Autumn Leaves - Eva Cassidy Cover
Autumn Leaves Eva Cassidy
• Autumn Leaves - Eva Cassidy Cover
"Autumn Leaves" is a classic song and jazz standard written by Joseph Kosma in 1945 with lyrics by Jacques Prévert in French, that is being covered until this day by many artists including Nat King Cole, Edith Piaf, Frank Sinatra and Eva Cassidy to name but a few. Over time you will find different arrangements that make this song unique.
"Autumn Leaves" appears on the albums LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY, NIGHTBIRD, SONGBIRD, and THE BEST OF EVA CASSIDY. SIMPLY EVA was launched as an acoustic solo version in 2011. "Autumn Leaves" is among Eva's top five favourite songs, together with "Over the Rainbow," "Fields of Gold," "I Know you by Heart," and "What a Wonderful World".
Eva had actually known "Autumn Leaves" for many years; however, she hadn't sung it with her band up until a couple of months prior to the Blues Alley recording sessions. Chris Biondo remembers how she included it into her solo performances in between sets. On SIMPLY EVA, she sang it alone with acoustic guitar. Eva requested that Lenny Williams join her on piano for LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY.
Chris Biondo recalls Lenny's piano solo being very impromptu. Lenny stated that he'd never ever practised it with her prior to the performance at Blues Alley. Eva invited him to play. He had done it a million times, but never ever with Eva. He had to guess the key and got it pitch perfect.
Lenny recalls it being a strange key, and was terrified of not doing it properly. It was in five flats. He wasn't sure whether to start from the beginning. Eva glanced at him, as he was listening to what she was doing with the song so he didn't play, however just before the break, she intimated to him, ‘Like, you’d better come in now and play something because I don’t have a solo prepared,’ so he did.
Barbara Cassidy, Eva's Mother, informed the Songbird biographers that Eva had SAD or Seasonal Affective Disorder. Eva stated to her, "Mom, I can't appreciate Autumn, as lovely as it is, given that the winter season is approaching. What the song "Autumn Leaves” meant to Eva is purely speculative, but perhaps its seasonal melancholy resonated with her own regret about the falling leaves. Or was it a more eternal metaphor? We’ll never know.