A Child Is Born (jazz standard)

"A Child Is Born" is a jazz instrumental that was later recorded with lyrics added. It was written in 1969 by the jazz trumpeter Thad Jones with lyrics added independently by Alec Wilder after hearing the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra perform the instrumental. The instrumental and the song have been recorded by a number of musicians including Tony Bennett, Stanley Turrentine and Bill Evans[1] (also released on Christmas with Sinatra & Friends), Richard Davis, Kenny Burrell, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Hank Jones and Helen Merrill.[2]

Lyrics

Now, out of the night / New as the dawn / Into the light / This Child / Innocent Child / Soft as a fawn / This Child is born

One small heart / One pair of eyes / One work of art / Here in my arms / Here he lies / Trusting and warm / Blessed this morn / A Child is born

Form

"'A Child Is Born' is a 32 bars long song in 3/4 time, and when soloing over it, jazz musicians "usually omit the last two bars", leaving a "30-bar solo form".[3] The original was recorded in B-flat major. It features a slow, lengthy introduction on the piano, lasting over a minute. Bob Yurochko in his book A Short History of Jazz refers to it as a "beautiful ballad" of mainstream jazz.[4]"

References
  1. "A Child Is Born". Allmusic. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
  2. Classic American Popular Song: The Second Half-Century, 1950-2000 David Jenness, Donald Velsey - 2014 - 1136797459 Even finer is A Child Is Born (1969), music written by jazz musician Thad Jones. It is Wilder's best independent lyric, fitting Iones's exquisite melody perfectly; it's a pity the song is heard most often as an instrumental (Figure 4.11). The crucial notes are the ones, all low in pitch, that start successive long phrases: here D, later E-flat, D, E~natural, F: they occur low in the range, like a cello digging in. The highest tones in each phrase are mostly near'oc~ taves, and sound like a woodwind ...
  3. Levine, Mark (12 January 2011). The Jazz Theory Book. "O'Reilly Media, Inc.". p. 561. ISBN 978-1-4571-0145-8.
  4. "Yurochko, Bob (1993). A Short History of Jazz. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 203. ISBN 978-0-8304-1595-3.


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