Tatum’s legendary recording brought “Tea for Two” into the jazz canon ... - Chris Tyle

Rank 59 Music Vincent Youmans Lyrics Irving Caesar   “Tea for Two” was introduced by Louise Groody and John Barker in the Broadway musical, No, No, Nanette, which opened on September 16, 1925, at the Globe Theater and ran for 321 performances. The song was known to the public well before its official introduction, as the pre-Broadway run of No, No, Nanette was so successful in Chicago that its producer, Harry Frazee, let it play there for over a year.     More on Louise Groody       More on John Barker   The Benson Orchestra of Chicago was the first to see their recording of “Tea for Two” on the pop charts. Their instrumental rendition was recorded in August of 1924 and entered the charts the following January, rising to number five. That same month a Marion Harris recording climbed the charts to number one and held that position for three weeks. All told, the charting hits were: The Benson Orchestra of Chicago (1925, instrumental, #5) Marion Harris, (1925, #1) Ben Bernie and His Orchestra (1925, instrumental, #10) Ipana Troubadours (1930, #15) Teddy Wilson and His Orchestra (1937, instrumental, #18) Art Tatum (1939, instrumental, #18) Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra, led by Warren Covington (1958, as “Tea for Two Cha Cha”, instrumental, #7)   Chart information used by permission from Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890-1954   Also starring Charles Winniger, No, No, Nanette is about a wealthy Bible manufacturer accompanying his ward (Nanette) and her girl friends to Atlantic City for a weekend. Problems arise when her boyfriend, her father’s girlfriends, his wife, and lawyer arrive unexpectedly. The show’s score, by composer Vincent Youmans and lyricists Irving Caesar and Otto Harbach, produced a second jazz standard, “I Want to Be Happy” (lyrics by Caesar). For those familiar with baseball history, Harry Frazee, former owner of the Boston Red Sox, is said to have financed No, No, Nanette using the proceeds of his $100,000 sale of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees in 1919. Red Sox fans have long blamed the transaction for the demise of their franchise, calling it “The Curse of the Bambino.” According to Glenn Stout, author of Yankees Century: 100 Years of New York Yankees Baseball, “Frazee has become a malevolent figure like other local symbols of evil such as the Boston Strangler, Bucky ‘Bleeping’ Dent, and Don Zimmer.” Stout goes on to say that, while it’s a nice story, Frazee did not use the $100,000 to finance his play. Frazee was, at that time, embroiled in an assortment of complex legal and financial struggles, but they did not involve his theatrical interests. If anything, he intended to use the money for his ongoing lawsuits, or possibly new ball players. No, No, Nanette was adapted to the big screen in 1930 and again in 1940, both films, at best, mediocre. In the 1950 Doris Day vehicle entitled Tea for Two, little of the No, No, Nanette story line was retained, but for Day fans it is considered one of her better musicals. In 1971 No, No, Nanette was revived as No, No, Nanette - The New 1925 Musical. The successful show opened January 19, 1971, at the 46th Street Theatre, ran for 861 performances and won four Tony awards including Best Actress for Helen Gallagher. The revival is also remembered for bringing tap dancing star Ruby Keeler back to the stage after 30 years. For his lyric’s “hook phrase,” Irving Caesar used the term “Tea for Two,” originally an 18th Century English street cry. A vendor wanting to attract business would lower the price of a pot of tea from thruppence to tuppence by shouting, ‘tea for two.’ In the 19th century, when Victorian ladies and gentlemen would meet in the afternoon for tea, the order of “Tea for Two” was often an early sign of courting. There are a number of stories relating how Youmans came up with the melody for “Tea for Two.” Some have him so overjoyed with his creation that he got Caesar out of bed to write the lyrics. But, according to David Ewen in his book, All the Years of American Popular Music, “Tea for Two” was written many years before, while Youmans was still in the Navy. All accounts do agree, however, that when he presented the melody to Caesar, Youmans wanted a lyric then and there. Caesar wrote what he thought was a “dummy lyric,” promising to write the real one the next day. Apparently Youmans and Caesar reconsidered in the morning and retained the quaint lyrics with what Philip Furia in his book The Poets of Tin Pan Alley: A History of America’s Great Lyricists calls “the tritest of rhymes,” the ee-oo pair.     More on Vincent Youmans       More on Irving Caesar

More information on this tune... Philip Furia The Poets of Tin Pan Alley: A History of America's Great Lyricists Oxford University Press; Reprint edition Paperback: 336 pages (The author devotes three pages to the song’s history and an analysis of its lyric.) See the Reading and Research page for this tune for additional references. - Jeremy Wilson

This section suggests definitive or otherwise significant recordings that will help jazz students get acquainted with “Tea for Two.” These recordings have been selected from the Jazz History and CD Recommendations sections.

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“Tea For Two” is most closely associated with a pair of pianists who are both huge influences on other jazz musicians but who couldn’t be much more different from one another. Art Tatum recorded the tune several times, beginning with a performance from his landmark 1933 session (Piano Starts Here). The technical and harmonic innovations here continue to inspire (and at times intimidate) musicians to this day. Meanwhile, Thelonious Monk on two occasions recorded his own influential, sparse and harmonically quirky arrangement of “Tea for Two.” The second of these recordings (Criss-Cross) is irresistible. Among vocal versions, Ella Fitzgerald’s version with Count Basie’s band (Ella & Basie) is charming and provides a more straightforward approach to the tune.

Noah Baerman - Jazz Pianist and Educator

Although sentimental, operetta-like lyrics were fading in popularity in the early 1900’s, they had not completely fallen from favor by 1924, especially in Broadway musicals. But by the middle 1900’s, songs like “Tea for Two,” thought to be corny and dated, were relegated to novelty tune status. A case in point, “Tea for Two” was the number Doc Severinsen’s Band would play while Johnny Carson broke into a soft-shoe dance when a joke or skit failed.

Saving the song from extinction, and responsible for its popularity as a jazz standard, is the repetitive and energetic nature of Youmans’ composition. Its refrain is almost entirely dotted quarter and eighth notes; its narrow range is just over one octave; and the bridge is almost not a bridge, repeating the main theme in a different key. William Zinsser comments on “Tea for Two” and other Youmans songs in his book Easy to Remember: The Great American Songwriters and Their Songs saying,

By all the laws of music those songs should be monotonous. But they’re full of life. Their very repetitiveness propels them forward, giving them a nervous momentum…

This coupling of energy and repetition provides an excellent basis, a unified composition, upon which jazz musicians can perform embellishments and improvisations. -JW

Musical analysis of “Tea for Two”
Original Key	Ab major with false key change to C major during second “A” section
Form	A1 – A2 – A3 – B
Tonality	Major throughout
Movement	Almost entirely in thirds, with a step-wise descent in mm. 1-4 of “B”
Comments     (assumed background)
Melodically repetitive, the harmonic progression is a fairly undemanding vehicle for improvisation. In its most basic form (without the embellishing chords originally written by Youmans), it’s a ii7 –V7 – I progression in two different keys until section “B,” which is basically no more than ii7 – VI7 (V7/ii) – ii7 repeated several times until a final I –iii˚7 – ii7 turnaround. In reality, Youmans uses several chord substitutions that make the original score much more interesting than the way it is usually played these days. It is worth the time to track down the original version when learning this tune.
K. J. McElrath - Musicologist for JazzStandards.com

No discussion of this tune would be complete without crediting Art Tatum, the man who would inspire generations of jazz musicians with his brilliant treatment of “Tea for Two.” Although Tatum’s piano solo recording shared last place with Teddy Wilson in the pop chart recordings list, it has turned out to be one of the most famous and influential recordings in jazz history. Tatum had been playing “Tea for Two” for years before the recording. It was the song he played in 1931 at his first cutting session (competition between bands or musicians) with Fats Waller and James P. Johnson. That evening, one man after another took turns, each topping the other until, with some coaxing from Waller, Tatum took a seat and played his “Tea for Two.” When he was done you could hear a pin drop. The gentlemen had met their match!

Tatum’s legendary recording brought “Tea for Two” into the jazz canon, but that was not all it accomplished. His use of substitute chords, popularized by his 1939 recording in which he completely transforms the third chorus, would have a profound and lasting effect on the way jazz musicians improvise on popular songs.

Renowned jazz pianist Michel Camilo remembers hearing Tatum’s “Tea for Two” on the radio at age fourteen. As a result the classically trained youth decided to become a jazz musician. “I found out that was called jazz, and I fell in love with it. Then I found out that was improvisation, which for me is instant composition.”

Jazz historian Joe Mosbrook, in his Jazzed in Cleveland series (www.cleveland.oh.us/wmv_news) tells how Oscar Peterson first met Tatum at the Cleveland club, Val’s in the Alley.

[Peterson recounts,] “We had a beer or two and I said, `Hey, man, I’d like to hear you play!’ Tatum said, `You play first.’” Peterson said he was young and eager, so he did. “When I finished, Tatum told me, `Hey, I like your style very much.’” Tatum asked him what he wanted to hear. Peterson said, “Something like `Tea For Two.’” “I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, said Peterson, “I’m about six foot four and I was leaning against the piano and my legs just went to water. By the time he got through three more numbers, I couldn’t take it anymore….”

Art Tatum’s 1939 recording of “Tea for Two” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1986.

The grand master’s collection of standards, Piano Starts Here, illustrates the unmatched clarity and speed of his playing and contains his 1933 rendition of “Tea for Two.” -JW

The Quintette of the Hot Club of France, the group that starred Belgian-gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt and French violinist Stephane Grappelli, recorded a sublime rendition of “Tea for Two” in May, 1939.

Reinhardt and Grappelli open the proceedings on the verse, out-of-tempo. This is a version of the tune without fireworks, taken at a medium tempo, perfect for dancing at a Montmartre cabaret. Django’s solo is magical, perhaps one of his best, especially the second-half where he repeatedly hits a single note, allowing it to resonate, then improvises a few bars. Grappelli follows him in a solo borrowing some ideas from the virtuoso American jazz violinist Joe Venuti. The tune ends with a shortened version of the verse, as before out-of-tempo, with just Django and Stephane. Jazz musique par excellence.

Chris Tyle - Jazz Musician and Historian

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Django Reinhardt Django Reinhardt, 1939-1940 Classic 813 Art Tatum Piano Starts Here Sony 64690 Original recording, 1933

“Tea for Two” was included in these films:

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• No, No, Nanette (1930)
• No, No, Nanette (1940)
• Tea for Two (1950, Doris Day, Gordon MacRae)
• Young Man with a Horn (1950, instrumental)
• With a Song in My Heart (1952, Susan Hayward dubbed by Jane Froman, Robert Wagner)
• The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955)
• Sincerely Yours (1955, Liberace)
• Show Biz Bugs (1957, Milt Franklyn) Bugs BUnny cartoon
• Jazz on a Summer’s Day (1960, Anita O’Day)
• Oscar (1991, Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians)
• The Mambo Kings (1992, Mambo All-Stars)
• Forget Paris (1995)

And on stage:

• No, No, Nanette (1925) Broadway musical
• No, No, Nanette (1971) Broadway revival
• No, No, Nanette (1973) London revival

And on television:

• No, No, Nanette (1951) NBC Musical Comedy Time
• The Muppet Show (1979, Rowlf, Lew Zealand) Sseason 3, Episode 62
• Sex and the City (2002, Nancy Shane) HBO TV series, Season 4, Episode 63, "Change of a Dress"

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