“Autumn Leaves” is usually the first jazz standard a teacher hands you, and for good reason. Composed by Joseph Kosma in 1945 as the French song “Les Feuilles mortes,” with English lyrics later written by Johnny Mercer, it’s built almost entirely from ii-V-I progressions. Learn this tune well and you’ve learned the engine that drives hundreds of other standards.
The form is a 32-bar AABC layout, most often played in G minor (concert), with E minor also common for singers. The magic is that the progression keeps toggling between the relative major and minor keys. In G minor, you get a ii-V-I to Bb major (Cm7, F7, Bbmaj7), then Ebmaj7, then a minor ii-V-i back to G minor (Aø, D7, Gm). That pattern repeats, and the last section walks the same moves in a slightly different order before landing home.
For improvisation, think in two zones. Over the major ii-V-I, the Bb major scale works across all three chords, so you can focus on melody instead of scale-switching. Over the minor ii-V-i, use G harmonic minor, which gives you the F# leading tone that makes the D7 sound right. Once that’s comfortable, start targeting guide tones: the third and seventh of each chord. Moving from the seventh of Cm7 (Bb) down a half step to the third of F7 (A) is the kind of voice leading that makes your lines sound like real jazz.
Practice plan: play roots with a recording, then shell voicings, then memorize the melody. Next, improvise using only chord tones in half notes, then quarter notes, then eighth notes. Finally, learn a few phrases from classic versions; Cannonball Adderley’s 1958 recording with Miles Davis is the one everyone studies. Bb and Eb horn players should transpose the lead sheet before starting. Read more about the composer on Joseph Kosma’s Wikipedia page, and find more standards broken down this way on Minedit’s lead sheet guides.