Totally leaving aside the question of “what other kind of sunrise is there” – why did this song become a favorite of jazz musicians?
For the same reason most tunes become jazz standards: because it has a good set of chord progressions to improvise over.
The Concord used to have a nighttime departure flight from London to the US where they actually caught up to the sun along the way, so it was “rising” in the evening from their point of view.
With no effort to answer “why” I’ll just point to some pages that might add to the appeal of the tune:
says it’s ranked #132
according to criteria explained at
Jazz Standards Overview << see: How are the jazz standards identified and ranked? >>
The Highest ranked tunes start at:
Here are the ones closest to it in ranking:
130 1932 April in Paris C M J R A O
131 1947 Time After Time C J R A O
132 1928 Softly As in a Morning Sunrise C J R A O
133 1947 But Beautiful C J R A O
134 1925 Dinah C J R A O
135 1962 Days of Wine and Roses C J R A O
A quick look around the linked pages isn’t telling me what the code letters (C J R A O, +/- M) stand for – any clue?
Documentation key
CD Recommendations
Musician Comments
Jazz History Notes
Research Guide
Soundtracks
Analysis
Origin
At the top of the page: Jazz Standards Songs and Instrumentals Contents
I agree – it’s a grooving minor tune with a good little bridge, but also the melody of the original tune is kind of captivating.
Sunrise hit like a fistful of hot knuckles. Winking sunbeams lasered past the slits in the cheap mini-blinds blasting away the scorched tatters of my dream.
On a related note, I love how My Favorite Things, a great musical showtune with fun, cute rhymes delivered by Maria herself, Julie Andrews, became a definitive jazz statement and standard, first by John Coltrane, but later by many, including my favorite by Grant Green, the guitarist…