“There Will Never Be Another You” -Lehman College Faculty Jazz Quartet

On May 2nd, I watched the Lehman College Faculty Quartet perform a recital at Lehman College’s Music Building on the 3rd Floor in the Recital Hall. One of the Songs they performed was a Jazz standard called  “There Will Never Be Another You.” The musicians performing were Allan Molnar on Vibraphone, Lee Marvin on bass, Robert Windbiel on Guitar, and special guests Terry Silverlight on drums, and Beledo on Piano/Guitar.

“There Will Never Be Another You” is a popular song with composed by Harry Warren and lyrics by Mack Gordon. It was famously known for Twentieth Century Fox’s musical Iceland in 1942. The songs in the film featured Joan Merrill accompanied by Sammy Kaye and His Orchestra.The song was published in 1942, and is at least since the 1950s, one of the widely known and performed standards of the jazz repertoire. “There Will Never Be Another You” has been used often in performances by many various Jazz singers and players with the ability to swing light-heartedly.

The tune was written in the key of Eb Major. The tune contains a lot of step wise motion melodically which has been used well to block chord harmonization. ‘”There Will Never Be Another You”, written in the key of Eb Major, follows a standard A-B1-A -B2 form. The melody of the tune is very noticable as it contains a sequence of two virtually identical phrases. However the second one is played a major third higher diatonically. So basically that means that the intervals are the same, and the melody is just moved a line up a major third in the key of Eb Major.

In the performance I attended by the Lehman College Faculty Jazz Quartet, their were no vocals, and the trumpet part was replaced by Alan Molnar on the vibraphone. The vibraphone may have even mimicked the melody of the vocals which sounded just as good. There was a gently yet swift swing rhythm section. With its A-B1-A-B2 form, the instrumentals of “There Will Never Be Another You” contain an unusual melody. The A section comprises two long sequences of ascending quarter notes. The B sections more or less invert the idea containing, in the main, three descending sequences of quarter notes. The overall feeling then is that of rising and falling, moderated by brief changes of direction. This piece’s careful construction is what makes it unique among other jazz standards which are a sequence of two virtually identical phrases, the second one played diatonically a third higher than the first, and followed by two more phrases that are roughly similar to the opening ones. This is a fairly  fun and simple tune to learn and memorize which is why it is one of the first tunes learned by the beginner jazz performer.

One comment

  1. What have various other artists done with this tune? Are there recordings that are memorable to which you might compare the one you heard? Are there especially memorable versions? Or ones that have the stylistic marker of some individual? I’m curious about the tune’s performance history.

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