Rose Room, also known as In Sunny Roseland, is a 1917 jazz standard composed by Art Hickman with lyrics by Harry Williams. It is usually performed as an instrumental, reflecting the shift from ragtime to the 32‑bar and 12‑bar forms, and has been called ahead of its time by Alec Wilder. The tune is named for the Rose Room in the St. Francis Hotel where Hickman’s band played, and it was part of early recordings such as Prince’s Band in 1918 and Art Hickman and His Orchestra in 1920 on Columbia Records. It enjoyed a swing era revival thanks to Duke Ellington’s 1932 recording, and Ellington later used its chord progression in In a Mellotone (1939). The piece is also noted for helping bring Charlie Christian to Benny Goodman in 1939 when he soloed on it for 45 minutes. Other notable versions include Jimmie Lunceford (1934) and Sidney Bechet (1941). In popular culture it closes the Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries episode Away with the Fairies (2012).
