The most prominent image of Leonard Bernstein tends to be his dynamic presence as the conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. But his career also included his extensive composition for Broadway, including West Side Story, Candide, Wonderful Town, and many others. His tune “Some Other Time,” from the 1944 musical On the Town (lyrics by Betty Comden and Adoph Green), subsequently became one of the select few which made the leap from show tune to jazz standard.
One of the most noted instrumental versions of the standard is by pianist Bill Evans. His version includes an intro that approaches the musical equivalent of liturgy, serving as an intro across a broad variety of ballads by other artists. Pitchfork explains that “Evans’ art has endured in part because he has a brilliant combination of formal sophistication and accessibility; critics and his fellow musicians heard the genius in his approach to chords, his lightness of touch…while listeners could put on his records and simply bask in their beauty, how Evans’ continual foregrounding of emotion made the sad songs extra wrenching and the happy ones extra buoyant.”
On the Evans version, the intro and start of the melody are in C major. 1:30 brings the middle 8, which are in Ab major. There’s a return to C major at 2:04, completing the AABA cycle at 2:38 as the solo section begins.
Since the lyric is a very powerful one, we’re also including a vocal version by vocalist and pianist Diane Schuur. Her website details that she learned “‘What a Difference a Day Makes’ while she was still a toddler (and) developed her own rich, resonant vocal style at a very young age…(winning) two Grammy awards and three additional Grammy nominations” via her solo work and collaborations with the Count Basie Orchestra, B.B. King, Ray Charles, and Jose Feliciano.
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