If you’re like me, you’ve often chuckled when someone says that this performer was on overnight success. After reading about Cole Porter‘s popularity associated with the play and subsequent film version of The Gay Divorce, I suspect that audiences might have considered the composer an overnight success when Night and Day became such a huge hit in 1932.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Cole Porter had returned from Paris to re-introduce his music to New York audiences four years earlier, but it took the composer even more time to build up to this success.

Sometimes my students will ask me how long it will take for them to feel totally confident with their piano playing. Of course, the answer to that question can vary widely with each individual. Nevertheless, it’s difficult for aspiring piano students at any age to grasp the concept of the time required to develop musical maturity.

Believe me, I was no different. When I made the mid-career shift from ensemble keyboardist and jazz organist to solo pianist, I naively thought that making the change was simply a matter of switching performance vehicles. Boy was I wrong! In fact as I recall, it took the first five years of my 14 year solo piano gig at the Radisson Milford Hotel before I achieved the level of confidence that I had been working toward with the solo piano genre. Make no mistake though; I still had plenty to learn then. Today, I understand and appreciate the fact that musical growth is a life-long learning experience.

Returning to Night and Day, think about the fact that Cole Porter’s most popular standard premiered 17 years after his Broadway failure and emigration to Paris. It was after many hours of practice, experience, ups and downs that Night and Day became a hit for the composer. So I hope you realize that even though Night and Day has a legacy of nearly 80 years, the composer was anything but an overnight success. The fact is, that it takes a considerable length of time for even the most talented and famous musicians to achieve greatness.

After Fred Astaire‘s premiere recording of Night and Day in 1932, a great variety of performing artists from Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald to Ringo Starr and Rod Stuart have continued to contribute their own interpretations to our extensive listening library. Although most jazz musicians tend to play Night and Day as a swing tune, there was one notable exception that particularly inspired me.

As I have mentioned in my Bossa Nova blog post series as well as in my recent Beguine blog articles, the way jazz musicians in the 1960s began to incorporate Latin rhythms and songs into their repertoires had a tremendous impact on my own piano playing.

Although I have performed Night and Day over the years as a swing tune, when I decided to record it for this Beguine blog post series, I immediately recalled the rendition recorded by Sergio Mendes and Brazil ’66 nearly 30 years ago. With the Latin rhythms in my inner musical ear and the review of the track on Rhapsody Music (which I listened to several times), I was ready to record my solo piano version to go with this post.

The first beguine bass pattern that I presented in How I Began My Beguine works beautifully for Night and Day. The reason for this is that almost every one of the song’s 32 measures has only one chord. By simply following the pattern Root – 5^th- 5^th- 5^th (an octave below), the Latin rhythm accompaniment falls right into place.

As I often tell my students, the best way to make your piano playing work effectively, is to keep your left hand accompaniment solid and steady. Once this foundation is established, you can play the melody with the right hand with the freedom to embellish, vary and personalize your version of the song. This principle turns the average person’s logic upside down. But all you have to do is think about how Sinatra could swing when he sang the standards on his recordings with the Count Basie Band.

Whether you want to learn how to play one of your favorite songs with the beguine bass, get your children started with piano lessons while they’re still young or achieve your life-long dream of learning to play the piano, the piano teachers at the Ed Mascari Piano Studio can provide you with patient and encouraging instruction.

Whether you take lessons at our convenient Natick Studio location or at our Hudson Piano Studio centrally located on the Hudson Rotary, you can be confident that we are always delighted to help you Learn to Play the Music You Love!