Cole Porter tunes make wonderful vehicles for jazz improvisation!
For one thing, Mr. Porter constructed his melodies so they had a natural arc, more so than many of the other composers of his era. Each 8 measures or so ascends to a melody note that’s just a little bit higher than we’ve heard before, so that the emotional high point of the tune is often the melodic high note as well. It’s like a series of little waves, getting higher, higher, and still higher until they crest with “the big one!.”
The Cole Porter song “All Of You” is one of these tunes. It’s the eleventh tune in The Real Book and I’ve made a video to illustrate this for you as part of my Journey Through The Real Book series.
Enjoy, and I hope this inspires you to practice some jazz piano this week!
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