Our Delight

"Our Delight"
Song by Dizzy Gillespie
Released	1946
Recorded	July 9, 1946
Length	2:27
Label	Musicraft
Composer	Tadd Dameron

"Our Delight" is a 1946 jazz standard, composed by Tadd Dameron, and recorded by Dizzy Gillespie. ^[1] It is considered one of Dameron's best compositions, along with "Good Bait", "Hot House", "If You Could See Me Now", and "Lady Bird". ^{[2] [3]} It has an AABA construction. ^[4] A moderately fast bebop song, it featured the trumpeter Fats Navarro, who is said to "exhibit mastery of the difficult chord progression". ^[5] One author said, "'Our Delight' is a genuine song, a bubbly, jaggedly ascending theme that sticks in one's mind, enriched by harmonic interplay between a flaming trumpet section led by Dizzy, creamy moaning reeds and crooning trombones. The written accompaniments to the solos–in particular the leader's two statements–are full of inventiveness, creating call-and-response patterns and counter-melodies. What is boppish here is the off-center, syncopated melody, as well as the shifting, internal voicings of the chords, especially at the very end. These voicings, along with a love of tuneful melodies that one walks out of a jazz club humming, were Tadd's main legacy to such composers and arrangers as Benny Golson, Gigi Gryce, and Jimmy Heath." ^[6] Rolling Stone describes the song as a "bop gem". ^[7]

There are more than 120 cover versions of "Our Delight". ^[8] Bill Evans recorded his version of the composition for his debut album New Jazz Conceptions in 1956. ^[7]

References

1. Randel, Don Michael (1996). The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music. Harvard University Press. p. 194. ISBN   978-0-674-37299-3 . Retrieved February 2, 2012.
2. Gioia, Ted (May 9, 2011). The History of Jazz. Oxford University Press. p. 214. ISBN   978-0-19-539970-7 . Retrieved February 2, 2012.
3. Yanow, Scott (2005). Jazz: a regional exploration. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 133. ISBN   978-0-313-32871-8 . Retrieved February 2, 2012.
4. Owens, Thomas (1996). Bebop: The Music and Its Players. Oxford University Press. p. 218. ISBN   978-0-19-510651-0.
5. Carnes, Mark Christopher; Betz, Paul R. (May 12, 2005). American National Biography: Supplement. American Council of Learned Societies, Oxford University Press. p. 242. ISBN   978-0-19-522202-9 . Retrieved February 2, 2012.
6. Rosenthal, David H. (September 9, 1993). Hard Bop: Jazz and Black Music 1955-1965. Oxford University Press. p. 31. ISBN   978-0-19-508556-3 . Retrieved February 2, 2012.
7. Swenson, John (April 27, 1999). Rolling Stone Jazz and Blues Album Guide. Random House. p. 231. ISBN   978-0-679-76873-9 . Retrieved February 2, 2012.
8. cover.info database accessed November 6, 2022