Sad Jazz Standards for Chord Melody

**blis** · 04-10-2010, 10:34 AM

Sometimes I want to play sad songs but I dont really know any sad enough.

Any suggestions of some sad standards that could make good chord melody arrangements?

**billkath** · 04-10-2010, 11:04 AM

Someone to watch over me?

**goshawk** · 04-10-2010, 11:26 AM

I guess that depends on how you define a sad song, because there are plenty of songs out there that can be successfully interpreted different ways. For example, I generally think of Autumn Leaves as a sad ballad, but I often hear it played up tempo.

Anyway, a few tunes I think work as sad songs:

Sophisticated Lady
Mood Indigo
How Long Has This Been Going On
Our Love is Here to Stay
Georgia on my Mind
The Shadow of Your Smile
Yesterday (the Paul McCartney one)
Feeling Good (more a show tune than a standard, I guess)

**Scrybe** · 04-10-2010, 12:17 PM

I'm pulling straight from Nina here, but....

Don't Explain
Strange Fruit
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
Don't Smoke In Bed
The Other Woman

And for others....
Autumn In New York
The Man I Love
Blame It On My Youth
and I hear Blue In Green as being quite introverted and plaintive, if that's close enough to sad for you.

**blis** · 04-10-2010, 05:21 PM

Thanks guys, plenty of songs I havent heard there.

Gonna look for them on youtube.

**bkdavidson** · 04-10-2010, 06:00 PM

What's New isn't particularly happy. I also really like Beautiful Love. I seem to find more versions of it a bit faster, but it still has a great melancholy feel to it. If you're looking these up to listen to all of them, Be sure to check out Clifford Brown's versions of What's New. He's got one with Helen Merril (sp?) singing and one instrumental. And of course, Wes Montgomery has a version as well.

**Scrybe** · 04-10-2010, 08:30 PM

I don't know what the lyrics are, but My Funny Valentine always sounds really maudlin to me, too. I have heard Chet sing it at one point, but now all I can remember is him doing the opening line, sorry.

**goshawk** · 04-10-2010, 11:41 PM

It's Rogers & Hart (from Connecticut Yankee, IIRC), so the lyrics are quite clever. I've always loved the "your looks are laughable/un-photographable" couplet, myself.

**Gertje** · 04-11-2010, 08:12 AM

Got the blues, play the blues!
But remember 'blues is easy to play, but hard to feel' (quote by Jimi Hendrix).

**Meggy** · 04-11-2010, 12:19 PM

I love this!

- after a bit of work I figured out how to play it, but you can't beat Barney of course.

**604bourne123** · 04-11-2010, 01:20 PM

Originally Posted by Meggy

I love this!

- after a bit of work I figured out how to play it, but you can't beat Barney of course.

Well thats one tune shadow of your smile I wonder if its about the' Mona Lisa' cause that is the question people have asked for centuries.

**Meggy** · 04-11-2010, 02:02 PM

Originally Posted by 604bourne123

Well thats one tune shadow of your smile I wonder if its about the' Mona Lisa' cause that is the question people have asked for centuries.

I didn't know that, cheers 604!

**derek** · 04-11-2010, 05:07 PM

The greatest jazz tune ever written, Round Midnight, is pretty sad.

**Uli** · 04-12-2010, 04:29 AM

1. "You don't know what love is", especially when Cassandra Wilson sings it
2. "Love for Sale". A lot of sadness, if you take a second look

**Dookychase** · 04-12-2010, 07:42 AM

Here's That Rainy Day

**blis** · 04-12-2010, 08:14 AM

Thanks for all the good suggestions. Plenty for me to get my teeth stuck into.

Round midnight is one of my favourites too derek. I particularly like barry galbrath's arrangement.

Thanks again folks

**Bill C** · 04-12-2010, 08:38 AM

"You Must Believe In Spring" - great song and sits nicely on the fretboard for CM

**Fritzjazz** · 04-12-2010, 09:33 AM

There was a song titled "Gloomy Sunday" written in Hungary somewhere about the turn of the 19th century that was so sad that many connected with it, the composer, members of his family those who recorded it and even passers-by who heard it performed, commited suicide or met with untimely deaths. So tradgic was the songs reputation that whole countries banned its performance.

Google on it. I've heard of putting your audience to sleep, but death by song......

Fritzjazz

**derek** · 04-12-2010, 10:46 AM

Originally Posted by Fritzjazz

There was a song titled "Gloomy Sunday" written in Hungary somewhere about the turn of the 19th century that was so sad that many connected with it, the composer, members of his family those who recorded it and even passers-by who heard it performed, commited suicide or met with untimely deaths. So tradgic was the songs reputation that whole countries banned its performance.

Google on it. I've heard of putting your audience to sleep, but death by song......

Fritzjazz

LOL! Death by jazz. Sounds like a great name for a group.

Another meloncholy tune that I love to play, but is a bit obscure is Under Paris Skies. Don't remember which Real Book it is in, but a very nice, and somewhat haunting melody.

**msr13** · 04-12-2010, 11:55 PM

God Bless The Child
If I Loved You
You Go to My Head (has my favorite lyric in it, "You go to my head, and you linger, like a haunting refrain..."
Someone to Watch Over Me (mentioned, but I will add as well)
But Not for Me (done as a ballad, rather than a swing)
What Kind of Fool
Somewhere (West Side Story)
What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life
Django (as a ballad)
A Child is Born
Another vote for 'Round Midnight

**Gambrosius1984** · 04-13-2010, 06:04 PM

Some sad songs-

Black and Blue

The Man I Love

Tears

I Cover The Waterfront

My Man

Solitude

**Goofsus4** · 04-14-2010, 09:54 AM

I do CMs of Funny Valentine and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and they sound sad to me, especially Funny Valentine. I think that Smoke Gets in Your Eyes sounds sadder to me after seeing the movie "Always" than it would otherwise. But I do think it has a melancholy feel to it.

**a22** · 04-19-2010, 08:02 PM

"Angel Eyes" is a pretty sad standard

**604bourne123** · 04-19-2010, 09:04 PM

yes it is he's performing and she does't make the scene anymore so he's gone as soon as the last chord is played
"'thats what I pick up" " April in Paris" is sad to me also" Manha de Carnaval".
'

**woyvel** · 04-21-2010, 07:42 AM

"Take a sad song and make it better".

I've been working on an arrangement of Tom Petty's "A Woman In Love (It's Not Me)", a good rock song, but my chord melody is slower and more painful. I've always thought the same of John Mellencamp's "Lonely Ol' Night", and other sad songs outside of the regular jazz genre.