Ella Fitzgerald - Mood Indigo (Verve Records 1957) video free download

From Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book, "Mood Indigo" (1930) & (1955) is a jazz composition and song, with music by Duke Ellington and Barney Bigard with lyrics by Irving Mills.

The tune was composed for a radio broadcast in October 1930 and was originally titled "Dreamy Blues." It was "the first tune I ever wrote specially for microphone transmission," Ellington recalled. "The next day wads of mail came in raving about the new tune, so Irving Mills put a lyric to it." Renamed "Mood Indigo," it became a jazz standard. While Irving Mills—Jack Mills's brother and publishing partner—took credit for the lyrics, in a 1987 interview, lyricist Mitchell Parish claimed that he had written the lyrics.

What makes the original recording(s) so interesting is the fact that Ellington has taken the traditional front-line of trumpet, trombone and clarinet, and turned them "upside down." At the time of these first three recordings in 1930, the usual voicing of the horns would be clarinet at the top (highest pitch), trumpet in the middle, and the trombone at the bottom (lowest pitch). In "Mood Indigo," Ellington voices the trombone right at the top of the instrument's register, and the clarinet at the very lowest. This was unheard of at the time, and also created (in the studio) a so-called "mike-tone"—an effect generated by the overtones of the clarinet and trombone (which was tightly muted as well). The "mike-tone" gives the audio-illusion of the presence of a fourth "voice," or instrument. "Mood Indigo" is performed both as an instrumental and as a vocal.

Ella's accompanied by Ben Webster (ts), Oscar Peterson (p), Herb Ellis (g), Ray Brown (b), Alvin Stoller (d). Recorded October 17, 1957, Los Angeles. (Verve Records)

You ain't been blue; no, no, no.

You ain't been blue,

Till you've had that mood indigo.

That feelin' goes stealin' down to my shoes

While I sit and sigh, "Go 'long blues".

Always get that mood indigo,

Since my baby said goodbye.

In the evenin' when lights are low,

I'm so lonesome I could cry.

'Cause there's nobody who cares about me,

I'm just a soul who's

bluer than blue can be.

When I get that mood indigo,

I could lay me down and die.

You ain't been blue; no, no, no, no-oh, no.

You ain't been blue,

Till you've had that mood indigo.

That feelin' goes stealin' down to my shoes

While I sit and sigh, "Go 'long blues".