| Jazz standards and tunes |
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| Before 1920 |
| 1920s |
| 1930s |
| 1940s |
| 1950s and later |
| A–Z of jazz standards and tunes |
Jazz standards aremusical compositions that are an important part of the musicalrepertoire ofjazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitivelist of jazz standards, and the list of songs deemed to bestandards changes over time. Songs included in majorfake book publications (lead sheet collections of popular tunes) and jazz reference works offer a rough guide to which songs are considered standards.
Not all jazz standards were written by jazz composers. Many are originallyTin Pan Alleypopular songs,Broadwayshow tunes or songs fromHollywoodmusicals – theGreat American Songbook.[1] In Europe, jazz standards and "fake books" may even include some traditional folk songs (such as in Scandinavia) or pieces of a minority ethnic group's music (such asRomani music) that have been played with a jazz feel by well known jazz players. A commonly played song can only be considered a jazz standard if it is widely played amongjazz musicians. The jazz standard repertoire has some overlap withblues andpop standards.
The most recorded standard composed by a jazz musician, and one of the most covered songs of all time, isDuke Ellington's andJuan Tizol's "Caravan" with over 500 uses.[2][3] Originally, the most recorded jazz standard wasW. C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues" for over 20 years from the 1930s onward, after whichHoagy Carmichael's "Stardust" replaced it.[4] Following this, the place was held by "Body and Soul" byJohnny Green.[5]
From its conception at the change of the twentieth century, jazz was music intended for dancing. This influenced the choice of material played by early jazz groups:King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band,New Orleans Rhythm Kings and others included a large number ofTin Pan Alleypopular songs in their repertoire, and record companies often used their power to dictate which songs were to be recorded by their artists. Certain songs were pushed by recording executives and therefore quickly achieved standard status; this started with the first jazz recordings in 1916, withThat Funny Jas Band from Dixieland (1916) byCollins and Harlan forThomas A. Edison, Inc. onBlue Amberol in December 1916[6]: 80 and in 1917, when theOriginal Dixieland Jass Band recorded "Darktown Strutters' Ball" and "Indiana".[7] The first record with 'Jass' on the label,The Original Dixieland One-Step was issue 18255 byVictor Talking Machine Company in 1917.[8]: 7 Originally simply called "jazz", the music of earlyjazz bands is today often referred to as "Dixieland" or "New Orleans jazz", to distinguish it from more recent subgenres.[9]
The origins of jazz are in the musical traditions of early twentieth-centuryNew Orleans, includingbrass band music, theblues,ragtime andspirituals,[10] and some of the most popular early standards come from these influences. Ragtime songs "Twelfth Street Rag" and "Tiger Rag" have become popular numbers for jazz artists, as have blues tunes "St. Louis Blues" and "St. James Infirmary". Tin Pan Alley songwriters contributed several songs to the jazz standard repertoire, including "Indiana" and "After You've Gone". Others, such as "Some of These Days" and "Darktown Strutters' Ball", were introduced byvaudeville performers. The most often recorded standards of this period areW. C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues",Turner Layton andHenry Creamer's "After You've Gone" andJames Hanley andBallard MacDonald's "Indiana".[11]
A period known as the "Jazz Age" started in the United States in the 1920s. Jazz had become popular music in the country, although older generations considered the music immoral and threatening to old cultural values.[12] Dances such as theCharleston and theBlack Bottom were very popular during the period, and jazz bands typically consisted of seven to twelve musicians. Important orchestras in New York were led byFletcher Henderson,Paul Whiteman andDuke Ellington. Many New Orleans jazzmen had moved toChicago during the late 1910s in search of employment; among others, theNew Orleans Rhythm Kings,King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band andJelly Roll Morton recorded in the city. However, Chicago's importance as a center of jazz music started to diminish toward the end of the 1920s in favor of New York.[13]
In the early years of jazz, record companies were often eager to decide what songs were to be recorded by their artists. Popular numbers in the 1920s were pop hits such as "Sweet Georgia Brown", "Dinah" and "Bye Bye Blackbird". The first jazz artist to be given some liberty in choosing his material wasLouis Armstrong, whose band helped popularize many of the early standards in the 1920s and 1930s.[7]
Some compositions written by jazz artists have endured as standards, includingFats Waller's "Honeysuckle Rose" and "Ain't Misbehavin'". The most recorded 1920s standard isHoagy Carmichael andMitchell Parish's "Stardust".[14] Several songs written byBroadway composers in the 1920s have become standards, such asGeorge andIra Gershwin's "The Man I Love" (1924),Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" (1927) andCole Porter's "What Is This Thing Called Love?" (1929). However, it was not until the 1930s that musicians became comfortable with the harmonic and melodic sophistication of Broadway tunes and started including them regularly in their repertoire.[13]
Broadway theatre contributed some of the most popular standards of the 1930s, includingGeorge andIra Gershwin's "Summertime" (1935),Richard Rodgers andLorenz Hart's "My Funny Valentine" (1937) andJerome Kern andOscar Hammerstein II's "All the Things You Are" (1939). These songs still rank among the most recorded standards of all time.[14] The most popular 1930s standard,Johnny Green's "Body and Soul", was introduced in Broadway and became a huge hit afterColeman Hawkins's 1939 recording.[5]
1930s saw the rise ofswing jazz as a dominant form in American music.Duke Ellington and his band members composed numerousswing era hits that have later become standards: "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" (1932), "Sophisticated Lady" (1933) and "Caravan" (1936), among others. Other influential band leaders of this period wereBenny Goodman andCount Basie.
The swing era lasted until the mid-1940s, and produced popular tunes such asDuke Ellington's "Cotton Tail" (1940) andBilly Strayhorn's "Take the 'A' Train" (1941). With the big bands struggling to keep going duringWorld War II, a shift was happening in jazz in favor of smaller groups. Some swing era musicians, such asLouis Jordan, later found popularity in a new kind of music, called "rhythm and blues", that would evolve intorock and roll in the 1950s.[15]
Bebop emerged in the early 1940s, withCharlie Parker,Dizzy Gillespie andThelonious Monk leading the way. It appealed to a more specialized audiences than earlier forms of jazz, with sophisticatedharmonies, fasttempos and oftenvirtuoso musicianship. Bebop musicians often used 1930s standards, especially those from Broadway musicals, as part of their repertoire.[15] Among standards written by bebop musicians are Gillespie's "Salt Peanuts" (1941) and "A Night in Tunisia" (1942), Parker's "Anthropology" (1946), "Yardbird Suite" (1946) and "Scrapple from the Apple" (1947), and Monk's "'Round Midnight" (1944), which is currently one of the most recorded jazz standards composed by a jazz musician.[16]
Modal jazz recordings, such asMiles Davis'sKind of Blue (1959), became popular in the late 1950s. Popular jazz standards include Miles Davis's "Round About Midnight" (1959),John Coltrane's "My Favorite Things" (1961)[17] andHerbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man" and "Cantaloupe Island".
InBrazil, a new style of music calledbossa nova evolved in the late 1950s. Based on the Braziliansamba as well as jazz, bossa nova was championed byJoão Gilberto,Antonio Carlos Jobim andLuiz Bonfá. Gilberto andStan Getz started a bossa nova craze in the United States with their 1963 albumGetz/Gilberto. Among the genre's songs that are now considered standards are Bonfá's "Manhã de Carnaval" (1959),Marcos Valle's "Summer Samba" (1966), and numerous Jobim's songs, including "Desafinado" (1959), "The Girl from Ipanema" (1962) and "Corcovado" (1962).
Thejazz fusion movement fused jazz with other musical styles such asrock and classical music. Its golden age was 1970s. Famous fusion artists, such asWeather Report,Chick Corea andReturn to Forever, Herbie Hancock andThe Headhunters,The Manhattan Transfer, and theMahavishnu Orchestra, achieved cross-over popularity, although public interest in the genre faded at the turn of the 1980s. Fusion's hits wereEumir Deodato's "Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001)" (1973),[18] and Bob James's "Night on Bald Mountain" (1974), and Herbie Hancock's "Chameleon" (1973).Weather Report andThe Manhattan Transfer coveredJoe Zawinul's jazz standard "Birdland".Linda Ronstadt'sWhat's New,Chaka Kahn'sEchoes of an Era, andCarly Simon'sTorch were 80s jazz standard albums.[19]
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