Can anyone name this tune?

[Hardbopjazz]

I am drawing a blank. I have heard it before. Below is a sample of the tune played by Cedar Walton and Jackie McLean.

http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/15619603/551418487/name/Unknown_mclean_walton%2Emp3

[GA Russell]

It's a standard, something like "Somewhere in the Night". I have Nelson Riddle doing it on a 99 cent cassette tape I got twenty years ago.

[Teasing the Korean]

It's a standard, something like "Somewhere in the Night". I have Nelson Riddle doing it on a 99 cent cassette tape I got twenty years ago.

That's it, a.k.a. Naked City. (There were two Naked City themes; Somewhere in the Night was one of them).

[Hardbopjazz]

Thanks.

[Jim R]

This one stumped me (an extremely rare occurence ), but the melody is very familiar, and I dig it. Not an over-played tune, either. This should motivate me to start learning this and add it to my repertoire. Thanks for mentioning it.

[Michael Weiss]

Sure would have liked to hear the rest of that!

I've been playing this tune for years. One of my favorites. I first learned it from a live KD broadcast from the Half Note - a feature for Sonny Red. Great tune.

Never got to hear Teri Thornton's version.

[GA Russell]

Thanks for verifying my hazy recollection, TTK!

As I vaguely recall, I got two 99 cent Nelson Riddle cassettes, both Capitol/EMI issues, about the same time around 1990. One of them was called something like "Nelson Riddle Plays Classic TV Themes", so I'm betting that that was the one it was on.

[Hardbopjazz]

Sure would have liked to hear the rest of that!

I've been playing this tune for years. One of my favorites. I first learned it from a live KD broadcast from the Half Note - a feature for Sonny Red. Great tune.

Here is the entire song.

full tune

Edited May 7, 2012 by Hardbopjazz

[Jim R]

Checking my collection, I awoke to the fact that I have at least six versions of "Somewhere In The Night". One of them is on Grant Green's "Street Of Dreams", which I know I've played dozens of times over the years. I have one vocal version, by Marlena Shaw on her 1967 "Out Of Different Bags" album.

She also does a separate tune listed on that album as "Naked City Theme", which was also very familiar sounding. I knew it had another name, and with a little research I realized it was "Ahmad's Blues":

So I searched Youtube for "Naked City Theme", and found what appears to be the "legit" alternate theme (in addition to Somewhere In The Night) for the show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPwixxoIwSk

So, I'm a little confused. What's up with that Marlena Shaw track? Was there any previous association with "Naked City Theme" and "Ahmad's Blues"? I see that Ahmad Jamal had an LP titled "Naked City Theme" (which I don't own). Is the title track on that actually "Somewhere In The Night", or...?

[Jim R]

Found this, which credits Billy May and Milt Raskin as composers.

Also turned this up (did not know there was a film, and two different versions of the tv show, with two different themes composed by different people):

"There are eight million stories in The Naked City...This has been one of them." These words were intoned by producer Mark Hellinger at the conclusion of The Naked City, a 1947 detective film lensed in its entirety in New York City (quite an innovation in those Hollywood-dominated years). The same words were heard as the coda in each episode of the TV series Naked City, which like its movie predecessor was entirely shot in the Big Apple. Technically, there were two TV series bearing the title Naked City. The first, which aired on ABC from September 30, 1958 through September 29, 1959, was a weekly, half-hour endeavor, starring John McIntire as veteran NYPD lieutenant John Muldoon and James Franciscus as his youthful partner, Detective Jim Halloran. While Muldoon spent virtually every hour of his day tracking down the various robbers, muggers and two-bit hoodlums in his jurisdiction, Halloran divided his time between his job and his home life with wife Janet (Suzanne Storrs). In a startling plot development, Muldoon was killed in a car chase on the episode originally telecast March 17, 1959, whereupon another seasoned veteran, Lt. Mike Parker (Horace McMahon) took over as Halloran's partner. Also seen during Naked City's initial run was Harry Bellaver as patrolman Frank Arcaro. After a year-long hiatus, Naked City returned to the ABC schedule on October 12, 1960, this time as an hour-long series with several new cast members. Horace McMahon was back as Lt. Parker, as was Harry Bellaver as Frank Arcaro, who in the interim had been promoted to sergeant. New to the series was Paul Burke in the "young partner" slot as Detective Adam Flint, while Nancy Malone was seen as Flint's loyal, ever-patient girlfriend, Libby. Both incarnations of Naked City were outfitted with bluesy, evocative theme songs, with George Duning composing the theme of the 1958 version and Billy May and Milton Raskin handling the 1960 theme. And both were overflowing with familiar faces in their supporting casts, with such actors as Sandy Dennis, Dustin Hoffman, and Jon Voight making their earliest filmed TV appearances. The hour-long version of Naked City ended its ABC run on September 11, 1963. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

[GA Russell]

This evening I pulled out an album that I imagine many of us have - Cal Tjader's Soul Sauce. It's been quite a while since I've visited it, and I was surprised to hear Somewhere in the Night come up.