Unlike most jazz standards, “Autumn Leaves” is based on a French text, the poem “Les feuilles mortes” by Jacques Prévert, and is composed by French (originally Hungarian) musician Joseph Kosma. A song that you can put on like a warm coat. This may be due to the very straightforward opening figure descending the G minor scale, or because the piece’s melancholic, end-of-season mood sounds so familiar to everyone. “Autumn Leaves” is a pretty resilient track, you’d have to be a really bad musician to screw up this autumnal ballad. And which should you prefer, the bluesy one from 2002 or the one with the highly dramatic introduction from 1994? The straightforward, unsentimental one from 1996 or the one created ten years earlier with the wonderfully floating ostinato at the end? Especially since Keith Jarrett alone recorded five of them on CD. However, the question of which of his many interpretations is the best is not so easy to answer.įrank Sinatra or Nat King Cole? Edith Piaf or Juliette Greco? Miles Davis or Dave Brubeck? Bob Dylan or Hannes Wader? In the end even Wolf Biermann? The question of which interpretation of “Autumn Leaves” is the best is not so easy to answer.

Like a warm coat: “Autumn Leaves” is the ultimate nostalgic jazz song.

Chet baker autumn in new york