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Ok folks, time to come clean. No matter how good you are, there is always that one tune that for whatever reason, you just don't like. It can be a tricky change, feel, or just something you can't put your finger on, but you just think a tune is cheesy.
For me it is hands down, the girl from ippanema. It's a really easy tune, cool bridge, etc. for the life of me, I just can't find the "blubop" in that tune. That's what I call my style btw. Now, don't get me wrong, I can play the tune fine, it just sparks nothing in my soul. The second I start playing the changes like me, it turns into a different tune. So I have to fake enjoying it I guess (that's what she said) and toy around with the head....The closest example I can find to how I sound over it, is Diana Kraull. She is awesome, but when she takes a solo on that tune, she plays it bluesy. To my ear it just don't sound right for the style/song. That twinkle-toe Latin feel I guess just does not exist in my soul...
So let's hear it, what tune don't you like and why.
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06-24-2015 12:10 PM
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put me down for Misty.
Probably my folks listening to Johnny Mathis records throughout my childhood.
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Hate is too strong, but some songs I've heard too many times over my 50+ years, I'm bored with them, they're usually played badly by amateurs (which includes myself).
Blue Bossa
Autumn Leaves
Satin Doll
Girl From Ipanema
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Yeah but Autumn Leaves is still one of my favorite tunes to play. Go figure.
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I really don't have any. I might hate a tune that I'm working on that I can't play yet...but it's more like that feeling of trying to sleep with a girl who's playing hard to get. It's no hate. And I know I just have to keep trying.
But I agree with GuyBoden that it's often more about boredom than hate. We hear the tunes so much...and we hear them played the exact same way so much.
My reaction to boredom is not to leave the tune behind however...to me it's a sign that it's time to be more creative. I don't LOVE playing Blue Bossa in the traditional sense. And I haven't called it at a gig in years. But I have called it as a waltz. Or I might take a ballad and turn it into a medium up. Or other textural and aesthetic changes that are too hard to describe with words.
To me, tunes are like people...and learning them and playing them is like building a relationship. Sometimes relationships peter out. True. But I find for myself that if I care about that tune and have the desire to mix things up and re-invigorate the relationship, it's usually for the better.
I once played a version of Autumn Leaves that I was told sounded like a Metallica power-ballad. And I once played a gig with a bass player and drummer I'd never worked with before where we did my arrangement of Caravan, and the drummer told me he felt like we were covering a Primus tune.
I think boredom is under-rated. It's where a lot of fun can happen.
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I think these guys are masters of boredom.
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On one hand, I dont really like those over played tunes that have been mentioned above, like Misty, or Autumn Leaves. I dont hate them, but yeah, it can get a little boring sometimes... On the other hand, those abrasive, unmelodic, 'hip' tunes like Inner Urge makes me cringe really bad! I know them are held in high regard by 'serious' jazzmen, but its not enjoyable to even listen to, let alone play, for me.
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I've never liked "Sweet Georgia Brown" so I've never played it. Maybe if I reharmonize it, change the tempo, and give it a new melody I could learn to like it.
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Probably just Satin Doll. Of course, it is a great tune to practice your 2-5-1's over, but I'd never put it on a live set-list.
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Yeah. I can't do too much with Misty. But I can dig in on Autumn Leaves. If you play it RIGHT it's great. If you just slide through the changes it's terrible.
I did a gig with Benny Green. When discussing tunes to play I joked about Satin Doll, as if that'd be a tune I'd never call. He sheepishly said that he LOVES that song. So I've kept my mouth shut ever since.
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Originally Posted by jordanklemons
fair enough, but was there ever a song that you just felt wasn't you? Doesn't even have to be jazz.
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Well, "Dig" is a contrafact of "Sweet Georgia Brown." Play that instead! Originally Posted by 4thstuning
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Funny you should mention Benny Green. I was at Bert Ligon's site this morning and noticed a transcription of a four-chorus solo on "Cottontail" by Benny Green. Watched the YouTube clip the transcription was taken from. Dude can play... Originally Posted by henryrobinett
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As is Monk's "Bright Mississippi" Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
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Hmmm...I can't/shouldn't speak to myself when I was younger and more closed minded....because yeah, sure...there's was toooooooons of stuff I didn't like. More stuff that I didn't like than that I did like. But looking back I realize that says more about me and my close-mindedness than it ever did about those tunes. Originally Posted by vintagelove
I definitely don't love the arrangements and performances of every tune by every artist, or even the aesthetic preferences of every artists...but the music is just the music... they're all working with the same 12 notes.
I think if we take a tune that we thought we didn't like and really sit with it, eventually we'd find something about it that we love and that we could use to re-make it into something we love.
About a year ago I decided to start studying 'folk' music. Not like Dylan...like folk folk...like the tunes everyone learns as children and knows inside and out their entire lives. I heard a few different big name jazz guys talk about how interconnected jazz was with folk music (mixed with blues and other things too of course)...so I decided to take the time to revisit some tunes that I'd always thought were 'beneath' me.
I actually called this one at a gig after I arranged it. I didn't tell the guys what tune it was. Just gave them chord charts and set up a New Orleans, funk groove...a la Scofield A Go Go. It was so fun. Everyone was into it. But had I called it by name, I assume everyone in the room would have been thinking, "Seriously? I went out to see jazz and paid $15 to get into this joint, and the band is going to play a kid's song?!?!" But instead, the audience was clapping along and cheering....dancing in their seats. It was great.
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Haha yeah I can't get into the Girl From Ipanema either, and what's weird is what I play 90% of the time is latin & Brazilian music, so you would think I could play that one with the right feel. I just draw a total blank on it every time like you describe. Like most others have stated, I don't really hate anything but I do get bored of tunes you hear all the time. But I learned an important lesson not too long ago about this. One of the tunes I was bored of the most was Autumn Leaves. I just decided my life would be fine if I never played it again. To me it just seemed like the most boring jazz tune ever. And then...I heard Julian Lage's solo version of it on youtube (if you haven't heard it, you must go listen to it right now!). It made me realize that there is no such thing as a boring piece of music, only boring musicians. Yes I had come to the realization that it was not that Autumn Leaves is boring, but It was me that was boring! IF I can't play it and make it sound amazing, it's my fault, not the composer's fault. Point perfectly illustrated by Jordan's story and video above, thanks Jordan.
So yeah, my avoid list:
1. Girl from Ipanema (haha, but I'm not saying it's a boring tune!)
2. Any tune with too many complex changes and/or too fast a tempo to have more than a second to play in the same scale / key etc...Giant Steps at 280 bpm comes to mind...although I enjoy playing the Coltrane changes at slower speeds...
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Just tell your mates (and the audience), it's a Horace Silver tune. "The Preacher" is very close to "Working on the Railroad." And, btw, the early Dylan borrowed lots from "folk folk." Originally Posted by jordanklemons
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Newbie jazz singer tunes like Moondance, Fever, At Last.
At Last always bugs me because the reason Etta James version is so great is the way she changed/ blues-ified the melody - a trait unique to her version which no seems to be able to copy.
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But I also love Joni Mitchell's version, which wisely stays clear of Etta's version entirely. Originally Posted by tucson matt
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Oh, yeah. As a steel guitarist, I refuse to play either "Sleepwalk" or "Steel Guitar Rag". Can't stand either one of those tunes and unfortunately, the general public seems to think I ought to love them... Originally Posted by vintagelove
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I could go the rest of my life and never play "All The Things You Are" again. It's not that I hate the tune, it is just SO overplayed that there is just no reason to hear it again- ever. There are a lot of great jazz tunes that are underplayed, pick some of those instead. I feel this way about many of the standards. For pete's sake, write some new tunes already! The reason "jazz isn't dead, it just smells funny" is the mildew growing on those songs.
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Originally Posted by jordanklemons
I totally get your point and agree, and let's not even talk about the ignorance of youth....
i still want to try one last time to pull it out of you....
I think if we are all completely honest with ourselves, there is certain music that exists naturally within us, you could argue were born with it. There is other music that even if we work hard at it, and can play it well, still does nothing to enrich our soul.
for instance, when I started classical guitar, I couldn't read music, so I had to start playing music much below what I was capable of. Anyway my teacher had me playing (among other things) the Brower etudes. I couldn't stand them, well... One was okay. Anyway it got to a point where I said, "can I just play some Bach" .... He paused and went and copied me a Bach fugue. I performed it the next concert. A Bach fugue is like 10,000x harder than a Brower piece, but because it existed within me, I was able to play it better than the easy Brower etudes.
so I will ask one last Time, is there a song you play, that even though you play it well, it just doesn't do anything for you, if nothing else, emotionally?
its quite possible there isn't, some folks are pretty easy going. I'm a red headed Scotsman, easy going isn't our thing....
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Definitely Satan's Doll.
The closest I have heard anyone making that sound pleasing to my ear is Kenny Burrell when he wack's in a couple of blues licks but not even Mr Smooth can polish that t.....
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Chameleon. I love Herbie's version, but all the local groups I see butcher it. And it goes on and on and on.
And just when you think it's over, someone plays that turnaround and bang! Off it goes again....
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... Originally Posted by 4thstuning
then it wouldn't be "Sweet Georgia Brown".
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