Jazz Standards Corner

[Louie]

Who are some of your favorite jazz standards songwriters, and why? (referring generally to Great American Songbook but doesn’t have to be only from there, and doesn’t have to have lyrics).

For example I generally like Cole Porter’s tunes, but also love Antonio Carlos Jobim’s songs. Because both of these songwriters have great unique melodies and also ways of using form that give the illusion of more elaborate compositions and sometimes literally longer song forms (I’m thinking of Jobim’s Once I Loved, and Cole Porter’s 64 bar forms). Oh, and I can’t forget about Herbie Hancock, especially his song, Dolphin Dance.

What are your personal favorite standards to practice and play and/or sing, and any special reason for working on a particular tune?

I generally like ballads, and like to play (read, stumble on the piano) and sometimes sing Body and Soul at the piano, for the dramatic and rich harmonic color possibilities in the chords, and the modulation to the Bridge for example. The song has a certain dramatic or sweeping tension and release that always feels satisfying. For a really dramatic version, I love Bill Evans' recording of that song with Toots Theilmans.

 

[Reid Rosefelt]

When my wife's mother was still alive, I used to play for an hour every time we went down to Florida to see her at her assisted living place. I got to play their grand piano and nobody ever complained about my bad singing. They were happy that I tried--itt helped them pass some time.

I just checked my playlist:

The Second Time Around
Over the Rainbow
Moon River
Night and Day
Misty
A Taste of Honey
My Funny Valentine
All of Me
What'll I Do
More
Til there was You

I don't know if the other songs were "standards," but I also did
Make You Feel My Love
Where is Love
The Tennessee Waltz
I've Just Seen a Face
For All We Know
Sunrise, Sunset

PS I like Jobim a lot. I used to be married to a Brazilian woman so I spent a lot of time in Rio. I even met him once/ I also like other classic Bossa Nova musicians like Luis Bonfa and Vinicius de Moraes. There's also a lot of great post-Bossa Brazilian music, like Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Milton Nascimento, Gal Costa, etc.

 

[Nekujak]

My gateway to the Great American Songbook and jazz standards occurred when I was a child, watching very early (1930-40s) movie musicals on TV with my family. I was especially taken with the Astaire & Rogers films, which I still love to this day, and introduced me to the wonderful songs of Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and the Gershwins.

Later as a young adult, I discovered Frank Sinatra, and so began a truly joyous musical journey. Sinatra's ouvre is immense, and he had tremendous respect and appreciation for great songs and talented writers. His musical choices exposed me to timeless songs by writers like Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Mercer, Harold Adamson, Jimmy Van Heusen, Cy Coleman, Duke Ellington, Sammy Cahn, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, and the list goes on and on...

But sadly, I'm not a jazz/standards player, so as much as I love this music, it's simply not in my wheelhouse as a player and singer. That said, I did introduce a handful of these chestnuts, that I'm just barely able to pull off, to my weekly acoustic song circle. I have trouble hitting all the right notes with my voice, and they grumble because instead of simple I-IV-V progressions, they're suddenly forced to play maj7, min6, min7b5, and 11 chords. But we manage to get through it all without any casualties

These are the songs I've added to our songbook:

• The Shadow Of Your Smile by Johnny Mandel and Paul Francis Webster
• Once Upon A Time by Charles Strouse
• All Of Me by Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons
• Georgia On My Mind by Hoagy Carmichael
• What A Wonderful World by Bob Thiele and George David Weiss
• That Lucky Old Sun by Beasley Smith and Haven Gillespie
• The Folks Who Live On The Hill by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II
• It Was A Very Good Year by Ervin Drake
• The Man On The Flying Trapeze by George Leybourne and Gaston Lyle (I know, not a jazz standard, but such a fun song to sing with a group!)
• Moon River by Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer
• Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out by Jimmie Cox
• Over The Rainbow by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg
• Smile by Charles Chaplin

Wow! I actually didn't realize there were so many in our repertoire!

BTW, my absolute favorite Sinatra song is Fly Me To The Moon by Bart Howard. A wonderful tune, that's elevated even further into the stratosphere by an absolutely killer Quincy Jones arrangement. This is one that I still hope to tackle someday.

 

[Louie]

PS I like Jobim a lot. I used to be married to a Brazilian woman so I spent a lot of time in Rio. I even met him once/ I also like other classic Bossa Nova musicians like Luis Bonfa and Vinicius de Moraes. There's also a lot of great post-Bossa Brazilian music, like Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Milton Nascimento, Gal Costa, etc.

That’s awesome you got to spend time down there, and even met Jobim himself! I’m familar with and enjoy Luis Bonfa also. I need to check out those other Brazilian musicians you mentioned. When I lived in another state I used to sub on bass and was friends with a musician that got way into Brazilian music, to the extent he even learned Portuguese and a few of the Brazilian folkloric instruments, and eventually formed a gigging band around playing Samba and Choro music. Very unusual in that he had no ties to the culture but found his way at first through Jobim’s music. He learned to play one instrument in particular which you may be familiar with--the Cavaquinho, a 4 stringed lute family instrument, looks like a ukulele, maybe a little larger body, but different tuning. He played Choro songs on it, in a melody role, almost like a mandolin, but without the doubled strings and much more of a gut string tone.

they grumble because instead of simple I-IV-V progressions, they're suddenly forced to play maj7, min6, min7b5, and 11 chords. But we manage to get through it all without any casualties

Wow! I actually didn't realize there were so many in our repertoire!

I know what you mean. And it can be entertaining just watching and/or participating in all the hemming and hawing when everyone in the group tries to decide on which tune to play next...he he he.

 

[Nekujak]

And it can be entertaining just watching and/or participating in all the hemming and hawing when everyone in the group tries to decide on which tune to play next

Fortunately, we've taken measures to prevent that from happening. Over the years, I participated in too many jam sessions where more time was spent deliberating over what to play than actually playing , so when I brought this current group together, I made sure that wouldn't happen.

We simply go around the room, and when it's your turn, you pick the song you want to play/sing from a common songbook. We compiled our own custom songbook with contributions from everyone, including some originals. Most importantly, since none of us are pro singers and are mostly baritones, the charts are transposed into singable keys. Currently, our songbook contains over 600 songs, so there's no shortage of material to choose from

 

[Reid Rosefelt]

That’s awesome you got to spend time down there, and even met Jobim himself! I’m familar with and enjoy Luis Bonfa also. I need to check out those other Brazilian musicians you mentioned.

I met Jobim in New York at a small party for a Sonia Braga film I worked on called "Eu Te Amo" (I Love You). It would have been a lot harder to meet him in Rio.

Not to hijack the thread, but just to give you a taste of Milton Nascimento's heavenly voice, here's the first side of his collaboration with Wayne Shorter on "Native Dancer." Herbie Hancock also played on the record.



Here's Chico Buarque's "O Que Sera (Flor de Terra), which became very successful internationally.

 

[CrimsonWarlock]

...but doesn’t have to be only from there, and doesn’t have to have lyrics).

Growing up as a kid, my father was into Dixieland Jazz, so that’s the kind of Jazz I knew first. I still have one of the albums from his collection. Quite different from what has been posted here so far.

These days, as for the Jazz-related portion of my musical diet, I'm mostly into Jazz Rock and Jazz Fusion, and I try to use influences from that in my own music. Stuff I listened to recently, probably quite off-center for this discussion, are Heavy Machinery by Allan Holdsworth (and friends), and Cross-Collateral by Passport (Klaus Doldinger's band).

 

[Louie]

Fortunately, we've taken measures to prevent that from happening. Over the years, I participated in too many jam sessions where more time was spent deliberating over what to play than actually playing , so when I brought this current group together, I made sure that wouldn't happen.

We simply go around the room, and when it's your turn, you pick the song you want to play/sing from a common songbook. We compiled our own custom songbook with contributions from everyone, including some originals. Most importantly, since none of us are pro singers and are mostly baritones, the charts are transposed into singable keys. Currently, our songbook contains over 600 songs, so there's no shortage of material to choose from

You have charts—even transposed! Speaking as a bass player recovering from jam PTSD (half kidding), that sounds like it would be a fun jam.

...just to give you a taste of Milton Nascimento's heavenly voice, here's the first side of his collaboration with Wayne Shorter on "Native Dancer." Herbie Hancock also played on the record.

I have a small collection of choice jazz and rock on vinyl. That Wayne Shorter with Milton Nascimento (and Herbie on there!) record is worth crate digging for—today. Really unique and beautiful stuff.

Stuff I listened to recently, probably quite off-center for this discussion, are Heavy Machinery by Allan Holdsworth (and friends), and Cross-Collateral by Passport (Klaus Doldinger's band).

I really liked the Passport band. Love the synth sounds and the weaving of lines, and really sweet drum kit sound. Damn, I guess I’ll be digging for that on vinyl too.

“Quite different from what has been posted so far"

It kind of all ties together in the sense of heavy improvisation and the group communication aspects, but with varied musical language/dialects and the spread of hybrid forms of improvised based music from all over the world as your post and Reid’s post illustrates. And I like the starkness of looking at it from Dixieland—>jazz fusion in under 60 years (with Great American Songbook based jazz sandwiched in between).

 

[proggermusic]

Sorry I'm late to the party, gang, this thread may as well have been created for me specifically!

So, this won't come as a surprise to anyone who's checked out my stuff, but my all-time heroes tend to be from the jazz and fusion scenes of the '60s through '80s... If I were to have a "top five" in vaguely shifting order, in terms of composers and overall musicians, they would include Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, John McLaughlin, Jaco Pastorius, and Kenny Kirkland. With serious honorable mentions to the likes of Chick Corea, John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Joe Zawinul, Bill Evans, Tony Williams, you get the idea.

Wayne and Herbie are probably my two favorite jazz composers and overall music-minds, and probably my two biggest influences. Wayne's masterpieces like Fall, Pinocchio, Nefertiti, Infant Eyes, Fee Fi Fo Fum, Wildflower, and Harlequin are the closest I have to a religion. Herbie's Dolphin Dance, Little One, Butterfly, Actual Proof, and so-on are a huge part of my mental DNA as well.

I love a lot of the older American Songbook tunes, too, particularly Cole Porter and George Gershwin. Needless to say, those guys could write a song.

 

[HCMarkus]

My dad would play the piano on the living room accompanying himself and, on occasion, my mom, singing standards and pop tunes from the era. As a child, I absorbed it all; these songs became the foundation of much of my musical sensibility. It wasn't until I was in my 20's that I actually learned to play any of the tunes... took my brother drafting me into his wedding band and the pressure of performing standards live for me to begin to appreciate the writing on a technical level.

Dad's repertoire included many of the songs mentioned by @Reid Rosefelt and @Nekujak, as well as other greats including:

Skylark
Tenderly
World on a String
You Couldn't Be Cuter
Sunny Side of the Street
Almost Like Being in Love
Just One of Those Things
Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries

These songs are firmly and lovingly lodged in my head and heart.

Dad passed away eight years ago, but the family is happy to be able to hear his voice and my mom's (she's still kicking at 92), as they sing solos and duets accompanied by his piano. We got them into the studio several times over the years, and the recordings became much of the the soundtrack for my father's memorial slideshow. You can watch and listen to it here if you wish:

Charles Marshall Hattersley

The last song dad recorded was Imagination. He was in his late 80's. A life well-lived, with great music as its accompaniment!

 

[Louie]

My dad would play the piano on the living room accompanying himself and, on occasion, my mom, singing standards and pop tunes from the era. As a child, I absorbed it all; these songs became the foundation of much of my musical sensibility. It wasn't until I was in my 20's that I actually learned to play any of the tunes... took my brother drafting me into his wedding band and the pressure of performing standards live for me to begin to appreciate the writing on a technical level.

Dad's repertoire included many of the songs mentioned by @Reid Rosefelt and @Nekujak, as well as other greats including:

Skylark
Tenderly
World on a String
You Couldn't Be Cuter
Sunny Side of the Street
Almost Like Being in Love
Just One of Those Things
Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries

These songs are firmly and lovingly lodged in my head and heart.

Dad passed away eight years ago, but the family is happy to be able to hear his voice and my mom's (she's still kicking at 92), as they sing solos and duets accompanied by his piano. We got them into the studio several times over the years, and the recordings became much of the the soundtrack for my father's memorial slideshow. You can watch and listen to it here if you wish:

Charles Marshall Hattersley

The last song dad recorded was Imagination. He was in his late 80's. A life well-lived, with great music as its accompaniment!

Man, that is a great movie and those are precious memories. You are blessed to have grown up in such an exceptional musical family. I wish more people would still play and sing the standards at home, it is becoming more rare as your father's generation is passing. One of my best friends, really like a second father passed a few years back, he would have been in your father’s generation. He was a classical and jazz clarinetist and saxophonist. Really a clarinetist at heart, and possessed the richest dark chalumeau register clarinet tone I've ever heard. He was a remarkably amicable Italian American who hosted regular jazz and standards workshops/jams in his basement. Lots of great memories and musical moments playing standards in those sessions.

 

[HCMarkus]

Thank You Louie. Musicians have the pleasure (and honor) of sharing our wonderful language across generations; we are indeed fortunate.

 

[bill stokes]

I'm late to this thread (and forum.) Have been re-visiting several of the songs and Composer/Lyricists mentioned above: Shadow Of Your Smile, Almost Like Being In Love, Wave. Also:
Bye Bye Blackbird (I like playing it in 3/4. Just need to adjust the lyrics and chords a bit.)
Out Of Nowhere
Dream A Little Dream Of Me
If Ever I Would Leave You
Manha de Carnaval (or Black Orpheus in the Real Book)
I'm also practicing a mashup: On The Sunny Side Of The Street Where You Live. I think it works! I'll check back in when I record it.