"
Yesterdays" was written in 1933 by Jerome Kern for the Broadway show "Roberta", where it was introduced by Irene Dunne.
The septet format was my chosen band size for the band I fronted when I was playing. I wrote the original score for this piece in October, 1962, shortly after I joined the USAF Band. I can't find any original parts for it, so I have to assume it was never played. Probably I was not satisfied with the score, as I found a number of places that I changed for this version.
I paid a small tribute to Billy (Lady Day) Holiday in the ending. I had an old LP collection of jazz pieces and one of the tracks was Lady Day singing "
Yesterdays". The ending for my version of "
Yesterdays" is roughly the equivalent of how she and her arranger did it many years ago.
I have made under-the-covers adjustments to attack and duration of the swing figures in this score to try to make them a little bit closer to how humans would play. If you are interested, you can read more about how I did this in the following "Swing Feel" post in the Tips and tricks for using Notation Software products forum:
http://www.notation.com/vb-forum/showthread.php?t=30356
I have also attached an MP3 version of how this arrangement sounds on my Clavinova. I hope you enjoy listening to this piece.
Ralph Rayner