Cotton Tail is a 1940 jazz tune composed by Duke Ellington, built on the rhythm changes from George Gershwin’s I Got Rhythm. The first Ellington recording, made in May 1940, is renowned for Ben Webster’s driving tenor saxophone solo. It began as an instrumental, but Ellington later added lyrics, with further lyrics by Jon Hendricks for Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. A notable 1957 recording appears on Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook, and other acclaimed versions include Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, Wes Montgomery, and Harry James. Slide Hampton’s arrangement on Dee Dee Bridgewater’s 1997 album Dear Ella earned the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) in 1998. The tune is used as the theme for The Art of Jazz, a KNKX-FM radio program. Cotton Tail is a swing era jazz standard that remains widely performed and recorded.
