What are the essential jazz standards to learn?

Brad

ElevensLouder said:

@wizbit81 unsure whether to LOL or WIZ!

Same  

wizbit81

I'll take either or both guys. 

DLM

I went with (sympathy) LOL because I haven't put enough time into learning such stuff to (sympathy) WIS.

Benm39

The desire to retire so I can spend enough time learning to play jazz guitar is also my motivation for staying at work... ditto for piano. 

GuyBoden

After trying to play Jazz since the early 1980's, recently, I'm not finding it to be that difficult. 

viz

That’s cheating

GuyBoden

Here I am playing Autumn Leaves last week with Trefor Owen, I'm the player wearing a the flat cap to cover my bald head.

Anyone can play Jazz, just learn the songs, it's the same as learning any song pop/rock/classical etc.

beed84

wizbit81 said:

I'd question why you want to do this....
Jazz is a bottomless hole of despair and horror and impossible standards and hard, hard work for what most of the time is f*ckall gain. 
Nobody cares about jazz, nobody goes to jazz gigs, nobody listens during solos. There's no money in it, and there's a million people all far, far better than you (and me, and the vast majority of people) who won't help you and who will probably judge you. It's got the highest bar of entry of any music I can think of with the lowest payoff. It will eat as much time as you have to throw at it and it will give you nothing back for it other than a constant feeling that you're sh1t at it compared to everyone else who has ever lived. It's not something you can dabble with or p1ss about with like rock or blues, it requires your soul on a stick and indentured servitude for years to even grasp the basics and play at a remedial level. The vast majority of people fail without ever even vaguely being able to do it. Most people I went to college with and studied it either failed at it (immediately or over time) or 'succeeded' and continue to barely subsist decades later.

If you understand all that and you still have a burning feeling that you need to, then go ahead and listen to people like Brad who are pointing the way, then prepare mentally for everything else.

Signed...post college immediate jazz failure who still tries decades later and still can't do it for sh1t no matter how much time is put in.

Take all the above as deeply cynical screed from a bitter failure of a musician, but also realise it's true. There is a counterargument of course but if you are seriously going to put any effort into it it's good to know this first and go in with your eyes open. You're better off considering jazz a 'danger do not enter' sign for your musical career imo.

Lol-wiz. I tried it too and mostly learned how to implement interesting chords and a “jazz sound” into my playing, if you could call it that. But if you are really serious, there’s some good, no nonsense advice from a grumpy American jazz cat here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zisCvYjk6-o

pacodelucia13

there was a podcast at some point with Scott Henderson and Bruce Forman and Bruce called these the jazz mother tunes as other standards will have changes which stem from these ones https://vincedickinson.home.blog/2019/09/01/bruce-formans-mother-tunes/

GuyBoden

pacodelucia13 said:

there was a podcast at some point with Scott Henderson and Bruce Forman and Bruce called these the jazz mother tunes as other standards will have changes which stem from these ones https://vincedickinson.home.blog/2019/09/01/bruce-formans-mother-tunes/

1. Summertime

It’s a minor blues, just a different form. The melody tells you what the chord needs to be. Learning that will make this and every other song make sense. There’s a little turnaround and relative major at the end of the form.

2. Honeysuckle Rose

It’s the best study of ii-Vs, and features an iconic melodic phrase (Charlie Parker used it all the time). [Practice] Try altering practicing that phrase over ii-Vs – come from below, come from above, etc. The bridge harmony is also iconic (AAB Form song). It goes to the key of the IV (ii – V I of the IV) | 2 Dom | 5 Dom. It’s a similar bridge to Take The A Train. Again, the key is always hearing the melody. Scrapple From The Apple = Honeysuckle Rose with the I Got Rhythm bridge.

3. Take The A-Train

The most obvious use of the II7 (2-Dom7 or V of the V). Other examples of the II7 – Girl from Ipanema, Jersey Bounce, etc. The note is actually the +11, the II7 doesn’t try to change keys, it just adds color. AABA, version of the Honeysuckle Rose bridge.

4. Autum Leaves

Teaches you and highlights the concept of Sequential Ideas. That’s what makes melodies work, and it makes solos work. [Practice] Your solos need to consider that every line should have some DNA from the line before. Learning the melody from Autumn Leaves should change the way you solo. [Practice] Learning in all 12 keys if you hear the melody intervallically! Practice finding these intervals with an easy tune (Happy Birthday). Play the melody all over the neck, using different fingers to start. Play the changes in zones (positions) – force yourself to find all the chords within those 3-5 frets. It’s the world’s best study of how relative minor and relative major live together. It ounces back and forth between major & minor (sounds bittersweet). 32 bar form, it gives you the impression of AAB, but B goes on…

5. All The Things You Are

Best study of the cycle of 5ths. All the melody notes are 3rds (note: 3rds are like the guitar player’s root, since the bassist usually covers the root). What a gift it is to really hear the 3rd of all those chords!

6. There Will Never Be Another You

Great example of backcycling / Bird-style changes. Similar to “Blues for Alice.” Just another way of playing the blues. Just a moving 5th. 8 bar A, 1st ending, 8 bar A, 2nd ending (A1 A2 tune). Goes to the IV, then 2dom, 5 dom, 1st ending, 2nd ending resolves. Most A1 A2 songs do this.

7. Just Friends

It starts on a IV chords – lots of songs do this. “Limehouse Blues,” “I’ll See You In My Dreams.” [Practice] strum the chords in 8th notes to really hear the motion – that motion is very common. Another A1 A2 song (note: A2 is where it resolves, but it needs to have a turnaround to set up the following chorus).

8. Green Dolphin Street

Introduces the “triadic shift” – could play it as a “bullfighter progression.” Parallel motion A1 A2 form. Miles Davis rewrote the 2nd A. A2 turnaround (36251 (E- A7 D- G7 C).

9. Ain’t Misbehaving / (Alternate: It Could Happen To You)

Both tunes teach the same thing. Ascends chromatically. [Practice] try this variation on chords (I learned it as D F#7 E-6 A7 instead of D D#dim, E-6 A7). They’re both fine, they’re interchangeable. Depends what kind of sound you wnat.

10. Stella By Starlight

Everybody plays it. In some ways, it’s a song that doesn’t make sense, but it works.

Thanks for the link. 

ZenOvertone

wizbit81 said:

I'd question why you want to do this....
Jazz is a bottomless hole of despair and horror and impossible standards and hard, hard work for what most of the time is f*ckall gain. 
Nobody cares about jazz, nobody goes to jazz gigs, nobody listens during solos. There's no money in it, and there's a million people all far, far better than you (and me, and the vast majority of people) who won't help you and who will probably judge you. It's got the highest bar of entry of any music I can think of with the lowest payoff. It will eat as much time as you have to throw at it and it will give you nothing back for it other than a constant feeling that you're sh1t at it compared to everyone else who has ever lived. It's not something you can dabble with or p1ss about with like rock or blues, it requires your soul on a stick and indentured servitude for years to even grasp the basics and play at a remedial level. The vast majority of people fail without ever even vaguely being able to do it. Most people I went to college with and studied it either failed at it (immediately or over time) or 'succeeded' and continue to barely subsist decades later.

If you understand all that and you still have a burning feeling that you need to, then go ahead and listen to people like Brad who are pointing the way, then prepare mentally for everything else.

Signed...post college immediate jazz failure who still tries decades later and still can't do it for sh1t no matter how much time is put in.

4000 chords to 4 people or 4 chords to 4000 people was mentioned many a time :-) 

ZenOvertone

Great list @Brad - jazzguitar.be is a good resource as listed too.  

Chris Corcoran is a good crossover between the two worlds or Jazz & Blues as a way in too with a fair bit of Charlie Christian influence

duotone

Another useful resource @PAL ; posted on here last year: https://realbook.site/

I really like that you can hit play (the grey bar) and hear how each song sounds. Also it’s easy to change the Key (+ or - in the top left).