Released 1965 Label Pacific JazzST-20096 | Length 4:05 | |
Genre Afro-Cuban jazz, cha-cha-chá Writer(s) Clare FischerNot heard here; lyrics first recorded in 1980, released in 1981. | ||
"Morning" is a Latin Jazz standard written by American pianist/composer/arranger Clare Fischer, first heard on his 1965 LP, Manteca!, Fischer's first recording conceived entirely in the Afro-Cuban idiom, which, along with the Brazilian music he had explored at length over the previous three years, would provide fertile ground for Fischer's musical explorations over the next half-century.
Contents
Form
"Morning" was Fischer's first - and, to this day, his most famous - contribution to the then recently evolved cha-cha-chá genre. Its structure is the standard A-A-B-A, 32 measures in length. In practice, however, the song's debut recording does take one significant detour, paying unashamed homage to one of its composer's primary musical influences in the process, when, halfway through trombonist Gil Falco's solo, instead of proceeding to the bridge, "Morning" morphs into a 16-bar development of the principal 2-measure motif of "Spring Rounds," the fourth section from Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring.
Lyrics
It remains unclear exactly when Fischer's lyrics to "Morning" were written, but they were not unveiled until the debut of 2+2, the vocal group with which Fischer supplemented his fledgling Latin jazz combo, Salsa Picante, in 1980. Long before that, however, he had been upstaged, at least throughout the Spanish-speaking world, by José José's eponymous 1969 debut LP, which featured a "Morning" cover employing José's own lyrics. Head start aside, the magnitude of José's stardom all but guaranteed that any Spanish-language version supplied by the composer was doomed to obscurity, a situation still lamented by Fischer almost thirty years later. Fischer's own lyrics, however, have - at least in their original language - gained some traction since their 1981 debut in Clare Fischer & Salsa Picante Present 2+2, with subsequent recordings by Lisa Rich, Meredith D'Ambrosio, Jeanie Bryson, Dianne Reeves, Alex & Nilusha, and, most recently, on Roseanna Vitro's album Clarity, Music of Clare Fischer. Moreover, near the end of Fischer's life, two versions of the song, one featuring the approved Spanish-language version of his lyric, the other, the Portuguese, were recorded by the Clare Fischer Voices, under the direction of the composer's son, Brent Fischer, on ...And Sometimes Instruments.
Original version
Music and Lyric by Clare Fischer
What of a morning
That brings a day so gently,
And bathes the leaves
Of memories
That fell so long ago.
I still recall you
In all these early hours,
Though I were there
Once more to share
A love lost long ago.
Crassness of youth
Concluding only half of the truth,
Exuding only one small percent
Of what I surely felt for you.
And then one morning
That brought a day so gently
We set apart
Things of the heart
And lost love long ago.
Approved Spanish-language version
Music by Clare Fischer.
Lyric by Barbara Ransom.
Una mañana
Que llega suavemente
Las hojas caen
Recuerdos traen
De todo nuestro ayer.
Te imagino
En horas tempraneras
Quiero poder
A ti volver
En todo nuestro ayer.
Mi juventud
Carente de
Valor y virtud
No expresa una
Similitud
De lo que yo sentí por ti.
Una mañana
Que vino suavemente
Y nos robó
Besos que yo
Nunca recobraré.
Approved Portuguese language version
Music by Clare Fischer
Lyric by Daniel Cytrynowicz
O^amanhecer – que desce suavemente
Banhando^as folhas
Com mil memórias
De todo^o que passou.
De ti recordo a cada^amanhecer
Me faz sentir
E repartir
Um^amor que ja passou.
Jovem pensar, tão longe da
Verdade sem par,
Não passa de^uma
Gota no mar
De todo^o que^eu senti por ti.
Uma manhã – que veio suavemente
Pra nos roubar,
Nos separar
De todo nosso^amor.