Unavoidable Composers

[pamosmusic]

This came up in another thread … moving it here…

I sometimes think there is a surprisingly small number of composers in the jazz canon who are truly non-negotiable.

I’m talking not about composers who wrote one or two songs that are big in jam sessions, but composers where there is a large portion of their body of work that you just have to tackle if you’re going to move in jazz circles.

Lots of great composers in the American songbook of course, but as far as jazz composers go, I think the list is pretty small.

So far, in no particular order:

Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn
Thelonious Monk
Wayne Shorter
Antonio Carlos Jobim
Charlie Parker

[James W]

I would add John Coltrane. Just because if you're going to have Charlie Parker whose compositions, while obviously indispensable, mostly consist of contrafacts (as far as I know anyway, I welcome being corrected) while Coltrane notably invented his own distinctive chord progressions.

[enalnitram]

Rodgers & Hart, Gershwin, Miles, Cole Porter ...

[pcjazz]

Fats Waller

[Bop Head]

Rodgers & Hart, Gershwin, Miles, Cole Porter ...

Rodgers & Hart, Gershwin and Cole Porter are no jazz composers.

[pamosmusic]

Rodgers & Hart, Gershwin, Miles, Cole Porter ...

I would consider them American Songbook composers, rather than jazz composers writing for that medium, which is a distinction I was trying to make.

But a good opportunity to draw that distinction.

[Bop Head]

Mingus is a jazz composer, but are there other tunes by him than Goodbye Porkpie Hat (of which most people do not know the difference between head and blowing changes) that are played at sessions?

[Bop Head]

Dizzy?

[setemupjoe]

Benny Golson, Horace Silver.


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[AllanAllen]

I still think you need Sonny Rollins.

Doxy
Pent Up House
Sonnymoon for two
Tenor Madness
Oleo
St. Thomas
Airegin

[Bop Head]

Tadd Dameron

[Bop Head]

Not my field of expertise, but isn't Ornette Coleman a composer whose tunes are played by many post-bop artists?

[ragman1]

Miles Davis LOL

[pamosmusic]

Miles Davis LOL

AH! I was wondering if this would come up …


Maybe?

I don’t usually think of Miles as being a composer of high traffic standards. And lots of the tunes of his that are called regularly are blues forms and things.

Hes an innovator in so many other ways … like just the concept of modal playing and Kind of Blue … but I’m not sure I think of his as A Composer in the way I do Monk or Shorter.

[ragman1]

It was supposed to be humorous (LOL) because his name appears on so many tunes written by other people. Didn't you know that?

But I agree, more innovator than composer.

I sometimes think there is a surprisingly small number of composers in the jazz canon who are truly non-negotiable.

I'm not sure that isn't the way it should be. Real quality is usually limited to a few.

[mr. beaumont]

Mingus?

[ragman1]

Mingus has been mentioned. But, yes, he's probably a candidate.

Unavoidable Composers

[AllanAllen]

Who here hasn't played So What on a gig, or jam? Miles Davis is absolutely unavoidable.

[ragman1]

But what others? Truly unavoidable implies a canon. Is that the right word?

[pamosmusic]

Who here hasn't played So What on a gig, or jam? Miles Davis is absolutely unavoidable.

I meaaaaaaan ... I have.

But I've been to several hundred gigs/jams and have played it on actually maybe one of them?

And oddly enough it was fairly recently. My most common experience with that tune, far and away, is teaching students with it. It's cooler than that, but that's generally where you run into it these days.

Another unusual thing about that one is that you can sneak by it without really knowing the tune. So you don't really have to wrestle with the composer in that way.

You might be able to say the same thing about a lot of Charlie Parker tunes, since so many are Rhythm Changes or blues forms, but half the time if you decline to play one of his tunes, the person who called it is going to call another Parker tune. Ah, so you don't know Au Privave .... Billie's Bounce then?

[pamosmusic]

But what others? Truly unavoidable implies a canon. Is that the right word?

That's sort of what I mean right there. Miles wrote great tunes, but not so many of them that end up being absolute must-knows. Solar and Tune Up, probably?

[AllanAllen]

All Blues, Freddie Freeloader, Four. These aren't must knows in the same way as Parker's are, but they are popular songs people will like if you play them.

Wait... did anyone say Herbie Hancock yet?

[grahambop]

That's sort of what I mean right there. Miles wrote great tunes, but not so many of them that end up being absolute must-knows. Solar and Tune Up, probably?

haha sorry to be the jazz nerd, but the general consensus seems to be that Solar was really written by Chuck Wayne and Tune Up was written by Eddie Vinson. Miles ‘appropriated’ them somehow. (He was the Led Zeppelin of jazz!)

But he’s usually credited so it doesn’t really matter for the purposes of this thread.

[pamosmusic]

All Blues, Freddie Freeloader, Four. These aren't must knows in the same way as Parker's are, but they are popular songs people will like if you play them.

Wait... did anyone say Herbie Hancock yet?

Herbie is one of my favorites. He and Mingus I think are in a similar boat. I don’t know if I’ve ever been to a session where either one was called. Some gigs where they’re called.

But they’re Composers with a capital C and definitely people you’d need to go through if you want to write in the genre, even if maybe you could skirt around playing them on the bandstand.

[Rick5]

Man, I love Bill Evans so much, but from those criteria, he probably doesn't make the list.

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