Tea for Two

Tea for Two is an American popular song from 1924, composed by Vincent Youmans with lyrics by Irving Caesar. Written for the musical comedy No, No, Nanette, it quickly escaped the theatre and became one of the best-known popular and jazz standards of the twentieth century. Its light romantic theme imagines a private domestic life shared by two people away from the outside world.

Django Reinhardt recorded Tea for Two several times between 1937 and 1939. In December 1937 he recorded the tune in Paris in different settings, including a version with violinist Michel Warlop and a remarkable guitar-centered performance. He later returned to the piece with the Quintette du Hot Club de France, including recordings in March and May 1939 with Stéphane Grappelli, Joseph Reinhardt, Pierre “Baro” Ferret and Emmanuel Soudieux.

Musical character:
Tea for Two is bright, elegant and rhythmically flexible. Its 32-bar form contains a particularly distinctive harmonic feature: part of the tune moves temporarily into a key a major third away before returning home. This gives the apparently simple song an unusual harmonic colour and provides excellent material for improvisation.

Connection to Manouche Jazz:
The connection is direct and historically important. Django recorded the composition repeatedly, both in intimate guitar settings and with the full Hot Club quintet. The tune’s clear melody, rapidly moving harmony and playful rhythmic character made it ideal for the acoustic language of Django and Grappelli and helped establish it firmly in the Gypsy Jazz repertoire.

Interesting facts:

• The music was composed by Vincent Youmans and the song’s lyrics by Irving Caesar.
• The song was published in 1924 for No, No, Nanette.
• The musical reached Broadway in 1925, although Tea for Two was already being performed and recorded during the production’s earlier development in 1924.
• An early Victor recording by Helen Clark and Lewis James was made on 22 September 1924.
• Django recorded the tune in Paris in December 1937 and returned to it several times with the Hot Club during 1939.
• One 1937 session produced a version featuring Michel Warlop on violin and Django on guitar, as well as another version centred almost entirely on Django’s guitar.
• The March and May 1939 versions use the classic Hot Club instrumentation of violin, three guitars and double bass.
• The tune later became a favourite vehicle for jazz improvisation and was recorded by musicians ranging from Art Tatum to Thelonious Monk.

Tea for Two is a perfect example of how a Broadway song could become part of the international language of jazz. Django Reinhardt’s repeated recordings show that for him it was not merely another American standard: its harmonic movement and rhythmic freedom offered exactly the kind of material he could continually reshape in his own musical language.