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Jazz Standards

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morris_minor View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote morris_minor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Jazz Standards
    Posted: 16 Aug 2015 at 1:12pm
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 . . .? 
Bob

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jazzcatlee Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Jan 2016 at 6:39pm
I don't collect recordings of jazz standards in that way. But one can't help noticing that certain songs have been highly popular with, and often recorded by, jazz artists. "Round Midnight" is one. Others are "Love for Sale," "Yesterdays," "Autumn leaves," and so on.

Which raises an interesting question. What qualities or attributes make a song attractive as a vehicle for jazz interpretation?
"All the hard ways!"
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Sturgus Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Oct 2016 at 4:04am
MM, do you have the version by Linda Ronstadt? I like the collection with the Nelson Riddle orchestra.
Sturgus
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Aussie Mick Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Oct 2016 at 5:46am
Hi all,
Jazz standards become so for two reasons, really. The first is that the melody itself is popular and memorable, having "timeless" qualities. But the second reason is more important! The harmonic progression (chord progression) provides a lot of opportunity for inventive improvisation! This makes standards of songs that might not be standards for singers, who look more for what they can do with a good lyric.
Mick.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote morris_minor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Oct 2016 at 8:10am
Originally posted by Sturgus Sturgus wrote:

MM, do you have the version by Linda Ronstadt? I like the collection with the Nelson Riddle orchestra.
Sturgus
No I don't have this - another one to seek out!
Bob

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote shirivasta Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Apr 2020 at 5:48pm
Love this thread. I keep lists in my head of all the artists I know who have done a standard, and also what might be my favorite of the moment.

I'm always impressed when a vocalist can interpret a classic in a way that makes it seem fresh, and kinda fascinated when someone bulldozes something lyrically that has real weight and strips it of it's nuance and meaning. That's probably where that hazy line between stylist and artist exists. 

Blossom Dearie is one of those vocalists who can take a song that seems almost invisible to me and turn it into something interesting. Surrey with the Fringe on Top is a good example. She slows the delivery down in such a way that it hit me what the tune was about—a slow seduction and the desire for privacy in a pre-automobile era. 

Anyway, so many examples, and so many tunes I came to as an instrumental only to later learn the words.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kgilroy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Apr 2020 at 5:57pm
Along those lines I have recently become a big fan of Shirley Horn. Her releases on Steeplechase are excellent
Keith

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