"In a Sentimental Mood" is a jazz composition by Duke Ellington which is also performed as a song. Ellington composed the piece in 1935 and recorded it with his orchestra the same year. Lyrics were later written for the tune by Manny Kurtz and Irving Mills. According to Ellington, the song was born in Durham, North Carolina. "We had played a big dance in a tobacco warehouse, and afterwards a friend of mine, an executive in the North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company, threw a party for us. I was playing piano when another one of our friends had some trouble with two chicks. To pacify them, I composed this there and then, with one chick standing on each side of the piano." The original recording featured solos by Otto Hardwicke, Harry Carney, Lawrence Brown, and Rex Stewart.
In a Sentimental Mood makes use of a musical technique called contrapuntal or chromatic embellishment of static harmony. This is also sometimes referred to as a line cliché.
Ellington recorded his best-known version together with John Coltrane. The song has been performed by many other artists including Phyllis Hyman, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Art Tatum, Bill Evans, Stan Getz, Django Reinhardt, Lucky Thompson, Jay McShann, Benny Goodman, Pedro Rossi, Billy Joel, Nancy Wilson, and Sonny Rollins.
