductory scenes, as well as by Ewan McGregor 's character, Christian. Some of the film's premise
8556-532: The habanera rhythm and cinquillo , are heard in the ragtime compositions of Joplin and Turpin. Joplin's " Solace " (1909) is generally considered to be in the habanera genre: both of the pianist's hands play in a syncopated fashion, completely abandoning any sense of a march rhythm. Ned Sublette postulates that the tresillo/habanera rhythm "found its way into ragtime and the cakewalk," whilst Roberts suggests that "the habanera influence may have been part of what freed black music from ragtime's European bass". In
8680-424: The influences of West African culture. Its composition and style have changed many times throughout the years with each performer's personal interpretation and improvisation, which is also one of the greatest appeals of the genre. By the 18th century, slaves in the New Orleans area gathered socially at a special market, in an area which later became known as Congo Square , famous for its African dances. By 1866,
8804-450: The initial minor triad. The harmonic structure makes frequent use of the standard ii–V–I progression in the key of D minor . The second 4-bar section featured a chromatic descending line based on the lowering of the tonic (Dm–Dm maj7 –Dm 7 –Dm 6 ). The same descending line then continues through Gm 6 –Dm, then finally ending with a whole-step down to the G in the chord Em 7 ♭ 5 . Instrumentalist Chris Tyle noted that
8928-460: The instruments of jazz: brass, drums, and reeds tuned in the European 12-tone scale. Small bands contained a combination of self-taught and formally educated musicians, many from the funeral procession tradition. These bands traveled in black communities in the deep south. Beginning in 1914, Louisiana Creole and African-American musicians played in vaudeville shows which carried jazz to cities in
9052-578: The late 1950s into the 1990s. Jewish Americans played a significant role in jazz. As jazz spread, it developed to encompass many different cultures, and the work of Jewish composers in Tin Pan Alley helped shape the many different sounds that jazz came to incorporate. Jewish Americans were able to thrive in Jazz because of the probationary whiteness that they were allotted at the time. George Bornstein wrote that African Americans were sympathetic to
9176-539: The late 1950s, using the mode , or musical scale, as the basis of musical structure and improvisation, as did free jazz , which explored playing without regular meter, beat and formal structures. Jazz-rock fusion appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s, combining jazz improvisation with rock music 's rhythms, electric instruments, and highly amplified stage sound. In the early 1980s, a commercial form of jazz fusion called smooth jazz became successful, garnering significant radio airplay. Other styles and genres abound in
9300-404: The lyrics are a musical self-portrait of ahbez, with the lines like "There was a boy, A very strange, enchanted boy, They say he wandered very far, Very far, over land and sea". But he believed that it was the song's last line that made it the most poignant: "The greatest thing you'll ever learn, Is just to love and be loved in return". Various interpretations of the line are given by academics, with
9424-955: The many top players he employed, such as George Brunies , Sharkey Bonano , and future members of the Original Dixieland Jass Band . During the early 1900s, jazz was mostly performed in African-American and mulatto communities due to segregation laws. Storyville brought jazz to a wider audience through tourists who visited the port city of New Orleans. Many jazz musicians from African-American communities were hired to perform in bars and brothels. These included Buddy Bolden and Jelly Roll Morton in addition to those from other communities, such as Lorenzo Tio and Alcide Nunez . Louis Armstrong started his career in Storyville and found success in Chicago. Storyville
9548-551: The melody as if angels were singing it... in the California mountains. He offered me $ 10,000 to withdraw the suit. I said that the money was not important, but I wanted him to admit that the song was geganvet [stolen]; and if he heard angels, they must have bought a copy of my song." Eventually ahbez's lawyers offered to have an out-of-court settlement, offering $ 25,000 ($ 293,462 in 2023 dollars) to Yablokoff, which he accepted. Freidwald remarked that "it struck no one as ironic that
9672-413: The melody was stated briefly at the beginning and most of the piece was improvised. Modal jazz abandoned chord progressions to allow musicians to improvise even more. In many forms of jazz, a soloist is supported by a rhythm section of one or more chordal instruments (piano, guitar), double bass, and drums. The rhythm section plays chords and rhythms that outline the composition structure and complement
9796-697: The music internationally, combining syncopation with European harmonic accompaniment. In the mid-1800s the white New Orleans composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk adapted slave rhythms and melodies from Cuba and other Caribbean islands into piano salon music. New Orleans was the main nexus between the Afro-Caribbean and African American cultures. The Black Codes outlawed drumming by slaves, which meant that African drumming traditions were not preserved in North America, unlike in Cuba, Haiti, and elsewhere in
9920-583: The music of New Orleans with the music of Cuba, Wynton Marsalis observes that tresillo is the New Orleans "clavé", a Spanish word meaning "code" or "key", as in the key to a puzzle, or mystery. Although the pattern is only half a clave , Marsalis makes the point that the single-celled figure is the guide-pattern of New Orleans music. Jelly Roll Morton called the rhythmic figure the Spanish tinge and considered it an essential ingredient of jazz. The abolition of slavery in 1865 led to new opportunities for
10044-404: The northeastern United States, a "hot" style of playing ragtime had developed, notably James Reese Europe 's symphonic Clef Club orchestra in New York City, which played a benefit concert at Carnegie Hall in 1912. The Baltimore rag style of Eubie Blake influenced James P. Johnson 's development of stride piano playing, in which the right hand plays the melody, while the left hand provides
10168-618: The northern and western parts of the U.S. Jazz became international in 1914, when the Creole Band with cornettist Freddie Keppard performed the first ever jazz concert outside the United States, at the Pantages Playhouse Theatre in Winnipeg , Canada. In New Orleans, a white bandleader named Papa Jack Laine integrated blacks and whites in his marching band. He was known as "the father of white jazz" because of
10292-624: The performances, offered to buy the track from Cole, but Cole decided to record it himself. He needed permission from ahbez, however, before releasing it as a single, but he was unable to find the songwriter since ahbez had disappeared without providing any contact details. After ahbez was discovered living under the Hollywood Sign , Cole got his permission. Cole's recording, which took place on August 22, 1947, featured an orchestra conducted by Frank De Vol —the in-house arranger of Capitol Records. He used strings and flute as instrumentation in
10416-470: The performer may change melodies, harmonies, and time signatures. In early Dixieland , a.k.a. New Orleans jazz, performers took turns playing melodies and improvising countermelodies . In the swing era of the 1920s–40s, big bands relied more on arrangements which were written or learned by ear and memorized. Soloists improvised within these arrangements. In the bebop era of the 1940s, big bands gave way to small groups and minimal arrangements in which
10540-500: The period 1820–1850. Some of the earliest [Mississippi] Delta settlers came from the vicinity of New Orleans, where drumming was never actively discouraged for very long and homemade drums were used to accompany public dancing until the outbreak of the Civil War. Another influence came from the harmonic style of hymns of the church, which black slaves had learned and incorporated into their own music as spirituals . The origins of
10664-458: The perspective of other musical traditions, such as European music history or African music. But critic Joachim-Ernst Berendt argues that its terms of reference and its definition should be broader, defining jazz as a "form of art music which originated in the United States through the confrontation of the Negro with European music" and arguing that it differs from European music in that jazz has
10788-474: The philosophy and chose the name " eden ahbez ", writing and spelling his name with lower-case letters. It was there, while living in a cave near Palm Springs , that ahbez wrote "Nature Boy". Partly autobiographical, the song was a tribute to his mentor Bill Pester, who had originally introduced him to Naturmensch and Lebensreform . In 1947, at the prompting of Cowboy Jack Patton and Johnny Mercer , ahbez approached Nat King Cole 's manager backstage at
10912-494: The plight of the Jewish American and vice versa. As disenfranchised minorities themselves, Jewish composers of popular music saw themselves as natural allies with African Americans. The Jazz Singer with Al Jolson is one example of how Jewish Americans were able to bring jazz, music that African Americans developed, into popular culture. Benny Goodman was a vital Jewish American to the progression of Jazz. Goodman
11036-661: The popularity of the song that audiences would only stay in theaters to see Cole perform "Nature Boy", and leave once he finished. A 1975 poll by the magazine listed it as the "Greatest All-Round Record" as well as the "Favorite Pop Recording" of the previous years. In 1999, the song was awarded the Grammy Hall of Fame , a special Grammy Award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old and that have "qualitative or historical significance". Novelist Steve Erickson in Los Angeles magazine gave
11160-459: The post-Civil War period (after 1865), African Americans were able to obtain surplus military bass drums, snare drums and fifes, and an original African-American drum and fife music emerged, featuring tresillo and related syncopated rhythmic figures. This was a drumming tradition that was distinct from its Caribbean counterparts, expressing a uniquely African-American sensibility. "The snare and bass drummers played syncopated cross-rhythms ," observed
11284-676: The pre-jazz era and contributed to the codification of jazz through the publication of some of the first jazz sheet music. The music of New Orleans , Louisiana had a profound effect on the creation of early jazz. In New Orleans, slaves could practice elements of their culture such as voodoo and playing drums. Many early jazz musicians played in the bars and brothels of the red-light district around Basin Street called Storyville . In addition to dance bands, there were marching bands which played at lavish funerals (later called jazz funerals ). The instruments used by marching bands and dance bands became
11408-537: The prominent styles. Bebop emerged in the 1940s, shifting jazz from danceable popular music toward a more challenging "musician's music" which was played at faster tempos and used more chord-based improvisation. Cool jazz developed near the end of the 1940s, introducing calmer, smoother sounds and long, linear melodic lines. The mid-1950s saw the emergence of hard bop , which introduced influences from rhythm and blues , gospel , and blues to small groups and particularly to saxophone and piano. Modal jazz developed in
11532-494: The radio interview when he asks if he could sing a song for his wife and son. Cole's version was again played at the start of Mike Tyson 's one-man show, Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth , directed by Spike Lee that aired on HBO . On December 25, 2016, 20th Century Fox released a teaser trailer for the British-American science-fiction horror film, Alien: Covenant , using a cover of "Nature Boy" by singer Aurora , as
11656-457: The rest among people who had helped bring the song into the limelight. About 25% was shared with Mrs. Loraine Tatum for helping him with the lyrics, and the rest with Pollard, for bringing the song to Cole's notice. Basil R.T Mumma, a Pianist in Chicago made important contributions to the song as well. "Nature Boy" has received wide acclaim from critics and contemporary reviewers. Author Ted Gioia noted in his book, The Jazz Standards: A Guide to
11780-410: The rhythm and bassline. In Ohio and elsewhere in the mid-west the major influence was ragtime, until about 1919. Around 1912, when the four-string banjo and saxophone came in, musicians began to improvise the melody line, but the harmony and rhythm remained unchanged. A contemporary account states that blues could only be heard in jazz in the gut-bucket cabarets, which were generally looked down upon by
11904-439: The rival Columbia Records . There, he recorded a series of orchestral mood music albums under the studio name "Music by De Vol" (which he also used for some of his film and TV work). The 1959 album Bacchanal! (The Passions and Pageantry of Gods and Goddesses of Mythology) is an acclaimed example of De Vol's mood music; each track is by English composer Albert Harris and is named after a god or goddess of Greek mythology . In
12028-556: The slang connotations of the term, saying: "When Broadway picked it up, they called it 'J-A-Z-Z'. It wasn't called that. It was spelled 'J-A-S-S'. That was dirty, and if you knew what it was, you wouldn't say it in front of ladies." The American Dialect Society named it the Word of the 20th Century . Jazz is difficult to define because it encompasses a wide range of music spanning a period of over 100 years, from ragtime to rock -infused fusion . Attempts have been made to define jazz from
12152-444: The soloist. In avant-garde and free jazz , the separation of soloist and band is reduced, and there is license, or even a requirement, for the abandoning of chords, scales, and meters. Since the emergence of bebop, forms of jazz that are commercially oriented or influenced by popular music have been criticized. According to Bruce Johnson, there has always been a "tension between jazz as a commercial music and an art form". Regarding
12276-449: The song sound like a Gregorian chant . The recording was released by Columbia Records as catalog number 38210. It debuted on the Billboard charts on May 28, 1948, and peaked at number seven. Sinatra later performed the song on the radio show, Your Hit Parade , accompanied by a choir and orchestral arrangement. RCA Records planned to release versions by singers Perry Como and Bing Crosby , but they were subsequently cancelled due to
12400-409: The song, to capture the "enchanting" vibe of the track. The first two measures of the song's melody parallel the melody of the second movement in composer Antonín Dvořák 's Piano Quintet No. 2 (1887). Written as a pop ballad , "Nature Boy" follows an "A,B" format, with the primary three notes descending on a minor triad above the pickup note. An ascending line over the diminished ii chord returns to
12524-543: The television division of Columbia Pictures . De Vol was musical director (and occasionally seen) on Edgar Bergen 's CBS Television prime-time game show Do You Trust Your Wife? (1956-1957). "Frank De Vol's orchestra" was featured on the NBC Television prime-time musical variety series The Lux Show Starring Rosemary Clooney (1957-1958). During this time, he appeared on The Betty White Show (1954) and Rod Cameron 's syndicated State Trooper . In 1964 he
12648-399: The track as a "mystically charged vagabond song" whose lyrics evoked an intense sense of loss and haplessness, with the final line delivering a universal truth, described by Knapp as "indestructible" and "salvaged somehow from the perilous journey of life". According to Joe Romersa, an engineer/drummer in Los Angeles, to whom ahbez bequeathed master tapes, photos, and final works, ahbez wanted
12772-500: The twice-daily ferry between both cities to perform, and the habanera quickly took root in the musically fertile Crescent City. John Storm Roberts states that the musical genre habanera "reached the U.S. twenty years before the first rag was published." For the more than quarter-century in which the cakewalk , ragtime , and proto-jazz were forming and developing, the habanera was a consistent part of African-American popular music. Habaneras were widely available as sheet music and were
12896-575: The use of tresillo-based rhythms in African-American music. New Orleans native Louis Moreau Gottschalk 's piano piece "Ojos Criollos (Danse Cubaine)" (1860) was influenced by the composer's studies in Cuba: the habanera rhythm is clearly heard in the left hand. In Gottschalk's symphonic work "A Night in the Tropics" (1859), the tresillo variant cinquillo appears extensively. The figure was later used by Scott Joplin and other ragtime composers. Comparing
13020-498: The writer Robert Palmer, speculating that "this tradition must have dated back to the latter half of the nineteenth century, and it could have not have developed in the first place if there hadn't been a reservoir of polyrhythmic sophistication in the culture it nurtured." African-American music began incorporating Afro-Cuban rhythmic motifs in the 19th century when the habanera (Cuban contradanza ) gained international popularity. Musicians from Havana and New Orleans would take
13144-500: The year's crop was harvested and several days were set aside for celebration. As late as 1861, a traveler in North Carolina saw dancers dressed in costumes that included horned headdresses and cow tails and heard music provided by a sheepskin-covered "gumbo box", apparently a frame drum; triangles and jawbones furnished the auxiliary percussion. There are quite a few [accounts] from the southeastern states and Louisiana dating from
13268-631: Was 12. When he was 14, he became a member of the Musicians' Union. After playing violin in his father's orchestra and appearances in a Chinese restaurant, he joined the Horace Heidt Orchestra in the 1930s, being responsible for the arrangements. Later, he toured with the Alvino Rey Orchestra , before embarking on his recording career. By the time De Vol was 16, "he was doing arrangements with professional skill." From
13392-450: Was also played in intermediate scenes featuring the principal cast. Miles Davis' recording of "Nature Boy" was used in the film The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999). In the book Music, Movies, Meanings, and Markets: Cinemajazzamatazz , author Morris Holbrook described the song as a "nondiegetic performance", exemplifying the plot development and sexual tension in the scene featuring Matt Damon and Jude Law playing chess, naked, and later in
13516-718: Was an American bandleader, arranger, composer and actor. As a composer, he was nominated for four Academy Awards . De Vol was born in Moundsville in Marshall County in northern West Virginia , and was reared in Canton, Ohio . His father, Herman Frank De Vol, was band-leader of the Grand Opera House in Canton, Ohio , and his mother, Minnie Emma Humphreys De Vol, had worked in a sewing shop. He attended Miami University . De Vol began composing music when he
13640-429: Was based on the lyrics, in particular the opening lines. The closing lyric, "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return" is used throughout the film. While reviewing Moulin Rouge! , Erickson noted that "[by] itself, ['Nature Boy'] redeems the wonderful idea behind Luhrmann's flawed but often wonderful movie." The song was performed by Rodrigo Santoro in the film Heleno (2012), during
13764-532: Was enforced by American Federation of Musicians (AFM) in response to the Taft–Hartley Act . Capitol Records , desperate to release recorded material to help sustain profitability during the strike, released "Nature Boy" as a single on March 29, 1948, with catalog number 15054. Crestview Music, which owned the publishing rights to Cole's songs, sold the rights for "Nature Boy" to Burke - Van Heusen , who acted as distributor and selling agent. The record debuted on
13888-439: Was his rendition that appealed to the white audience. Cole would later use the success of the song to disband the trio in order to pursue a solo recording career. He once described "Nature Boy" as one of his favorite recordings. The success of the song allowed ahbez to accumulate about US$ 20,000 ($ 253,629 in 2023 dollars) in royalties. However, Billboard reported that ahbez kept only 50% of the royalty for himself, and distributed
14012-569: Was initiated as an honorary member of the Gamma Omega chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia , the national fraternity for men in music, in 1962. In the mid-1990s, well into his eighties, De Vol was active in the Big Band Academy of America. He was married twice, first to Grayce Agnes McGinty in 1935. The 54-year marriage produced two daughters, Linda Morehouse and Donna Copeland, and ended with Grayce's death in 1989. His second marriage
14136-422: Was later included as a bonus track on the deluxe edition of her debut album All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend , released in 2016. Sofia Hoffmann recorded her interpretation for "Nature Boy" on her second studio album Rebirth which was released in 2022. The song was produced by GRAMMY award-winning American pianist, arranger and producer John Beasley . After recording the jazz standard " The Lady Is
14260-433: Was major ... , and I carried this device into my melody as well. The publication of his " Memphis Blues " sheet music in 1912 introduced the 12-bar blues to the world (although Gunther Schuller argues that it is not really a blues, but "more like a cakewalk"). This composition, as well as his later " St. Louis Blues " and others, included the habanera rhythm, and would become jazz standards . Handy's music career began in
14384-455: Was musically complex, with a marimba playing a triplet obligato (the famous tune "Chopsticks") over the melody in 4 time , and was a hit single in 1961. He composed scores for episodes of McCloud and The Love Boat , amongst other work for television. Beginning in 1969, "The Fuzz" became the theme song of Brazilian television newscast Jornal Nacional . De Vol was also an actor specializing in deadpan comic characters. He
14508-468: Was perhaps best known as the dour bandleader Happy Kyne on the Norman Lear talk show parodies Fernwood 2 Night and America 2-Night , in 1977–78. He also had a recurring role in I'm Dickens, He's Fenster as Myron Bannister, Dickens & Fenster's boss; and appeared on The Cara Williams Show , I Dream of Jeannie , Gidget , Bonanza , Petticoat Junction - (1967 episode: "That Was
14632-417: Was plagiarized from his song " Shvayg mayn harts " ( שװײג מײן האַרץ , "Be Still My Heart"). Eventually, Ahbez and Yablokoff settled out of court. In 1999, the song was awarded the Grammy Hall of Fame Award . Following Cole's success, rival record companies released cover versions of "Nature Boy" by other artists including Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan , which were also successful. It ultimately became
14756-632: Was recorded by singer Bobby Darin , released in 1961 reaching number 14 in Canada and number 24 in the UK singles chart . A psychedelic rock version was recorded in 1965 by 1960s San Francisco rock band The Great Society , with lead vocals from singer Grace Slick , released on their 1968 post-breakup album How it Was . Same year, Marvin Gaye recorded and released his version on the Cole tribute album, A Tribute to
14880-420: Was released by Decca Records as catalog number 24439. The record first appeared on the Billboard charts on June 4, 1948, and peaked at number 11. Frank Sinatra also recorded a musicianless version, which was his only recording during the ban. Sinatra's version of "Nature Boy" replaced the string sounds of the original recording with a choir conducted by Jeff Alexander , which, according to Friedwald, made
15004-542: Was released by Capitol with catalog number 15210, reached the Billboard charts on October 1, 1948, and stayed there for a total of four weeks, peaking at number 24. In 1955, Miles Davis recorded the song with Charles Mingus as bassist. The recording for the song was filled with tension due to an ongoing conflict between Davis and Mingus, resulting in a charged version of the song. They were assisted by Teddy Charles on vibraphone and Elvin Jones on drums. Another version
15128-472: Was seen in an episode during the first season of, My Favorite Martian and several guest spots on different television shows throughout the 1960s. In the 1970s, he appeared as the ironically named dour bandleader Happy Kyne on the talk show satire/parody Fernwood 2 Night (1977) and America 2-Night (1978). De Vol is best recognized for his television theme tunes, like Family Affair , The Brady Bunch and My Three Sons . The My Three Sons theme
15252-454: Was shut down by the U.S. government in 1917. Cornetist Buddy Bolden played in New Orleans from 1895 to 1906. No recordings by him exist. His band is credited with creating the big four: the first syncopated bass drum pattern to deviate from the standard on-the-beat march. As the example below shows, the second half of the big four pattern is the habanera rhythm. Frank De Vol Frank Denny De Vol (September 20, 1911 – October 27, 1999)
15376-536: Was the leader of a racially integrated band named King of Swing. His jazz concert in the Carnegie Hall in 1938 was the first ever to be played there. The concert was described by Bruce Eder as "the single most important jazz or popular music concert in history". Shep Fields also helped to popularize "Sweet" Jazz music through his appearances and Big band remote broadcasts from such landmark venues as Chicago's Palmer House , Broadway's Paramount Theater and
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