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There's another venerable thread on tunes you should know, but I thought it would be interesting to list tunes that it would be embarrassing not to know.
So, to take perhaps the most obvious example, Autumn Leaves. If you present yourself as a jazz musician you have to know this tune. Otherwise, the other players will look incredulous and think, or say, "he doesn't know that??"
So, here's my initial list. I took out of a lot of tunes that are important and tried to leave only the ones that it would be shameful not to know.
- All The Things You Ar
- Autumn Leaves
- Blues changes and Rhythm changes - any key
- Black Orpheus
- Blue Bossa
- Bye Bye Blackbird
- Days of Wine and Roses
- How High The Moon
- Just Friends
- On Green Dolphin Street
- Satin Doll
- Stella By Starlight
- So What
- Take The A Train
- The Girl From Ipanema
- There Will Never Be Another You
- Out of Nowhere
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10-13-2019 11:47 PM
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Shameful??? This is the 21st century, not 1959.
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I still haven't learn the Days Of Wine And Roses. I'm sooo embarrassed!
Screw that. The only embarrassing tune not to know is Happy Birthday. And I saw that's happened a few times.
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I know all of those so I can make everyone else feel ashamed.
Shame on you!!!! Shame!!! Great shame!!! You bring shame on your family!!!
DW&R is kind of lame. Except when Wes plays it. Terrible lyrics too.
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Thing is this is all relative. You might think you know the jazz repertoire and go and hang out some other gang of dweebs and they have a whole different bunch of tunes they were ordered to learn at mode school.
By far the worst for this are, however, early jazzers. What do you mean you don’t know ‘it ain’t no sin’, ‘figgety feet’, ‘my little eggcup’, ‘do you know what it means to miss New Orleans?’ and ‘button up your overcoat’? FILTHY BOPPER!!!!
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Originally Posted by christianm77
ATTYA is a required standard, ok, I can play it, but why would I? My definition of a perfect musician- one who knows how to play ATTYA, but doesn't.
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Originally Posted by christianm77
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Originally Posted by Hep To The Jive
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Originally Posted by christianm77
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Black Orpheus? Samba de Orfeu or Manha de Canivale I assume?I "know" every song on that list...theres also a few I haven't played voluntarily in 10 years
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Originally Posted by christianm77
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Circumstances vary.
If you're a solo guitarist (or doing ocassional solo guitar gigs), you need to know some tunes people who are willing to pay to hear a solo jazz guitarist will want to hear. But you don't have to know all of them. You need a few hours' worth that hang together. You can play lots of ballads or only one or zero---so long as the whole thing holds together. Some people lean toward romantic tunes, other toward novelty tunes, some lean toward blues and others toward simple standards (All of Me, Summertime) while still others like to take the familiar in an unexpected direction (as Blossom Dearie did by making "The Surrey with the Fringe On Top" into a ballad, practically a lullaby.) A lot has to do with what you can make come across. (What you can project on stage may not be the same thing you most enjoy hearing while home alone, either.)
If you front a contemporary band and compose a lot, you'll play mostly your own stuff and are likely to play only standards. that fit in with the rest of the set. (Sonny Rollins played "I'm An Old Cowhand", for godsake, and it was great fun to hear him do it.)
If you're a sideman looking to get called as much as possible for gigs, then you can't know too many tunes.
How you like to improvise matters a lot too. Some people love to blow over rhythm changes while others avoid them. If you want to play in a sparse, moody, melodic way, you'll probably want tunes with fewer changes (and slower tempos.)
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Originally Posted by Hep To The Jive
I'll add INDIANA to the list but like the man says...just know it don't call it.
Here's my remedy for ballad indifference: For All We Know, Solitude, Two For The Road, Your Face Before Me...well you get the idea.
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Originally Posted by Jonah
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As a non-gigger I'm curious: does anyone care to hear these standards besides older folks? Is there much of a demand for such tunes?
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I still like DoWaR and Stella.
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A couple of months ago, I had the opportunity to play in a jam with a master pianist from another country. Everyone deferred to him. He wanted to make sure that everybody would know the first tune, so he started playing Autumn Leaves. I thought, it would be embarrassing not to know it. This tune made no real sense in the context of the music he was teaching -- it only made sense insofar as everyone could reasonably be expected to know it. That's where I got the idea for the thread.
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Far be it for me, a mere semi-hollowist, to disagree with Christian77 (I assume the 77 is his level of mastery of all taste in the universe), but there is nothing better in said universe (or some universe, anyway) than Pat Martino's version of DoW&R
JohnLast edited by John A.; 10-14-2019 at 04:24 PM.
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Originally Posted by zdub
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Originally Posted by zdub
I think these lists are hard. No one in my circles would ever call "Satin Doll", but, probably most people have played it and could definitely hear the changes after a once through. I agree very much this varies by region as well, I have a friend in poland and he said "green dolphin street" is super common because the composer is polish. When I used to live in SF I would hear "I'm getting sentimental over you" called at a jam I frequented, everyone knew it, I had never really heard this tune called before.
For me, stuff like "I'll Remember April" and "Beatrice" and "I mean you" would definitely be on the list. Autumn Leaves is kinda exceptional because it is perhaps the most basic changes ever besides a blues: who can't hear a ii-V-I in the major and relative minor?
Anyways I think lists like this are hard and always tend towards a long list of standards, but if they are also fun, then that's cool, too. Lately I just focus on the tunes I really like to play and hear, and hearing the harmony to these standard tunes just keeps getting easier.
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For some reason this thread got me thinking about Joe Pass' album "Apassionato" which has a bunch of tunes that I had never heard of, all of which he plays wonderfully. "That's Earl Brother," "Red Door," "Stuffy," "YOu're Driving me Crazy"--alongside some universal favorites. I sometimes think of that album as an almost ideal set list.
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Originally Posted by lawson-stone
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Originally Posted by pcsanwald
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I never play Bye Bye Bl. or Take the A Train very often so I probably can admit I would stumble for a few times. Otherwise I know the tunes but again is it just old guys like me approaching 60 an over who even care. Sadly I wonder if in fact due to age we just fall by the wayside playing to our own generation. I think it would be cool if younger fellow did this but guess not many. Maybe I am wrong about that but?
These days the more I listen I just sorta of like nice chord melody and then maybe a chorus of solo that is interesting. So I am listening to Wes play ballads and out own Fred Archtop he has a perfect touch I just love the playing.
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It's a good list of standards in the jazz culture I know, plus or minus a few. And yeah, some are overplayed to the point of cliche'.
Not knowing some of them (or keeping them committed to memory) shouldn't be shameful. We all had to learn, and the jazz world can be a bit snobby about that.
I still get a bit nervous going to a jam session and doing that little negotiation with people I probably haven't played with before, of who's calling what tune, hoping I'll know it well enough. And being relieved and bored if it's ATTYA!
Just for kicks, something outside my usual bag, I started going to a bluegrass jam once in a while. It struck me how different it was, more relaxed & fun. Don't know the tune? So what, it's easy enough, just follow along, take a solo or not. No weird attitude or "you must know Orange Blossom special"
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