"Cherokee" (also known as "Cherokee (Indian Love Song)") is a
jazz standard
Jazz standards are musical compositions that are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive l ...
written by the British composer and band leader
Ray Noble and published in 1938. It is the first of five movements in Noble's "Indian Suite" (Cherokee, Comanche War Dance, Iroquois, Seminole, and Sioux Sue).
Structure
The composition has a 64-bar AABA construction.
The A-section harmony is straightforward by the standards of 1930s songs, but the B-section is more sophisticated.
This is because "it cadences (via ii-7–V7–I progressions) into the keys of B Major, A Major and G Major before moving toward the B tonic."
Recordings
"Cherokee" has been recorded over the years by many jazz musicians and singers.
Charlie Barnet and His Orchestra's 1939 version reached No. 15 on the pop charts; he later re-recorded it in
Hi Fi stereo for
Everest Records in 1958.
It was later recorded by
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...
, the
Count Basie Orchestra
The Count Basie Orchestra is a 16 to 18 piece big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the swing era, founded by Count Basie in 1935 and recording regularly from 1936. Despite a brief disbandment at the beginning of the 195 ...
,
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was ba ...
,
Sarah Vaughan (1955),
Dakota Staton
Dakota Staton (June 3, 1930 – April 10, 2007) was an American jazz vocalist who found international acclaim with the 1957 No. 4 hit "The Late, Late Show". She was also known by the Muslim name Aliyah Rabia for a period due to her conversion t ...
(1958),
Art Tatum
Arthur Tatum Jr. (, October 13, 1909 – November 5, 1956) was an American jazz pianist who is widely regarded as one of the greatest in his field. From early in his career, Tatum's technical ability was regarded by fellow musicians as extraord ...
and
Keely Smith.
The song has also been covered as an instrumental by
Biréli Lagrène,
Bud Powell
Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell (September 27, 1924 – July 31, 1966) was an American jazz pianist and composer. Along with Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Kenny Clarke and Dizzy Gillespie, Powell was a leading figure in the development of mod ...
(1950),
,
,
Stan Getz
Stanley Getz (February 2, 1927 – June 6, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist. Playing primarily the tenor saxophone, Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, with his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre o ...
,
Lionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton (April 20, 1908 – August 31, 2002) was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, and bandleader. Hampton worked with jazz musicians from Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich, to Charlie Parker, Charle ...
,
Harry James
Harry Haag James (March 15, 1916 – July 5, 1983) was an American musician who is best known as a trumpet-playing band leader who led a big band from 1939 to 1946. He broke up his band for a short period in 1947 but shortly after he reorganized ...
,
Christian McBride,
Chet Atkins,
Kamasi Washington on his album
''The Epic'' (2015), and by
Johnny Smith on his album ''
Moonlight in Vermont''.
The difficulty of improvising on the harmony of the B-section meant that many early soloists avoided improvising during it.
Influence
Charlie Parker used this song for the basis of his 1945 composition "
Ko-Ko".
While playing "Cherokee", he said that "I found that by using the
higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with appropriately related changes, I could play the thing I'd been hearing." He had played that piece so many times that by the end he hated it, but he had mastered the chords perfectly in all 12 keys. "Ko-Ko" has a partially improvised head and the chords are based on "Cherokee".
[Reisner, Robert George. ''Bird: The Legend of Charlie Parker'', Da Capo Press, page 103 – ]
It also formed the basis of
Buddy DeFranco "Swinging the Indian".
A vocalese version (different tune, but based on the same chord sequence), with its own lyrics, was written by Richie Cole and David Lahm in 1983 and is called "Harold's House of Jazz".
Appearances in films
The song was used in ''
Jam Session
A jam session is a relatively informal musical event, process, or activity where musicians, typically instrumentalists, play improvised solos and vamp over tunes, drones, songs, and chord progressions. To "jam" is to improvise music without ext ...
'' (1944), ''
Jasper in a Jam'' (1946), sung by
Peggy Lee
Norma Deloris Egstrom (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002), known professionally as Peggy Lee, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress, over a career spanning seven decades. From her beginning as a vocalis ...
, ''
The Gene Krupa Story'' (1959), and as background music in ''
Racing with the Moon
''Racing with the Moon'' is a 1984 American drama film starring Sean Penn, Elizabeth McGovern, and Nicolas Cage. It was directed by Richard Benjamin and written by Steve Kloves. The original music score was composed by Dave Grusin.
The fil ...
'' (1984) and ''Lush Life'' (1993), a
TV movie starring
Jeff Goldblum and
Kathy Baker.
It was the tune the prisoners played in an attempt to bring down an avalanche in the next-to-last episode of ''
Hogan's Heroes
''Hogan's Heroes'' is an American television sitcom set in a Nazi German prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during World War II. It ran for 168 episodes (six seasons) from September 17, 1965, to April 4, 1971, on the CBS network, the longest broadcast ...
''.
See also
*
List of 1930s jazz standards
Jazz standards are musical compositions that are widely known, performed and recorded by jazz artists as part of the genre's musical repertoire. This list includes compositions written in the 1930s that are considered standards by at least on ...
References
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1930s jazz standards
1938 songs
Jazz compositions in B-flat major
Jazz songs
Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients
Songs written by Ray Noble