“All of You” was written by Cole Porter for the 1954 Broadway musical Silk Stockings. It became a jazz favorite through Miles Davis’s recordings, especially his 1956 version on ‘Round About Midnight, and Bill Evans’s trio performances from the Village Vanguard in 1961.
The form is a 32-bar ABAC, usually in Eb major. It opens with a minor ii-V feel before resolving to the major tonic, and the harmony continues through ii-V progressions and secondary dominants. The melody uses repeated notes and gentle movement, giving it a conversational quality.
Section by section: in the opening bars, the harmony hovers around the iv and ii chords before resolving; target the resolution to Ebmaj7 with its third or seventh. In the B section, outline the secondary dominants with their leading tones. In the C section, build to the final turnaround with a strong bebop phrase. Miles’s solo is relaxed and melodic, using space beautifully, while Bill Evans’s trio version shows interactive, conversational playing between piano, bass and drums.
Practice at medium swing, around 140 BPM. Learn the melody from Miles’s recording. Pianists should study Evans’s voicings from the Vanguard sessions.
Transposing tip: Bb instruments read it in F, Eb instruments in C.
Getting the most from the All of You Lead Sheet PDF: start by reading the chord symbols without your instrument and humming the roots. Then circle any chord you can’t yet voice or arpeggiate, and make those your warm-up for the week before you play the whole form.
Using the All of You Lead Sheet PDF on gigs: keep a concert-pitch copy and a copy in your instrument’s key, label the intro and ending on the page, and note the tempo and feel the band usually plays. Small notes like these keep you calm when a tune gets called on the spot.
Is it hard to play? It’s intermediate. Recordings to study: Miles Davis’s ‘Round About Midnight and Bill Evans’s Sunday at the Village Vanguard. Learn more about the composer on Cole Porter’s Wikipedia page, and find more Cole Porter lead sheets on Minedit.