Honeysuckle Rose
July 28, 2010 in Jazz Standards
This standard is the basis for another standard, Bird’s composition Scrapple from the Apple. Bird took the A section of these changes and made a “contrafacts” out of it, or a new melody over the changes to a jazz standard. This is one of the most common standards you must know as a jazz musician. The charismatic Fats Waller released Honeysuckle Rose with lyricist Andy Razaf in 1929 for “Load of Coal,” a musical revue, or variety show.
The bridge of Honeysuckle Rose is NOT a rhythm changes release. A release is a III7 VI7 II7 V7, whereas this bridge of Honeysuckle Rose is I7 IV7 II7 V7. Charlie Parker’s head, Scrapple from the Apple, by contrast, uses a plain old release over the bridge. Other than that, both tunes use the same chord changes.
Recordings
Honeysuckle Rose .pdf-with the Ella/Basie Recording’s changes
Honeysuckle Rose-C Instruments (.pdf)
Honeysuckle Rose-Bb Instruments (.pdf)
Honeysuckle Rose-Eb Instruments (.pdf)
Other ubiquitous changes-These changes are very common, with the walk-up (F to A, Bb, B, C) in the bass.
Honeysuckle Rose Play Along
Honesuckle Rose Recordings
Fats Waller Sings His Own Composition, Honeysuckle Rose. He’s such an amazing performer!
Louis Armstrong
Ella Fitzgerald Sings Honeysuckle Rose
Whew! Swingin’. Unbelievable! I started dancing in my chair when I heard this one. Which makes sense-the band is Count Basie!
Anita O’Day. I love from 2:00 to 2:10. She’s so incredibly aware of the band, she really knows how to front a group. She also made and small mistake early in the tune with the lyrics, and recovered like a true pro. She reverses the order of the second A section, which is actually: “when you’re passing by, flowers droop and sigh.”
Django Reinhardt
Erroll Garner
Andre Previn-in F#! It may be the tape they recorded to, but it appears to be in F# instead of F.
Susie Arioli-I actually hadn’t heard of her until stumbling on this clip. I like the sound. Kind of western swing thing going on, and she plays a mean snare while she sings!
Floyd Pepper and Zoot Perform “Honeysuckle Rose”
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I am a tuba player with next to no experience writing a bass part for any kind of music. Recently I became a part of a Gypsy Jazz group and I’m having to invent my own bass part. So I’ve been searching the internet for bass lines written out in notation form (not tab form). Not been able to find anything. Please suggest a resource, book, etc. that may help me. One of the songs we do is Honeysuckle Rose. I’d love to do something like the bass player does with Anita O’Day.
Thanks for you help,
Tim Griffin