Ill Wind
"Ill Wind (You're Blowin' Me No Good)" is a song composed by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Ted Koehler. It was written for their last show at the Cotton Club in 1934 and was sung by Adelaide Hall [1] In an interview Adelaide Hall explained how she performed the song to great effect during the show, 'I starred in the Cotton Club Parade where I sang 'Ill Wind', which Harold Arlen had written for me. There were twenty-four girl dancers behind me all dressed in grey and I was in pink. It was the first show ever that had nitrogen smoke rise from the floor on stage.'[2] The melody came to Arlen whilst he was visiting Anya Taranda, a model who was to become Arlen's wife.[3]
The song is also featured in the 1984 Francis Ford Coppola movie The Cotton Club sung by the actress Lonette McKee who gives a loose portrayal of Adelaide Hall singing the song.
Notable recordings
- Maxine Sullivan (1939)
- Lena Horne - This Is Lena Horne (1952)
- Frank Sinatra - In the Wee Small Hours (1955)
- Dinah Washington - Dinah! (1956)
- Ella Fitzgerald - Ella at the Opera House (1958), Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Harold Arlen Songbook (1961)
- Horace Silver - Further Explorations (1958)
- Stan Kenton - Standards in Silhouette (1959)
- Howard McGhee - Sharp Edge (1961)
- Sarah Vaughan - After Hours (1961), Send in the Clowns (1981)
- Earl Grant - Midnight Sun (1962)
- Lee Morgan - Cornbread (1967)
- Larry Coryell/Emily Remler - Together (1985)[4]
- Australian recording artist Kate Ceberano - Kate Ceberano and her Septet (1986)
- Adelaide Hall - 'Live at the Riverside' (1990) That's Entertainment. [5]
- Michael Brook featuring Michael Stipe, Jimmy Scott, and Flea - Albino Alligator soundtrack (1997)
- June Christy - A Friendly Session, Vol. 1 (2000) with the Johnny Guarnieri Quintet
- Audra McDonald - Happy Songs (2002)
- Mina - Mina per Wind (Vol.2) (2002)
- Debbie Harry (in a medley with "Stormy Weather") - Hal Willner's Stormy Weather: The Music of Harold Arlen (2003)
- Noisettes - Wild Young Hearts (2009)
- Johnny Dankworth - Too Cool for the Blues (2010)
- Norah Jones with the Charlie Haden Quartet West - Sophisticated Ladies (2010)
External links
References
- ↑ 'Underneath a Harlem Moon ... the Harlem to Paris Years of Adelaide Hall' by Iain Cameron Williams. Continuum Publishing, ISBN 0826458939. http://www.amazon.com/Underneath-Harlem-Moon-Paris-Adelaide/dp/B005ZOLV7C
- ↑ Adelaide Hall obituary in the Independent newspaper in which Hall is quoted about her time spent at the Cotton Club and singing "Ill Wind", (retrieved 26 december 2014):http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-adelaide-hall-1502902.html
- ↑ Liner notes, Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Harold Arlen Songbook
- ↑ "Together overview". Allmusic.com.
- ↑ 'Live at the Riverside' http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/window/media/page/0,,283666-8604594,00.html