The music for “Ain't Misbehavin'" was composed in 1929 by Fats Waller and Harry Brooks, with lyrics by Andy Razaf. The song was specifically written as the opener for an all-black musical revue titled Connie's Hot Chocolates, hosted by the legendary Harlem nightclub Connie's Inn.
I have long played this arrangement in standard tuning in the key of D, but always struggled with the harmonic movement of the bridge, looking at transcriptions across the internet, and before that, Fake Books, the chords never seemed to be 'right' to my ear.
So, before I recorded this on a 1934 Gibson L-50 arch top for my "The Last Shot Got Him" CD, I went back to a film of Fats Waller's performance of it to try to nail it down. To my ear, this is closer than anything else I've heard: Fats was preserving the right hand/high string notes while moving the bass.
I"m working on notation for this and many other pieces for a collection of my instrumental arrangements that people have asked about over the years that will include performances like this, a video 'walkthrough' lesson, and notation/tablature with chord diagrams for the voicings I use.
You may find out more about that project by emailing me @ scott AT CattailMusic DOT com, or at [ Ссылка ] or [ Ссылка ]
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