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The Recent Jazz Standards List


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Added a bunch more to list in original post.

 Find 660 of my jazz piano arrangements of standards for educational purposes and tutorials at www.Patreon.com/HarryLikas Harry was the Technical Editor of Mark Levine's "The Jazz Theory Book" and helped develop "The Jazz Piano Book."

 

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Love this thread. I started putting together a Spotify playlist for the tunes: Spotify New Jazz Standard Playlist - it has gaps (some tunes are unavailable in the US) and it's not complete yet, but it's a start. I made it a collaborative playlist, so theoretically others should be able to edit/add.
"You'll never be as good as you could have been, but you can always be better than you are." - MoKen
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Chick's "Humpty Dumpty". Not played as often as a standard, but it might qualify.

 

Love that song. Fairly logical to blow on but to play the head and especially the coda going out, cleanly and rhythmically accurate, is really hard. I've worked on this tune a long time over the years.

 

+1 for adding "Boliva" to the list. Another one of my favorite tunes.

 

"Fragile" is a nice tune too. It's very simple but has a cool vibe, fun to blow on and always seems to get a response from the audience. I altered the changes a little bit, nothing radical but it just flows better.

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"A Town Without a Pity" ? That is interesting that someone brought that up....

 

I worked with Gene Pitney a bit back in the mid 80's on some Vegas and Southern California dates. That tune definitely used to create some issues on the shows, let me tell you....

 

It's actually a fairly dense chart harmonically. The music was written by Dimitri Tiompkin and there is a movie of the same name though I have never seen it.

 

Anyway I was never in love with the bridge of that tune and neither was Gene apparently.

 

Another guy of that period that had an interesting set that nobody mentions these days was Little Anthony ( of Little Anthony and the Imperials). He used to get some pretty good material during the same era as Gene. "Going Out of My Head" , "Hurt So Bad" " The Outside Looking In" etc. etc.

 

I used to enjoy doing his shows and it amazed me that he commanded such respect from audiences doing primarily ballads -except for "Shimmy Ko Ko Pop" which he hated.

 

But yeah, I used to do a lot of oldies gigs on the west coast until I decided to move to the Pacific Northwest so I could afford to buy a house. It was quite an experience learning from some of these people.

 

 

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Pardon me for resurrecting this thread. But, my advice to jazz musos would be to focus on tunes you can put a stamp rather than filling up the set-list with the tunes every other muso knows/plays.

 

The forefathers of Jazz used GAS tunes i.e. Pop music of their day as a jump off to their own thing i.e. improvisation and composition. More importantly, they were projecting their own voices.

 

As a patron of live music, the last thing I want to hear is a wack azz version of "Breezin'" or "Rio Funk". I'd much rather hear an interesting take on anything from "Darn that Dream" to Ceelo Green's "F'You". :cool:

PD

 

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return."--E. Ahbez "Nature Boy"

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You are pardoned, ProfD! But only because it allows me to ask a question that's been bouncing around in my head as I've followed this thread: Isn't the notion of a 'recent jazz standard' an oxymoron? I've always thought that a tune needed time to seep into the collective consciousness before it could be considered a standard. A standard gains that status through ubiquity. A lot of the tunes in this thread are great but I think calling them standards stretches the definition too far. I can walk into virtually any room whistling 'The Pink Panther' or *shudder* 'Summertime' and at least a few people will recognize it and most musicians could fake it. That, to me, a standard, and standards take time.
Instrumentation is meaningless - a song either stands on its own merit, or it requires bells and whistles to cover its lack of adequacy, much less quality. - kanker
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MD, that subject was discussed extensively in another thread before it drifted off into something else. I'll provide the link in a moment if I find it.

 

Here it is

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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MD - I think a tune just needs to have been a hit with staying power to be a standard. The HUGE difference between back in the day and now is that the music world is so much less singular than it was that what actually registers as a hit in the collective consciousness is so much different (and so much more rare) than it was 3/4 of a century ago.
A ROMpler is just a polyphonic turntable.
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MD - I think a tune just needs to have been a hit with staying power to be a standard. The HUGE difference between back in the day and now is that the music world is so much less singular than it was that what actually registers as a hit in the collective consciousness is so much different (and so much more rare) than it was 3/4 of a century ago.

Very well put. :thu:

 

In the spirit of Jazz, reinterpreting a Beyonce' tune would get more mileage anywhere in the world than anything on the recent Jazz standards list. :cool:

PD

 

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return."--E. Ahbez "Nature Boy"

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Yeah, I've been following this thread because a lot of great tunes are being discussed, and I'm kind of chagrined to know that there are many great jazz tunes I haven't yet played. It's a useful and good discussion. But if you look at that list overall, I think it's pretty clear that we're using the term "standards" in the more narrow sense of "what tunes do jazz musicians call to each other when they get together." In the thread I started, my intent was to use "standards" to mean songs that would meet at least two criteria: a) a good basis for playing jazz and b) recognized by a wide audience.

 

Again, not to say this isn't a good discussion in it's own right.

Gigging: Crumar Mojo 61, Hammond SKPro

Home: Vintage Vibe 64

 

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songs that would meet at least two criteria: a) a good basis for playing jazz and b) recognized by a wide audience.

 

Therein lies the challenge for Jazz musos. They should know all of the tunes "in the book". Because technology has shrunk the world, they should also be able to reinterpret a pop song from the most recent decade. :cool:

PD

 

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return."--E. Ahbez "Nature Boy"

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The thought of trying to find something of substance in a one or two chord Beyonce' or other pop/r&b drivel of the last 15 years as opposed to mining the works of a Strayhorn, Horace Silver, Shorter, Jobim or Benny Golson is pretty depressing.

 

Personally I wouldn't want to play for an audience that needed the music to be that dumbed down to that extent. If it ever comes down to that's what you have to do play "jazz"--well I'd say F*** it and F*** them. I'll stay in my studio, practice Chopin and play with my friends. :cool:

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Personally I wouldn't want to play for an audience that needed the music to be that dumbed down to that extent. If it ever comes down to that's what you have to do play "jazz"--well I'd say F*** it and F*** them. I'll stay in my studio, practice Chopin and play with my friends. :cool:

 

+1

 

I don't have to make a living playing jazz, fortunately. But I have set a standard for myself to do 'jazz' gigs. If they don't want me to play jazz, I'll just rather go do jam sessions. And that's what I do.

 

I think I read in Lennie Tristano's biography that he told his students not to make their living in music. I guess because he didn't his students to experience the compromises in what they have to play. Perhaps an extreme thought (since playing professionally builds up skills too). He imagined that his students would be so dedicated in practice that the skill building would not be an issue (apparently his program was intense).

 

I realize ProfD was still talking Jazz but some reinterpretation of Pop, but the idea of finding anything of substance in Beyonce or Justin Bieber is just so unlikely, that I'd rather just stick to the two chords of So What.

Hamburg Steinway O, Crumar Mojo, Nord Electro 4 HP 73, EV ZXA1

 

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I have no problem with trying finding a new twist or a clever reharm of a pop,rock or r&b classic. Heck I did practically a whole CD of Beatle tunes, one Sting, even a Chuck Berry song..

 

However to me and most people who grew up on "songs" based on melody and harmony , there's a solar system separating the likes of a Paul Simon, Lennon/McCartney , Bacharach, Fagen, Wonder and what is "popular" today.

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But if you look at that list overall, I think it's pretty clear that we're using the term "standards" in the more narrow sense of "what tunes do jazz musicians call to each other when they get together." In the thread I started, my intent was to use "standards" to mean songs that would meet at least two criteria: a) a good basis for playing jazz and b) recognized by a wide audience.

 

Again, not to say this isn't a good discussion in it's own right.

It's a different discussion... "jazz standards" meaning jazz songs that jazz players like to play, which includes popular standards.
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I have no problem with trying finding a new twist or a clever reharm of a pop,rock or r&b classic. Heck I did practically a whole CD of Beatle tunes, one Sting, even a Chuck Berry song..

 

However to me and most people who grew up on melody and harmony , there's a solar system separating the likes of a Paul Simon, Lennon/McCartney , Bacharach, Fagen, Wonder and what is "popular" today.

 

Right, well, this is the link to the other discussion. The thesis of the other discussion was that there are not likely to be any more jazz standards coming out of popular music. The unfortunate thing about this is that it means a further distancing between what jazz musicians like (or can tolerate) playing and their ability to reach wider audiences.

 

The list developed is ample illustration. Most of the listed tunes are not popular, and the few that are, are lesser vehicles for improvisation.

 

Anyway, it does no good to worry about things you can't control, such as the general direction of popular music.

Gigging: Crumar Mojo 61, Hammond SKPro

Home: Vintage Vibe 64

 

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However to me and most people who grew up on "songs" based on melody and harmony , there's a solar system separating the likes of a Paul Simon, Lennon/McCartney , Bacharach, Fagen, Wonder and what is "popular" today.
Yeah, popular songs back then still incorporated traditional songwriting skills: basic theory (harmony, melody, cycle of 5th rules, etc.) and form (sections with a bridge, etc.) The priorities in most pop music today - a danceable 4/4 beat and lyrics.
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Of course songs by Paul Simon, Lennon/McCartney , Bacharach, Fagen, Wonder are standards now and I do have them in my set list regularly, particularly Bacharach.

 

 

 

 

Hamburg Steinway O, Crumar Mojo, Nord Electro 4 HP 73, EV ZXA1

 

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First, I use a particular artist/song for dramatic effect. But, I'm certainly not advocating a Jazz set-list filled with Pop "drivel".

 

Secondly, if/when we truly believe the last good Pop song was written and composed 24 years ago (last entry on the list), we've stopped listening.

 

Nowadays, there are fewer Jazz musos making a living solely playing GAS, Real Book and Pop hits of the 60s/70s.

 

Especially when younger musos are capable of playing those tunes and reinterpreting the latest Pop stuff. BTW, the audience for live music consists mainly of their peers.

 

So, if I were a Jazz muso and it was my livelihood, I would reharm that two-chord Pop song into an instrumental masterpiece. :laugh::cool:

 

PD

 

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return."--E. Ahbez "Nature Boy"

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Jazz education has emphasized harmony too much- I am speaking in terms of balance between various elements of music harmony melody rhythm form etc

 

In the absence of much harmonically interesting music, it IS possible to view it from the melodic pov.

 

 

You don't have ideas, ideas have you

We see the world, not as it is, but as we are. "One mans food is another mans poison". I defend your right to speak hate. Tolerance to a point, not agreement

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Nowadays, there are fewer Jazz musos making a living solely playing GAS, Real Book and Pop hits of the 60s/70s.

 

 

Absolutely just a few can make a complete living out of pure jazz. Even the world class players have to teach...

 

But I've been able to keep busy on gigs with a specific jazz focus so we survive to see another day in jazz :) Admitedly it doesn't pay much, but there's still a nice audience.

Hamburg Steinway O, Crumar Mojo, Nord Electro 4 HP 73, EV ZXA1

 

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MD, that subject was discussed extensively in another thread before it drifted off into something else. I'll provide the link in a moment if I find it.

 

Here it is

Yep, I remember it, Joe. I actually posted in that thread.

 

MD - I think a tune just needs to have been a hit with staying power to be a standard. The HUGE difference between back in the day and now is that the music world is so much less singular than it was that what actually registers as a hit in the collective consciousness is so much different (and so much more rare) than it was 3/4 of a century ago.

I agree, Kev. Part of that is that the media landscape has changed dramatically. Thanks to the fragmenting of audiences and proliferation of sources we no longer get hits with the level of exposure that, say, Michael Jackson or Nirvana got. There was once a time that no matter how much I actively avoided pop music I'd still end up hearing the hits because they were played everywhere. That's no longer as true as it once was.

Instrumentation is meaningless - a song either stands on its own merit, or it requires bells and whistles to cover its lack of adequacy, much less quality. - kanker
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First, I use a particular artist/song for dramatic effect. But, I'm certainly not advocating a Jazz set-list filled with Pop "drivel".

 

Secondly, if/when we truly believe the last good Pop song was written and composed 24 years ago (last entry on the list), we've stopped listening.

 

Nowadays, there are fewer Jazz musos making a living solely playing GAS, Real Book and Pop hits of the 60s/70s.

 

Especially when younger musos are capable of playing those tunes and reinterpreting the latest Pop stuff. BTW, the audience for live music consists mainly of their peers.

 

So, if I were a Jazz muso and it was my livelihood, I would reharm that two-chord Pop song into an instrumental masterpiece. :laugh::cool:

+1 on every point, Prof!

Instrumentation is meaningless - a song either stands on its own merit, or it requires bells and whistles to cover its lack of adequacy, much less quality. - kanker
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Absolutely just a few can make a complete living out of pure jazz. Even the world class players have to teach...

 

Slightly OT: I don't see that necessarily as a bad thing, as long as there is an audience for both. Granted, I'm a beneficiary because I was able to find a teacher with a resume I couldn't have imagined when I was still living in Europe. My older colleagues at work tell me about the times when every house in our town had a piano that was the centerpiece of social gatherings. I don't think we'll roll back the clock, but there is a non-diminishing core constituency that appreciates Jazz. When I go to Small's or the Iridium, the median age of the audience is somewhere in the 40s. I wasn't able to appreciate Jazz until my 30s. To me this means that whatever survives from the charts 15-20 years ago is probably a good "popular" starting point.

"You'll never be as good as you could have been, but you can always be better than you are." - MoKen
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