Free Jazz Standard Sheet Music Downloads

"Out Of Nowhere" is a 1931 popular song composed by Johnny Green, best known also for writing "Body and Soul." Green later became the musical director at MGM and won four Academy Awards for his film scores. The song was first recorded by Bing Crosby in 1931, becoming his first number-one hit as a solo artist.

The tune is a 32-bar standard in the key of G major, with a form sometimes described as A-B1-A-B2. Its most distinctive harmonic feature is the sudden shift from the tonic Gmaj7 to B♭m7-E♭7, a startling chromatic departure that musically captures the idea of something appearing "out of nowhere." This rich harmonic vocabulary has made the progression a favorite source for contrafacts, including Tadd Dameron's "Casbah," Fats Navarro's "Nostalgia," and Lennie Tristano's "317 East 32nd Street."

The landmark jazz recording is Coleman Hawkins' 1937 version featuring guitarist Django Reinhardt and trumpeter Benny Carter. Hawkins' solo was so commanding that no other tenor saxophonist attempted the tune on record for eight years, until Don Byas in 1945. Charlie Parker's 1947 ballad rendition, with Miles Davis and Max Roach, is another essential recording in the bebop canon.