When I was in school, we would have long periods of classes where we learned lots of new material. Then the teachers would almost always stop to do the occasional review so that we could stop and put all of the new material into context and make sense of it.

I have written for quite a long time about vintage jazz music, much of it obscure to modern listeners. I have typically featured a particular performer or group with some samples of his/her/their work. But today we will feature one of the most versatile old tunes there is – “Tea For Two” – and listen to samples from some of the artists who have already had their day in the sun here.

Tea For Two was written for the show “No, No, Nanette”, which became a big Broadway hit in 1925. The song was written as so many songs were at the time, with one guy doing the tune and another writing the lyrics. While the show was popular, the song became both popular and enduring.

I would be remiss if I did not feature the first major hit version, sung by Marion Harris. This record was a number one hit for eleven weeks in 1925. But I will confess that I find it more interesting than musically good. This was a more-or-less typical pop record from the tail-end of the era of acoustic (pre-microphone) recording. I will give readers an up-front pass on judgment should you have trouble getting through the whole record (or if you wish to skip it entirely). Music like this is an acquired taste these days, and can be proof of how long three minutes can actually be. So let’s move on to some more engaging performances.

Like this one from Art Tatum in 1933. I am kind of stretching to include Tatum in our review session, as he got only the briefest bit of time in the sunlight on this blog for a version he did of the durable old tune “Blue Lou”. Tatum was a blind man who played piano in the most amazing way. This recording is from 1933, and is one of the very first recordings he made. While 1933 was a time before even the earliest line in the sand when jazz could be described as “modern”, Tatum’s playing was far advanced for the time – or really, for any time.

Art Tatum’s technical abilities at the keyboard were without peer, but he never lost a sense of melody and rhythm, which kept those amazing skills grounded and oh, so listenable.

Fats Waller also did a piano solo version, but in 1937. Waller, who got a full feature here, shows his amazing range – both in mood and in style. If there was any piano man of the era who could approach the same tier as Art Tatum, it was Waller (although Fats would probably have disputed this, having once seen Tatum in his audience, and announcing that “God is in the house!”).

Waller goes from a florid, expressive style and, of course, spends some time in his famous “Harlem stride”, where the left hand pounds out a rhythm as the right does the showy stuff. This is one record where we wonder where Fats might have gone with this tune without the three-minute limit of most recordings of the era.

We do not have to ask that question on this record, cut by Lester Young & Nat King Cole in 1942, because they recorded this on a ten-inch 78 rpm record that was good for about five minutes playing time instead of the usual three. Lester Young, one of the most influential tenor sax players of the 1930’s was just a year or two out from his separation from the great Count Basie band, and beginning a solo career that would span the rest of his life (which we examined a bit here, and here).

His accompanist on piano was the inimitable Nat Cole. Cole became known for his ability to croon ballads in the 1950’s, but before that he was a first-rate jazz piano guy and leader of the King Cole Trio (previously featured here). This record is a master class on how two musicians can feed off of one another in their improvisation yet never “lose the plot” of the song they are playing. Just as three minutes can drag out as it did in the first record, five minutes just flies by on this one.

We featured the short, sad life of Beverly Kenney here. This version of Tea For Two was among her earliest recordings, made in 1954. This song has served as equal opportunity material for both instrumental musicians and for singers. Those lyricists of the 1920’s had a knack for churning out clever and memorable words.

Kenny’s bright, expressive voice and her lovely vocal styling are simply marvelous. Many singers have done the song over the decades, but nobody else has done it quite like Kenney did.

Are you ready for a change of pace? I’ve got you. Tommy Dorsey was the bandleader who put Frank Sinatra on the big stage in 1940, and we wrote about it here. Sadly, Dorsey was among the old guard of big band leaders who died in the 1950’s. His band lived on, however, under several other stewards. Warren Covington was the first of them, and he chose to have the band play “Tea For Two” as a cha cha in 1958. It was a good decision, because the record became a top-ten hit long after most big bands had given up on such a thing being possible.

This was a pretty commercialized recording, but I have to confess that it has a certain pull to it that makes it an enjoyable listen. It is very much a product of its time when the cha-cha had taken over from the mambo as the dance fad for those who were too old for Elvis. This record also shows how versatile the old song was, because it makes for a pretty good cha cha.

I will finish with a great pairing – Count Basie leading his fabulous big band and the inimitable Ella Fitzgerald, who recorded the song together on a 1963 album. This record came near the end of Basie’s second burst of creativity that began in the early 1950’s, and also while Ella’s voice was still in great form. Both Basie and Ella have had their fair share of screen time here (like here here here for the Count and here and here for Miss Ella). OK, maybe more than their fair share.

Anyone can search any online music source and will be sure do find dozens and dozens of additional takes on “Tea For Two”, from any decade over the past one hundred years. Even Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck danced to it. And you can also search the catalogs of some of the greatest jazz artists (and even artists of other genres) and you are very likely to find “Tea For Two” as one of their many offerings. It has sometimes been my tendency to pack too many selections into a piece like this, so I will quit now and plant the seed for further exploration on your own, should you be so inclined.

OK, I lied. I came across one from just a few years ago (2019) that is too good to leave out, by a guitarist named Pasquale Grasso. Didn’t all of our school review sessions toss in a little new material right at the end? I continue to grow in my appreciation for the jazz guitar, and Pasquale Grasso is someone I need to spend more time listening to. And young Mr. Grasso understands something too – that all of us need as much of this great old song as we can get.

It continues to amaze me how long of a life some of those 1920’s show tunes have had. I suppose that when anything has “good bones” – houses come to mind – it can be expected to last for a long time and through many eras. “Tea For Two” is one as durable as any. And as enjoyable as any, as well.