What's the Right Tempo for A Tune?

The one truism in jazz is that while you play a ballad, keep the lyrics in your head.

While there aren't that many designations for a song tempo in jazz: up/fast, medium-up, medium, medium-slow and ballad/slow, the actual permutations are endless.

Some songs seem to invite a wide latitude of tempo without losing their internal musical/emotional logic. I'd suggest as examples “But Not For Me,” “Come Rain or Come Shine,” “Our Love is Here to Stay.”

On the other hand, there are a lot of tunes that really call out for a narrow range of tempos-”Good Morning Heartache,” “St. Thomas,” “After You've Gone,” “Donna Lee,” “Liza...”

I find there are certain musicians who seem to always call tunes at the tempo I would choose, like Bobby Hackett, Roy Eldridge and Benny Golson. There are some who stretch tempi a little bit and make them work-Miles Davis (usually slower) and Art Pepper (usually faster) come to mind.

Then, there are tempo choices that just seem wrong-headed, where either the sentiment of the lyrics or the contour of the melody clashes with the speed at which the song is played. It's easier to see this in vocal versions where you can hear the words, but in instrumental versions, it can also be irksome.

Let's start by listening to Kurt Weill play his composition "Speak Low" (lyrics by Ogden Nash) at 116 beats per minute, about the same tempo it was performed by Mary Martin in the show One Touch of Venus. Then, Sonny Clark's re-working of the tune at 170 beats per minute:

In the Clark version, there is a shift between "Latin" and swing in the rhythm section, harmonized background horn parts and virtuosic bop playing. This version does not "speak low," but it does build on what the tune offers and essentially creates a convincing new tune on the bones of the old.

In this version of "Dancing in the Dark,"(Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz) the tempo is a little bit faster than when first introduced in the film The Bandwagon. The quality of Astaire's delivery does give the sense of this tempo, or something close to it, being the "right" one.

The very slow tempo Cannonball Adderley chose for the same tune, his melodic ornamentations, interpolations and alterations were extreme enough that without looking at the list of tunes, I wasn't sure if I was hearing the standard or an original ballad by Adderly. See if you can buy into this approach.

Here are two versions of "Young and Foolish" (Albert Hague and Arnold B. Horwitt). The first is typical of the tempo usually chosen for the tune; perhaps even a bit slower.

In the above, Mark Murphy takes the same tune way uptempo. He uses "stop-times," key changes and horn obligatti for variety and creates a completely different approach. He renders a viable alternate vision, but to me, the lyrics don't really work at this tempo. There's a ruefulness to them that gets steamrolled.

Here's a Clark Terry revamp of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" (Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg).

The melody-slightly embellished and Latinized-actually fits well in this tempo and the performance is terrific. The musicians can go to town on their improvisations because the harmony is “(I Got)Rhythm” changes. The original emotional impact of the song is swept away here, but its intent is so far from the original that can I take this version on its own virtuosic, uptempo terms.

Many jazz people take "My Shining Hour"(Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer) at an up tempo. I happen to think that the song deserves to be heard at a slower tempo, which is how I do it when I perform it. Here are two contrasting versions.

Everything Coltrane did was influential and his take on this tune is no exception. It’s hard to find a slow instrumental version after this romp.

Ella’s Harold Arlen songbook is my favorite and I think this is the definitive vocal version of the song. It perfectly limns the bittersweet optimism of the lyrics.

I think it's fair to say that when choosing how fast to play an instrumental, there can be a lot of latitude-some melodies can sustain themselves in a wide range of tempos. However, in choosing to alter the usual tempo of a tune with known lyrics, musicians need to reckon with the emotional weight and meaning of the lyrics.

So, is there a "right" tempo for a tune? In the end, of course, degustibus non disputatum est.

If you have examples of songs done too slow, too fast, or at the perfect tempo, I’d be happy to hear about it.