Gloomy Sunday In Jazz (Szomorú vasárnap) (Einsamer Sonntag) by Rezsö Seress-László Jávor – Sam M. Lewis in Jazz Versions
Tracklist:
1. Billie Holiday acc. by Teddy Wilson And His Orchestra
(Billie Holiday (vocal). Emmett Berry (trumpet), Jimmy Hamillon (clarinet. tenor saxophone), Hymie Schertzer (alto saxophone). Babe Russin (tenor saxophone), Teddy Wilson (piano), AI Casey (guitar), John Williams (double bass), J.C. Heard (drums)) (1941) (3:11)
2. Don Byas Quartet
(Don Byas (tenor saxophone). Beryl Bocker (piano), John Simmons (double bass), Fred Radcliffe (drums)) (1946) (3:03)
3. Artie Shaw and His Orchestra
(Artie Shaw (clarinet). Charlie Margulis, Manny Klein, George Thow (trumpet), Randall Miller, Bill Rank, Babe Bowman (trombone), Blake Reynolds. Bud Carlton, Jack Stacey (alto saxophone), Dick Clark (tenor saxophone), Joe Krechter (bass clarinet). Jack Cave (flugelhorn). Morton Ruderman (flute), Phil Nemoli (oboe), Stan Wrightsman (piano), Bobby Sherwood (guitar). Jud DeNaut (double bass), Carl Maus (drums). Pauline Byrne (vocal)) (1940) (3:41)
4. Trio Acoustic Featuring Tony Lakatos
(Zoltán Oláh (Korg piano), Péter Oláh (double bass), György Jeszenszky (drums). Guest: Tony Lakatos (tenor saxophone)) (1996) (8:08)
5. Hal Kemp & His Orchestra
(Hal Kemp (clarinet, alto saxophone) with unidentified orchestra, Bob Allen (vocal)) (1936) (3:18)
6. Julius Chepreghy Quartet
(Julius Chepreghy (tenor saxophone), Kálman Oláh (piano), Balázs Berkes (double bass), Elemér Balázs (Premier drums)) (1996) Dedicated to the memory of Barnabás Csepregi (4:18)
7. Fritz-Szöke Duo
(József Róbert Fritz (clarinet), Károly Szöke (drums)) (1999) (3:35)
8. Trio Acoustic
(Zoltán Oláh (piano), Péter Oláh (double bass), György Jeszenszky (drums)) (1997) (5:16)
9. Lajos Dudas Trio
Lajos Dudas (clarinet), Philipp van Endert (guitar), Jochen Büttner (percussions)) (1998) (5:57)
Released 1999.

The story of Gloomy Sunday started so that nobody wanted to make a recording of it since there was an opinion it s too sad and pessimistic and for this reason nobody would buy the finished disc. The fact that after all it came to record was owed to blind chance. On that day the Smiling Boys orchestra led by Lajos Martiny made a lot of new recordings in the Budapest studio of Odeon. The old record-manufacturing process of the age needed preheated wax and at the end of the day there was one more unused warm disc which wouldn't have reheated so would have damaged in any case.
By this time all members of the band left the studio except pianist-leader Lajos Martiny and singer Pal Kalmar. The staff asked them to record something. Pal Kalmar has a sudden inspiration to suggest Gloomy Sunday refused many times earlier. His idea was accepted - it's a hit or miss. Lajos Martiny sat to the piano, Pal Kalmar took a step to the rnicrophone and interpreted the piece on the spur of the moment. The recording was successful. After this they had to make adecision about the future of this unexpected recording. They made a smaller series of it. To the great surprise of the record-moguls Gloomy Sunday became a top hit, and was sold in unbelievable great quantities firstly in Hungary and then it started conquering the world. The hit market sensation became a jazz standard firstly by Artie Shaw and later by Billie Holiday. Many dozen jazz recordings show its imperishable success until today.
On this CD beside four valuable historic recordings we selected five brand new Hungarian jazz recordings. Oddly enough the latter are the first recorded Hungarian jazz versions of Gloomy Sunday. At last this song returned to the Hungarian jazz repertoire after more than 60 years of strolling in the world.
After all, the Hungarian jazz composers hardly ever could be prophets in their own country …