Guest post by Nathan Arizona
Every season has its songs, and the Great American Songbook is filled with tunes about the season of too much pumpkin spice and the scent of burning leaves that exists only in memory. “Autumn in New York” is a good candidate for most popular Songbook standard for this time of year.
But the writer of this American classic was one Vladimir Aleksandrovich Dukelsky, and the autumns of his youth were not spent amid the colorful leaves of Central Park but far away in Ukraine, where he was studying classical music in Kiev.
After immigrating to America with his parents, though, he got very good advice as a young man from the king of the Great American Songbook, George Gershwin (the former Jacob Gershowitz): Change your name and start writing pop songs for the many Broadway musicals and revues going on at the time.
So Vladimir Dukelsky became Vernon Duke and before long he had written the words and music for “Autumn in New York.” He also wrote a Songbook classic for another season he didn’t experience in the U.S. (or even France), “April in Paris.” (The other strong candidate for most popular standard about the season, “Autumn Leaves,” was written in France by an actual Frenchman.) Duke also continued his classical music career throughout his lifetime.
“Autumn in New York” arose from a different kind of nostalgia than any Duke might have felt for his boyhood in Ukraine. After spending the summer of 1934 relaxing in Connecticut, he was starting to miss the lively city where his career had taken off. Soon the leaves would be turning in Manhattan.
“Autumn in New York/Why does it seem so inviting?/Autumn in New York /It spells the thrill of first-nighting/Glittering crowds and shimmering clouds in canyons of steel/They’re making me feel, I’m home.”
On the other hand, there’s a touch of melancholy that also seems right for the season of dying leaves. Or maybe it’s just residual Russian gloom. “Autumn in New York is often mingled with pain.”
The song first appeared in the 1934 Broadway musical “Thumbs Up!” The show was only a moderate success and didn’t do much to boost Duke’s song at first. But after a few recordings, the one in 1947 by Frank Sinatra spread it to a wide audience. It has since been recorded by everybody from vocalists Sarah Vaughan, Lena Horne, Mel Torme and Diana Krall to jazz players Chet Baker, Dexter Gordon, Ahmad Jamal and Sun Ra.
Although Sinatra’s 1947 record kicked off the trend, the song really gained momentum after his second and slightly more polished recording of it in 1958. It appeared on the album “Come Fly With Me,” arranged by Billy May.
Billie Holiday brought some pathos to the song, as she did to pretty much every song. Jazz great Oscar Peterson plays piano on this 1952 performance.
Charlie Parker is one of the jazz players “Autumn in New York” has attracted. This is from his famous 1955 compilation album “Charlie Parker With Strings.”
