In search of the new standards

[mr. beaumont]

Here's a very poorly played version. I'm still fleshing it out, this version has too much of a "jam band" vibe to it.

Lol, I hear it...and I like the vibe sounds pretty good to me!

[pkirk]

Dave Stryker did a CD of 70s pop tunes done as jazz vehicles, called '8-track', the clips I've heard from it sound good.

Yeah, He just released another one recently (8 track two). I'm lucky that he spends a week in my town every month. I hear him play frequently, and I can bring my wife to the shows, certain that he will play some tunes from the 70s that she likes.


here are the tracks:

1. I’ll Be Around 4:55
2. Pusherman / Superfly 7:16
3. Wichita Lineman 6:04
4. Aquarius 7:18
5. Never My Love 6:10
6. Superwoman 6:06
7. Never Can Say Goodbye 5:50
8. Make It With You 5:06
9. Money 6:50
10. That’s The Way Of The World 4:52

1. Harvest for the World 6:04
2. What’s Going On 6:12
3. Trouble Man 7:29
4. Midnight Cowboy 5:27
5. When Doves Cry 5:49
6. Send One Your Love 5:02
7. Can’t get next to You 6:30
8. Time of the Season 7:16
9. Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours 4:52
10. One Hundred Ways 6:04
11. Sunshine of your Love 5:05

http://www.davestryker.com/wp/product/eight-track-ii/

[rlrhett]

I'm tellin' ya -- Disney princess movies. They're the musicals most younger people know these days. Any little girl who was seven years old when The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast came out is around 30-35 right now, and she'll put money in your tip jar if you play any tunes from either movie.

Yes! If someone could please do a GOOD chord melody arrangement of "Let It Go" that I could play for my daughter I would be eternally grateful.


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[R Neil]

Here's a very poorly played version. I'm still fleshing it out, this version has too much of a "jam band" vibe to it.

That's cool man!

Some wild ideas there ... liking your work so far.

Stumbling fingers still need love ...

[destinytot]

Just for fun, I'm looking at Neil Sedaka's Laughter in the Rain and The Carpenters' We've Only Just Begun (because of wonderful versions I've heard by Earl Klugh and the late O'Donel Levy).

Folk-rock recontextualised as Soul really floats my boat, and I'm giving serious consideration to the idea of arranging a set for my 'microsymphonic' ensemble.

[Jonah]

I like Randy Newman tunes... many of them incorporate different styles of American music...

I think songs like 'Louisianna', 'Dixie Flyer', 'Dayton Ohio', 'Miss You', 'Sail Away', 'You Can Leave Your Hat On' and many others would sound fine in kind of fused 'soul-blues-country-jazz' style as instrumentals...

I like his treat of harmony... very simple but often very interesting and sensiitve to the meaning of the lyrics...

[Jonah]

Folk-rock recontextualised as Soul really floats my boat, and I'm giving serious consideration to the idea of arranging a set for my 'microsymphonic' ensemble.

Check this ... you can hardly call it jazzor soul... more or less straigh bluegrass

but the way Julian plays sounds much more jazzy than Chris... (though both are great)

[Jonah]

Another 'new old one'... I found Matt did 2cds of Lost music of Willard Robinson (author of Old Folks)

[Vladan]

I recently worked up a trio arrangement of "day tripper".

That would be interesting to hear a bit about. I'm trying to think of chording that ... not too successful. What do you do with it?

Stumbling fingers still need love ...

pkirk, excellent version and playing, as we're all used to hear from you !!!

BTW, Thanks for reminding me, not exactly Jazz, but my variation on that song from couple of years ago. For the most curious part, once someone offered me money to send him the recording ...

[destinytot]

Then there's Michael Franks (but I could live without further versions of Antonio's Song).

[destinytot]

Curtis - such a beautiful voice - singing that "War is never won".

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

Apt for the times, too.

[PB+J]

Yes Disney princess movies and also lots of TV shows for girls.

My daughter just turned 12 and she and all the neighborhood girls her age and younger love not the two chord vamp/taylor swift Katy Perry stuff but the more "broadway" stuff. My house is full of 10-12 year old girls pretending to be black guys pretending to be colonial patriots, but also with show like "Equestria Girls" and "Sophia the First: also "Tangled" and "Frozen"

these are songs that require actual singing chops and which also have actual chord changes and some degree of harmonic complexity. It's kind of heartening

[destinytot]

Apt for the times, too.

Magnificent listening - thank you!

[EarlBrother]

"Uh, only if you want to take it there...jeez."There you go AlsoRan.LOL I can't for the life of me remember a BeeGees tune that in it self had a nice chord progression or how i ended up discovering that oh yea a pay gig.I look for it later.

[EarlBrother]

"Uh, only if you want to take it there...jeez."There you go AlsoRan.LOL I can't for the life of me remember a BeeGees tune that in it self had a nice chord progression or how i ended up discovering that oh yea a pay gig.I look for it later.

[EarlBrother]

Sorry bout the dble dip.

[goldenwave77]

How Deep Is Your Love?

[Vladan]

How Deep Is Your Love?

Yes, that one I liked, also Tell Me That You Need Me by Rudimental, Wake Me Up by Avici ... there are many, many newish tunes and not only on the DJ/ Techno side of the spectrum (like I think these mentioned are) that are really nice. It seems, Jazzers are not willing to put in some real effort and reharmonize in meaningful way, they want to get "changes" ready for blowing and messing with on the spot. But, well, what do we expect, not everyone is Bill Frisell to make that much out of 3 chords.

[goldenwave77]

Russell Malone, whose playing I like a lot, supposedly knows like every standard ever written.

But he also plays a surprising variety of newer stuff, e.g., "You Send Me" (the Sam Cooke tune), theme from The Odd Couple and Gunsmoke, and You Are The Sunshine of My Life.

Even his more pure jazz stuff is accessible. My 19 yr. old, who barely listens to music at all, liked Bright Mississippi, a Monk tune based on Sweet Georgia Brown, when he heard me play the CD.

I've read that Malone started out playing country and blues, so maybe that accounts for his tunefulness.

[mr. beaumont]

Lots of great ideas here, folks, thanks. Reminded me even of some tunes I've done but forgotten about (like "We've Only Just Begun," what a great tune)

Like I said before, it all comes down to a good melody. Harmony can be twisted into a thousand different things...but with melody...you can't polish a turd.

[destinytot]

Todd Rundgren.

[Vladan]

Russell Malone, whose playing I like a lot, supposedly knows like every standard ever written.

But he also plays a surprising variety of newer stuff, e.g., "You Send Me" (the Sam Cooke tune), theme from The Odd Couple and Gunsmoke, and You Are The Sunshine of My Life.

Even his more pure jazz stuff is accessible. My 19 yr. old, who barely listens to music at all, liked Bright Mississippi, a Monk tune based on Sweet Georgia Brown, when he heard me play the CD.

I've read that Malone started out playing country and blues, so maybe that accounts for his tunefulness.

I'm not really into that stuff. Frisell doing The Beatles is more of what I'm after, but not even close, sort of.

I'm with Cosmic Gumbo on the issue.
The Beatles' tunes are already 50 years old and Dylan's and of all those people. There were already several revolutions in popular music since then. 80's with synths and drum machines, 90's with grunge, and techno, 00's with "r'n'b" and rap ... of course, all overlapping, but we are almost 20 years into 21st century, it's about the same amount of time that separate The Beatles from Bird, it's 3/4 of the century after Bird ... Gunsmoke was my favourite before I went to school and I will be 50 this year ...

All the Dylan, The Beatles, Gunsmoke .... including the 70's ... they were all incorporated in "revolutions" I mentioned above. For me, there's no point in revisiting them only to play them in 40s be bop style, or something alike and make them sound even older, or turn them into something nice and sleazy and ruin everything that was good about it (One Toto is more than enough for the lifetime of this planet).

On another hand, I understand it could be fruitful for working musician, to broaden the repertoire, but if they are after that, they could just as well broaden it with more contemporary stuff.

[goldenwave77]

I'm not really into that stuff. Frisell doing The Beatles is more of what I'm after, but not even close, sort of.

I'm with Cosmic Gumbo on the issue.
The Beatles' tunes are already 50 years old and Dylan's and of all those people. There were already several revolutions in popular music since then.

I am a fair to middling Beatles fan. If I never heard 4/5th's of their stuff again, it wouldn't trouble me. Of the 130 or so songs they wrote, I think about 15 of them are really good. George Harrison's comment that "the Beatles were a posh skiffle band" is probably a little overstated, but jazzing up John Lennon tunes is more desperation, than inspired, though I can understand why artists do it.

As for Dylan, a lot of his stuff is 3 chord stuff, or pseudo-folk protest. He was a derivative poseur from the get go, who figured out how to insinuate himself into the favor of the marketing geniuses, in the NY folk scene. Songs of social protest are nothing new in American History--go read the lyrics to "The Big Rock Candy Mountain", but often they sprang from some authentic experience, in history. Zimmerman (Dylan) tapped into a whole generational marketing perfect storm---and the problem with the Baby Boomers in general, is that they mistake their demographic clout, for social and artistic significance. As William F. Buckley once said about the counterculture, "The problem with them is that they think they invented f*cking." I think a lot of what Dylan wrote just doesn't translate very well. He doesn't have a good voice, but he has a distinctive voice, and he seems to be able to put across a lot of his songs pretty well, but I don't think a lot of other people can, and instrumentally (?), I just don't think there is all that much to work with.

80's with synths and drum machines, 90's with grunge, and techno, 00's with "r'n'b" and rap ... of course, all overlapping,


I don't know if I call these "musical revolutions". They are just yet another example of something pumped out by the marketing end of the music industry...and there are endless examples of these....Girl Groups, (Sinatra Soundalikes: Fabian, Frankie Avalon, Bobby Vee, and Bobby Vinton), pseudo-classical crossover stuff in the Big Band Era ("Riffing on Beethoven"), Alvin and the Chipmunks, Boy Bands, Hair Bands, etc. Yes, grunge, techno and rap, might incorporate some new technology, but they offer some pretty slim pickings, for jazz enthusiasts, in my book....not a whole lot to work with melody-wise or in terms of progressions.


On another hand, I understand it could be fruitful for working musician, to broaden the repertoire, but if they are after that, they could just as well broaden it with more contemporary stuff.

OK, but where do you find this?

I have a copy of the Sher Real Book, and there are a LOT of tunes in there that people just don't know, and I suspect very rarely get played...through composed instrumentals. Probably you could do an interesting analysis of the behind the scenes lobbying that went INTO getting those tunes included in that publication to begin with: How many people here can whistle or hum, "Not Ethiopia" ?!

New country stuff ?...a lot of this has gotten very formulaic...really trite vocals, and country-ized instrumental stylizations on top of bad rock n' roll rhythm sections....too loud, and too square, drummers. I'd rather listen to a decent honky-tonk style band. Honestly, the "Country Bears Jamboree" animal mannequins at Disney World, as corny as they are, are better to listen to than a lot of New Country.

I don't mind listening to well-done styles from a by-gone era. Dixieland, Big Band, bop, Hard Bop, Cool, vocalists with a small combo or a Big Band, MoTown, some Classic Rock, and even some fusion.

Listening to jazz music requires some attention, and patience...I enjoy learning a new song, trying to improvise on it, and listening to 5-6 versions of it by different players...maybe to a rock n' roll- based audience, this is too slow....you can almost tell in an audience the large # of people who seem to tune out once the improvisation starts--they just can't be bothered to listen and try to discern any structure, any theme, etc. It's why I always tell novice listeners to listen to the head the 1st time through, and then hum it QUIETLY to themselves as the musicians play...oftentimes that will get them attuned to what is happening.


PS: Some of my responses are included in the boxed text, above, but I'm not going to re-do this. I think the intent is clear.

[Vladan]

I am a fair to middling Beatles fan. ...

... As for Dylan, ...

... I don't know if I call these "musical revolutions" ....and there are endless examples of these....they offer some pretty slim pickings, for jazz enthusiasts, in my book....not a whole lot to work with melody-wise or in terms of progressions.

... OK, but where do you find this? ...

... How many people here can whistle or hum, "Not Ethiopia" ?!

... New country stuff ?...a lot of this has gotten very formulaic...

... Listening to jazz music requires some attention, and patience...I enjoy learning a new song, trying to improvise on it, and listening to 5-6 versions of it by different players...

- I agree with analysis on Dylan, Baby Boomers and counterculture. I can even agree that only that much of Lennon-McCartney opus is above average pop-rock.

- I certainly have no idea about Sher's obscure recordings, even less about country, modern country ...

- What you list as endless examples, I see as mere variations. it was more less a thing of different soloist, vocal or instrumental, over one same background sound. Maybe those were not revolutions, but the sound was completelly changed, grooves and harmonies reinvented.

- Where you find good songs?
Not in fakebooks. You find them on the radio and on internet. Those have not be songs you like. They only need be contemporary and popular. Simpler they are, less Jazz they are, more formulaic they are ... more room you have to break the formula and turn them into something you like. You just have to take some effort to keep them recognizable.

- No need to feed the listener chewed food, but also no reason to artificially obscure the obvious. Providing fresh perspective is some middle ground, IMO.