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Jazz Standards

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote fluddite Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Aug 2021 at 2:55am
Originally posted by morris_minor morris_minor wrote:

I thought I'd start a new thread about Jazz Standards - those songs that have been picked up - and picked about - by countless jazz artists over the years.

This was prompted by my playlist off the server this morning - every recording I have of Thelonius Monk's 'Round Midnight. This has assumed a bit of a "colllectors" status for me; magpie-like I gather new versions into the fold at every opportunity. Currently I'm only scraping the surface with about 20 recordings - but it's a very varied lot . . .

There's Monk of course. Monk with Gerry Mulligan's baritone. Monk with Coltrane and Davis. Wes Montgomery, Sonny Rollins, the MJQ, Chet Baker, Carole Kidd, Art Pepper, Gil Evans. Eddie Thomson's piano disc has an alternate version with a grand opening like Monk was channelled into Bach's D minor Toccata. More unusual renditions were from The Quintet of the Hot Club of San Francisco (think Stéphane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt), opera singer Ute Lemper (sultry, or what!), and Zyklus.

On the Zyklus version Neil Ardley and Ian Carr assemble the theme bit by bit, with elements akin to Steve Reich minimalism. Carr's haunting trumpet combines with the electronics of Ardley making for a 'Round Midnight like no other.

Ain't jazz great!

Does anyone else collect Jazz Standards like this . . .? 

The answer (in my case) is emphatically Yes. 'Round Midnight, of course; many others by Monk; much Mingus; above all, the enormous Ellington repertoire. And then The Great American Songbook: the Gershwins (I Got Rhythm is surely the basis for more jazz compositions than anything else), Porter, Rodgers & Hart, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Berlin, Arlen, Mercer, Fields & McHugh, Carmichael... the list goes on. Sonny Rollins and Dexter Gordon seemed to be able to quote them at will at any point in a solo. Among my faves: My Funny Valentine, It Never Entered My Mind, Summertime, Night And Day, Autumn Leaves, The Thrill Is Gone, Black Coffee...

As for 'Round Midnight - along with the various nigh-definitive Monk renditions and the great Davis/Coltrane version from 1956, I'd rank this terrific vocal rendition by Carmen McRae from an early-80s tribute to TM shown just the once on C4 - I only had a cassette dub of it for many years, but some kind soul put it on YT in 2012:


Dizzy's trumpet obbligato at the start (after Carmen's count-in of "There. You. Go. Fellas") is the most purely beautiful tribute to Monk's genius that I can imagine. The rest is almost equally great.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote morris_minor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Aug 2021 at 10:00am
Originally posted by fluddite fluddite wrote:

As for 'Round Midnight - along with the various nigh-definitive Monk renditions and the great Davis/Coltrane version from 1956, I'd rank this terrific vocal rendition by Carmen McRae from an early-80s tribute to TM shown just the once on C4 - I only had a cassette dub of it for many years, but some kind soul put it on YT in 2012:


Dizzy's trumpet obbligato at the start (after Carmen's count-in of "There. You. Go. Fellas") is the most purely beautiful tribute to Monk's genius that I can imagine. The rest is almost equally great.
This is a great version! Thanks for this Wink

Your link wasn't quite right - try this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Yfq-Gfj2tU 

Or even this:

Bob

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