Sophisticated Lady Backing Track Jazz – Here the improviser can apply his knowledge to one of the most beautiful jazz songs ever created.

“Sophisticated Lady” is a jazz song composed in 1932 by Duke Ellington. The lyrics are written by Irving Mills and Mitchell Parish.

The lyrics of this song are as follows:

“They say into your early life romance came
And in this heart of yours burned a flame
A flame that flickered one day and died away
Then, with disillusion deep in your eyes
I know, you miss the love you lost long ago
And when nobody is nigh you cry
Smoking, drinking, never thinking of tomorrow, nonchalant
Diamonds shining, dancing, dining with some man in a restaurant
Is that all you really want?
No, sophisticated lady,
I know, you miss the love you lost long ago
And when nobody is nigh you cry
Sophisticated lady
You cry”

This song has been wonderfully interpreted by renowned singers and instrumentalists such as Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon, Chick Corea, Joe Pass, Larry Coryell, Kenny Burrell, Django Reinhardt, Billy Eckstine, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Tony Bennett, Nancy Wilson, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Art Tatum, Toots Thielemans, Marcus Miller, Jaco Pastorius, Christian McBride and many others.

This Jazz Standard has the 32-bar AABA format, which was quite common at the time it was created. Regarding the harmony, we can say that, just like the name of this song, it has a very sophisticated harmonic structure. With enough effort, the student will be able to improvise quite fluidly on this song.

This theme can be found in the “Real Book vol.1” on page 397 and in “The New Real Book vol.2” on page 337.

This backing track is composed of drums, bass and piano. The tempo is 85bpm.

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I hope you like it, happy studying!