Jazz Standards : Songs
: History : Biographies
Musicians, educators, researchers, and
disc jockeys, use this quick reference site
for the standards jazz performers play the
most!
Click on
Songs
to get right to the heart of the site or
Overview to see
what JazzStandards.com has to offer you!
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“JazzStandards.com is a resource for
musicians and researchers, and rewarding
for anyone interested in song.”
Doug Ramsey, Author
and Jazz Critic“Jazzstandards.com
does a very useful and unique service for
all lovers of jazz on their beautifully
constructed site. Don't miss it!”
Chuck Sher, Sher
Music Company
More...
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“Dave dragged me kicking
and screaming to stardom.”
 Jon
Hendricks was a member of the unsurpassed
vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. He
pioneered vocalese, the art of writing and
singing lyrics to the music of jazz instrumentalists.
He left law school in 1951 to pursue music
at the urging of Charlie Parker. There he
met Dave Lambert, who, as Hendricks relates
it, conceived the preposterous idea of writing
lyrics to Count Basie’s music as a way of
being remembered when they died of starvation,
which seemed near at hand.
View hundreds of
biographies
on the composers and the performers.
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Oscar Peterson -- after
hearing Art Tatum play "Tea for Two"
 “We
had a beer or two and I said, `Hey, man,
I'd like to hear you play!' ... I couldn't
believe what I was hearing .. By the time
he got through I couldn't take it anymore...”
Click on
Songs
for more origins.
Abbott and Costello
films produce two jazz standards?
It is remarkable that “You Don't Know
What Love Is” and “I’ll Remember April,”
two of the top jazz standards, were a product
of Abbott and Costello films.
Click on
Songs
and then on the song title for the rest
of the story.
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“Sophisticated
Lady”
FORM: A – A
– B – A
ORIGINAL KEY:
Ab major (“A” sections) and G major (“B”
section) on Ellington’s 1933 recording
TONALITY: Major
throughout
MOVEMENT: “A”
sections – upwardly arpeggiated, descending
chromatically; “B” section consists of leaps
in both directions, ranging from a 3rd
to a 7th
COMMENTS: For
a song that is one of Ellington’s most angelic,
it is devilishly difficult, particularly
for the vocalist. It begins with a standard
ii7 – V7 – I progression,
however, the pickup note and its harmony
are a half-step higher. The chord progression
then leaps up a minor 6th (in
the original key, from Bbm7 to
Gb7) before descending chromatically
to the V7 resolving to I. The
second part of A is another standard harmonic
progression, I – VI7 – II7
- V7 resolving to I – but the
composers cleverly disguise this by a chromatic
descent from I to VI7. The “B”
section is uses the fairly standard I –
VI7 – ii - V7 progression
(I Could Write A Book, I’ll Take Manhattan,
At Long Last Love, Indiana, et. al.)
followed by its...
Click on
Songs
to read more musical analyses.
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We now have Reading and Research
information on over 600 of our song
pages. Each of these song pages tells you
where to go for more information and what
type of information you'll find there: historical,
anecdotal, biographical, music analysis,
lyric analysis, song lyrics, sheet music,
and more. Click on this song link and scroll
to the bottom right for an example:
"I
Can't Get Started"
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Visit our companion website
JazzBiographies.com. There
you'll find biography pages for
thousands of jazz artists and
writers.
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 Jazz
vocalist Karrin Allyson talks to
JazzStandards.com about her upcoming
CD. In addition to the interview,
Sandra Burlingame comments on the
2006 CD
Footprints on which Allyson
introduced several jazz instrumentals
with new lyrics
(click
here for the interview).
You can visit Karrin's website
for a biography and tour schedule
at
karrinallyson.com.
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 Jazz
pianist and professor Randy Halberstadt
tells us why he chooses tunes to
play, record, and write about (click
here for the interview). His
highly recommended
Parallel Tracks CD (left),
with Jeff Johnson on bass and Gary
Hobbs on drums includes the jazz
standards, “In the Wee Small Hours
of the Morning,” “Invitation,” “The
Touch of Your Lips,” “Well You Needn't,”
and “Everything I Love.” You
may visit his website at
randyhalberstadt.com.Randy
provides comments on “Just You,
Just Me,” and “Mean to Me.”
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Take a look at the new
Aebersold Play-A-Long Series
and
Real Book finder.
Locate jazz tunes in dozens of Real
Books and over 100 Aebersold Play-A-Long
volumes with a click of the mouse.
The
Song
index pages have been revised. Now there
are icons ( )
to the right of most tune names. Click on
the icon and you'll see a list of Real
Books and Aebersold Play-A-Long
volumes that include the tune.
Then click on a book graphic to see its
complete contents and find out
which
of its tunes are on the JazzStandards.com
1000 list.
Click on
Songs
now to try it out.
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| “What's
New in Jazz Standards,” is a series
that explores new lyrics for established
instrumentals, emerging standards, and more.
 The
latest article is an interview with lyricist,
vocalist, and composer Jon Hendricks
who has inspired generations of lyricists
and singers.
Hendricks is noted for expanding
the art of vocalese to include
multiple voices singing
various instrumental parts.
The term “vocalese” was
first used by noted jazz
critic Leonard Feather in
a 1959 article in Jazz:
A Quarterly of American
Music to describe the
art of melding new lyrics
to the frame of classic
jazz instrumentals.
Jon Hendricks (full story)
The first article in the
series is an interview with lyricist and
vocalist Lorraine Feather who has fit lyrics
to a number of Fats Waller and Duke Ellington
instrumentals.
Lorraine Feather, Part 1
Lorraine Feather, Part 2
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 In
the second article of our Jazz Standards
Education series, jazz journalist
Terry Perkins talks
with Marian McPartland about her award winning
and highly informative radio show Marian
McPartland's Piano Jazz.
Marian McPartland (full story)
The first article in the
series is on NPR's Jazz Profiles,
hosted by Nancy Wilson.
Nancy Wilson (full story)
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Our jazz historian Chris Tyle
has been given top honors by the
Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD.
Only one in one thousand CDs are
given a crown, the guide's
special token of merit.
Check out Chris Tyle's
Silver Leaf Jazz Band's CD
New Orleans Wiggle at CDUniverse.com.
Here's an example of one of the
200+ Jazz History Notes Chris has
written for JazzStandards.com:
“How Deep Is the Ocean?”
Benny
Goodman’s 1941 recording of this
number no doubt brought it back
to the attention of the jazz world.
But it wasn’t until Coleman Hawkins’
1943 version that the tune really
caught on with jazz players.
Hawkins
had probably played the number with
Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra in
the early 1930s when it was initially
popular. Using an approach similar
to that of his 1939 hit “Body and
Soul,” Hawkins is accompanied by
a rhythm section of Ellis Larkins
(piano), Fats Waller’s guitarist
Al Casey, bassist Oscar Pettiford
and drummer Shelly Manne, a group
he would make several successful
recordings with. The results are
astounding; Hawkins outdoes his
own version of “Body and Soul,”
and plays an unaccompanied coda
that is brilliant.
Click on
Songs to see more history notes
or click
History
for Chris Tyle's decade-by-decade
perspective of jazz standards history.
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