Alone Together

Alone Together is one of the great minor-key jazz standards, written by Arthur Schwartz in 1932 for the Broadway show Flying Colors. Over the years, it has become a favorite for jazz musicians, with notable recordings by Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Jim Hall, and Pat Martino.

The song was first recorded in 1932 by Leo Reisman, but one of the first important jazz recordings was made in 1940 by Artie Shaw.

In this lesson, you will learn how to play the melody of Alone Together mixed with chord voicings over a backing track.

 

Recommended Listening:

• Miles Davis – Blue Moods (1955)
• Julie London (with Al Viola) – Make Love to Me (1957)
• Chet Baker – Chet (1959)
• Sonny Rollins (with Barney Kessel) – Sonny Rollins & The Contemporary Leaders (1959)
• Grant Green – Green Street (1961)
• Paul Desmond (w Jim Hall) – Take Ten (1963)
• Bill Evans – Live at the Trident Club (1964)
• Jim Hall & Ron Carter – Alone Together (1972)
• Pat Martino – Cream (1975)
• Ed Bickert / Don Thompson – At the Garden Party (1978)
• Jimmy Raney & Doug Raney –  Stolen Moments (1979)
• Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen Trio (with Ulf Wakenius) – To a Brother (1993)
• Akio Sasajima – Humpty Dumpty (1994)
• Larry Coryell – Monk, Trane, Miles & Me (1999)
• Abercrombie & Haunschild – Alone Together (2004)
• The Corey Christiansen Quartet – Awakening (2014)
• Joe Beck – Get Me Joe Beck (2014)
• Peter Bernstein and Mike Stern – Live in Krakow (2018)

 

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Video & Sheet Music/Guitar Tabs

Form: AABA (44 bars)
Key: D minor

The harmony of Alone Together stands out because it’s 44 bars long, not the usual 32-bar AABA form found in many jazz standards. The first two A sections are 14 bars each rather than 8, making the structure less symmetrical.

The tune is mostly in D minor, but at the end of the first two A sections, there’s a brief modulation to D major. This shift creates a nice contrast between the darker minor sound and the brighter major feel.

The bridge then modulates to G minor before returning to D minor for the last A section.

 

 

Backing Track

Listen & Play-Along

 

 

Download the PDF, GP files, and backing track with JGO+ (click here to join – Log in)