Azure-Te (Paris Blues)

Music publisher Gale and Gayles had song-writer Donald E. Wolf write lyrics for the Wild Bill Davis instrumental composition Azure 'Te, released 29 February 1952, when they took on the tune from Crestwood Music.{{cite book |title=Billboard |date=1952-05-10 |publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc. |edition=10 May 1952 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lx4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA22 |page=22 |language=en}}

The Frank Sinatra recording was made for Columbia on 3 June 1952 in Hollywood, in the same session as "The Birth of the Blues", "Bim Bam Baby", and two other songs. It was conducted by Axel Stordahl.

The personnel included:{{cite book |title=Put Your Dreams Away: A Frank Sinatra Discography |date=2000 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-313-31055-3 |page=203 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yqth52rImHQC&pg=PA203 |language=en}}

• Frank Sinatra — vocals
• Bill_Miller - piano
• Allan Reuss — guitar
• Jack Ryan — bass
• Alvin Stoller — drums
• Zeke Zarchy - trumpet
• Les Robinson, Babe Russin, Ted Nash, Chuck Gentry — tenor saxophones

The song was released on 23 July 1952 with "Bim Bam Baby" on the reverse.{{cite web |title=Tracks on Azure - Te - Frank Sinatra - Orch. under the direction of Axel Stordahl (July 23, 1952) |url=https://secondhandsongs.com/release/194750 |website=SecondHandSongs}}

Billboard described the song as a "bluesy ballad", and found Stordahl's arrangement to be "outstanding" - however their verdict on Sinatra's vocals was that he was "not up to his best".{{cite web |title=Billboard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rx8EAAAAMBAJ&dq=Nat+King+Cole+azure+te&pg=PA34 |publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc. |page=34 |language=en |date=9 August 1952}} Despite this, the song reached #30 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on 27 September 1952.{{cite book |last1=Lonergan |first1=David F. |title=Hit Records, 1950-1975 |date=2005 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-5129-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NP6OdDrutyAC&dq=%22Azure-Te%22&pg=PA11 |language=en}}{{cite book |title=Azure-te (Paris blues) |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/747242499 |via=WorldCat |publisher=Columbia |language=English |date=1952|oclc=747242499 }}

Others have described the recording as

"lovely",{{cite book |last1=Ingham |first1=Chris |title=The Rough Guide to Frank Sinatra |date=2005 |publisher=Rough Guides |isbn=978-1-84353-414-3 |page=157 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Fo5AQAAIAAJ&q=frank%20sinatra%20%22azure%20te%22 |language=en}}

and "riveting".{{cite book |last1=Giddins |first1=Gary |title=Visions of Jazz: The First Century |date=2000-05-18 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-971520-6 |page=225 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VfhoAgAAQBAJ |language=en}}

According to producer Mitch Miller, Columbia Records hoped for a profitable release to make up for a sizeable advance payment to Sinatra (for a tax bill), but despite the quality of Azure Te and his other songs, they did not sell well at the time.

To evoke a Parisian feeling the arrangement uses a taxi horn rendering of a motif from Gershwin's American in Paris, and contrasts that with loud brass to invoke American swing, according to author Will Friedwald. Of Sinatra's ability to sing blues, he says Sinatra "does better with "Paris Blues"... than he does with "The Birth of the Blues".{{cite book |last1=Friedwald |first1=Will |title=Sinatra! the Song is You: A Singer's Art |date=1995 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-0-684-19368-7 |pages=179, 197 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gCBrW4AtY8QC&dq=frank+sinatra+%22azure+te%22&pg=PA197 |language=en}}

The name Azure 'Te was first used on the original instrumental tune released by the Bill Davis Trio in March 1952.{{cite web |title=Tracks on Azure 'Te - Bill Davis Trio (March 1952) |url=https://secondhandsongs.com/release/194697 |website=SecondHandSongs}}

The subtitle Paris Blues first appeared a month after Bill Davis's instrumental on the B-side of the Tympany Five single Junco Partner, spelled Azure-Té (Paris Blues), which was the first recording of the tune to have Donald Wolf's lyrics. Frank Sinatra's subsequent cover of the song omitted the accent.

"Azure-Té" is not French and its meaning was unknown according to jazz critic Dave Gelly, who proposed that it be a mis-spelling of the French 'agité', meaning nervous, restless, agitated.{{cite web |last1=Gelly |first1=Dave |author1-link=Dave Gelly |title=Woody Herman – Presenting Woody Herman & And The Band That Plays The Blues 1939 & The Third Herd |url=https://www.discogs.com/Woody-Herman-Presenting-Woody-Herman-And-The-Band-That-Plays-The-Blues-1939-The-Third-Herd-1952-1954/release/6898203 |publisher=Flyright Records |page=2 (sleeve notes) |language=en |date=2001}}

Wild Bill Davis is also heard on at least two other versions of the tune, including the Duke Ellington 70th Birthday Concert and the 1961 small group date Blue Hodge led by Ellington saxophonist Johnny Hodges.

The Tympany Five recording of April 1952, with Wolf's lyrics, was described as a "slow and sophisticated song", and the "best tune of the batch" in John Chilton's 1994 biography of band founder Louis Jordan.{{cite book |last1=Chilton |first1=John |title=Let the Good Times Roll: The Story of Louis Jordan and His Music |date=1994 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-0-472-10529-8 |page=173 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fFafAAAAMAAJ&q=Junco%20Partner%20azure |language=en}}

Several other artists have recorded the tune, including Nat King Cole accompanied by George Shearing, having a "haunted beauty" for one reviewer,{{cite book |title=Jazz Times |date=2001 |publisher=Jazztimes |page=114 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=djNLAAAAYAAJ&q=azure |language=en |quote=[someone else's] bland reworking of Azure [Te] leaves one pining for the haunted beauty of Nat Cole's '61 teaming with George Shearing}}

Kenny Burrell's unpretentious version based on a blues swing,{{cite book |title=Coda Magazine |date=1979 |publisher=J. Norris |page=206 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WJ4JAQAAMAAJ |language=en |quote=... on Azure Te, we find bedrock blues swing, and again, a performance completely devoid of pretension.}}

and Karrin Allyson who named her third album after her version of the song.{{cite book |last1=Cook |first1=Richard |last2=Morton |first2=Brian |title=The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD |date=2002 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-051521-3 |page=34 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HeRxt1wK1F0C&q=azure+te |language=en}}

Other covers have been instrumentals, as was the original Bill Davis Trio release.{{cite web |title=Cover versions of Azure-Té (Paris Blues) written by Don Wolf |url=https://secondhandsongs.com/work/178289/versions |website=SecondHandSongs}}

It was also featured in Five Guys Named Moe, a long-running Olivier Award-winning musical.{{cite book |last1=Foster |first1=Pamela E. |title=My Country: The African Diaspora's Country Music Heritage |date=1998 |publisher=My Country |isbn=978-0-9662680-1-0 |page=151 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QvYTAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Five+Guys%22 |language=en}}

The author of the Azure-Te lyrics was Donald Wolf (aka Donald E. Wolf or simply Don Wolf), a jazz and pop lyricist credited on over 300 recordings,{{cite web |title=Don Wolf |url=https://www.discogs.com/artist/713805 |website=Discogs |language=en}} including a number of top 100 charting songs, mainly in the US, including Love Is All We Need, which peaked at #15 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1958 for Tommy Edwards, An ex-GI, Wolf started working as an administrative assistant at WMCA in 1949,{{cite web |title=Daily News from New York, New York on January 14, 1947 · 504 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/444839586/ |website=Newspapers.com |date=14 January 1947 |language=en |quote=Dick has chosen -Get A Pin-Up Girl", written by ex-G.I. Don Wolf, as his theme song on his daily program at 9:45 A.M. over WNEW. Monday thru Friday.}}{{cite book |title=The Billboard |date=11 June 1949 |page=40 |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/40s/1949/Billboard%201949-06-11.pdf}}

moving on to supervise the pop music department at music publisher Merrymount Music Press in the 1950s.{{cite book |title=Billboard |date=31 October 1953 |publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc. |page=16 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZgoEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA16 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Friskin |first1=James |last2=Freundlich |first2=Irwin |title=Music for the Piano: A Handbook of Concert and Teaching Material from 1580 to 1952 |date=January 1973 |publisher=Courier Corporation |isbn=978-0-486-22918-8 |page=424 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xK5kDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA424 |language=en}}

Wolf's other successful songs include:

Love Is All We Need, a song written jointly with Ben Raleigh which reached #15 when sung by Tommy Edwards in 1958,{{cite magazine |title=The Hot 100 Chart week of December 22, 1958 |url=https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/1958-12-20 |magazine=Billboard}} Vic Dana and Mel Carter also subsequently charting with it;{{cite web |title=Don Wolf - Top Songs as Writer |url=https://www.comicsvf.com/zmusic/songs.php?page=artist&artist=Don+Wolf&tab=songaswriterchartstab&sort=pointsup&filter=all |website=www.comicsvf.com |access-date=27 June 2021}}{{cite magazine |title=The Hot 100 Chart |url=https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/1966-02-12 |magazine=Billboard}} Exclusively Yours, a song recorded by English singer Mark Wynter which reached #32 in the UK in 1961,{{cite book |title=British Hit Singles & Albums |date=2005 |publisher=Guinness |isbn=978-1-904994-00-8 |page=s-56 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eSI5AQAAIAAJ&q=Exclusively+Yours |language=en}} following Carl Dobkins Jr. who reached #75 in the US in May 1960.{{cite magazine |title=The Hot 100 Chart |url=https://www.billboard.com/charts/Hot-100/1960-05-30 |magazine=Billboard}}

"Until I Met You (Corner Pocket)" sung by The Manhattan Transfer who won the 1982 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Duo or Group with it,

also recorded by

Sarah Vaughan,{{cite web |title=Until I Met You |url=https://www.rockol.com/uk/lyrics-38257335/sarah-vaughan-until-i-met-you |website=Rockol}}{{cite web |title=Jazz Standards Songs and Instrumentals (Until I Met You (Corner Pocket)) |url=https://www.jazzstandards.com/compositions-5/untilimetyou.htm |website=www.jazzstandards.com |access-date=9 May 2021}} Tony Bennett, Marvin Gaye the Four Tops and others.{{cite web |title=Diane Schuur (Ft. Count Basie Orchestra) – Until I Met You (Live) |url=https://genius.com/Diane-schuur-until-i-met-you-live-lyrics |access-date=9 May 2021 |language=en}}{{cite web |title=The Four Tops – Until I Met You |url=https://genius.com/The-four-tops-until-i-met-you-lyrics |website=Genius |access-date=9 May 2021 |language=en}}

the 1958 The Playmates song Let's be lovers,{{cite web |title=The Playmates |url=https://musicfinder.online/the-playmates/ |website=Music Finder |date=2014-09-11}}

and the 1957 million-copy selling Majesty of Love, recorded by Marvin Rainwater and Connie Francis.{{cite book | first= Joseph | last= Murrells | year= 1978 | title= The Book of Golden Discs | edition= 2nd | publisher= Barrie and Jenkins Ltd | location= London | page= [https://archive.org/details/bookofgoldendisc00murr/page/95 95] | isbn= 0-214-20512-6 | url= https://archive.org/details/bookofgoldendisc00murr/page/95 }}

A few of his songs have appeared in film, such as Now He Tells Me, performed by the King Cole Trio in film Killer Diller,{{cite web |title=Killer Diller - Pop Culture Cross |url=https://www.popisms.com/Movie/52924/Killer-Diller-1948?rnid=52927 |website=POPisms |access-date=9 May 2021}} Sleep Walk, set to the Santo & Johnny instrumental Sleep Walk used in the 2013 film The Conjuring,{{cite web |title=Sleep Walk - Song recorded by Betsy Brye |url=https://www.sheetmusicwarehouse.co.uk/20th-century-songs-s/sleep-walk-song-recorded-by-betsy-brye/ |website=The Sheet Music Warehouse |access-date=28 June 2021 |language=en}} likewise the title songs of Fate Is the Hunter, in collaboration with Jerry Goldsmith,{{cite book |last1=Office |first1=Library of Congress Copyright |title=Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third series |date=1967 |page=1398 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LzIhAQAAIAAJ&dq=%22don+wolf%22&pg=PA1398 |language=en}} and John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! sung by Shirley MacLaine.{{cite web |title=The John Williams Collection |url=http://www.jw-collection.de/songs/goldfarb.htm |website=www.jw-collection.de |access-date=28 June 2021}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://musicbrainz.org/search?query=%27Azure+Te%27&type=recording&method=indexed MusicBrainz]
• AllMusic results for [https://www.allmusic.com/search/all/%22Azure-Te%22 "Azure-Te"] (52 records) (many duplicate listings) and [https://www.allmusic.com/search/all/%22Azure%20Te%22 "Azure Te"] (37 records)
• [http://standardoftheday.blogspot.com/2012/09/azure-te.html blog review on Standard of the Day]
• "... delectable ..." per [https://books.google.com/books?id=O4QKAQAAMAAJ&q=azure+te Jazz Journal International], p47, 1993
• {{cite book |last1=Hall |first1=Fred |title=Dialogues in Swing: Intimate Conversations with the Stars of the Big Band Era |date=1989 |publisher=Pathfinder Publishing, Inc. |isbn=978-0-934793-19-3 |page=94 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mbO19W7pE-IC&dq=azure+te&pg=PA94 |language=en}}

{{Wild Bill Davis|state=collapsed}}

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Category:1952 songs

Category:Frank Sinatra songs