Kosma, Autumn Leaves (Les Feuilles mortes)

Fall has arrived for most of the country, including here in North Carolina and almost surely in Paris, so we might as well celebrate with one of the most popular songs in the repertoire.

Autumn Leaves was composed by Joseph Kosma (1905-1969). Kosma was born in Hungary and among his teachers at the Liszt Conservatory in Budapest was Béla Bartók. He moved to Berlin in 1928 and then to Paris in 1933. There he met and collaborated with Jacques Prévert (1900-1977) on a series of songs.

Although Kosma was under house arrest during the occupation of France during World War II, he still managed to work with Prévert. At the end of the war in 1945, they produced Les Feuilles mortes, the original French version of the song. The music appeared first in a ballet Le Rendez-vous written by Kosma the same year. The song was recorded by various artist, but had its greatest success in a 1949 release by Yves Montand.

English lyrics were provided in 1950 by Johnny Mercer (1909-1976). Mercer’s bio reads like a Who’s Who of famous musicians from the 1930s through the 1970s. Born in Savannah, Georgia, he made his way to New York to work on Tin Pan Alley and was soon working with Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, and Paul Whiteman. He turned out a number of songs for Broadway and Hollywood, the first big hit being “I’m an Old Cowhand from the Rio Grande.” Mercer’s famous songs are too voluminous to list, but they include standards like “Jeepers, Creepers” (1938), “Fools Rush In” (1940), “I’m Old Fashioned” (1942), “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe” (1943), and “Satin Doll” (1953). He later teamed with Henry Mancini to produce “Moon River” (1961) and “Days of Wine and Roses” (1962). At about the time of Mercer’s death, Barry Manilow began setting some of his lyrics to music.

This melancholic chanson is nicely performed by Tatiana Eva-Marie and the Avalon Jazz Band, our go-to musicians for French songs previously featured here and here.