PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Woodshedding - Learning to Play! Please add songs that are "modern" (>1960) jazz standards...

Hi all,

For playing casual jazz gigs, where the audience is younger and not familiar with the traditional jazz standards repetoire (Satin Doll, Fly Me to the Moon etc.), it is helpful to be able to play pop tunes that are adaptable to a jazz combo.

Here's a few:

Yesterday (Beatles)
Michelle (Beatles)
Don't Know Why (Nora Jones)
You've Got A Friend (Carole King)
Sunshine of My Life (Stevie Wonder)

Could others add tunes to this list... as that list above is looking long-in-the-tooth, and others might have found recent tunes that work well.

YES.

Something I've been doing for years.

I have found that when the target jazz song is known and loved by the age group in my audience, they really appreciate the performance. Not so much when the target song is one of the great old Standards known to a generation or two previous to my audience. I do try to still include a few of the old ones, though.

American Jazz Pianist Ramsey Lewis led the way, his "In Crowd" version is still quite popular. Here it is updated to the '90s, using "Wade in the Water" The Groove MASTER:



Extra Credit if you know who Ramsey Lewis original Jazz Drummer was, here's a hint:



Paul McCartney's Blackbird.



Michael Jackson's Man in the Mirror.

I learned this one first on guitar from transcribing the mighty Tuck Andress.

Halfway through the process of defining my own guitar performance, I one day realized that this one makes a wonderful Shout Chorus on piano, Gospel Style. Goes over well almost everywhere. Key of G and Gospel Piano is way cool and rather easy. Piano Jazz Trio or Quartet, this performance makes the toddlers get up and DANCE. If you can hit the toddlers, you've hit everyone else in the room, man.

Then do the Faux Ending trick. Wait a bit, and start up that Shout Chorus stuff One Mo' Time...



Miles, of course, was always on the lookout for modern hit tunes that had enough interesting changes in them.

Time After Time:



I've gotten a bit of mileage out of The Police/Sting tune, "I'll Be Watching You" as Jazz Piano. Not many know that Sting first wrote the song at home on his Hammond A-100 organ as a jazz piece, recorded his organ playing as demo for the band, but the project got mired down in the studio until the guitarist went home and worked out that arpeggiatic signature guitar track. After that, One Take.

Here's Karen Souza, singing it as a Jazz tune:



Then there are the fantastic Reggae covers of Bob Marley that the man whom I've personally named the successor to Oscar Peterson's throne, Monty Alexander has done. Monty was the original studio pianist on many of Bob Marley's creations, also serving as the knowledgeable voice concerning arranging, chording, etc. - And Monty also held the House Piano position at Birdland for years. (!)

When I first encountered Monty's Jazz Piano Trio version of "No Woman No Cry" I immediately spent a pleasant afternoon working it out and it was on the setlist the very next day:

Nice "Builder" kinda thang, build it slow, then SHOUT CHORUS BABY! (Yeah, I had the tenacity to think that I could add to what Monty did with that one, but hey, it works, and if you are somewhere sometime where it isn't, don't shout it, just end the tune.)

Use that #9, man. Those in the know, check out Monty's quote near the end in this one. We can play newer tunes and also pay tribute to the classic Bebop/Modern Jazz while doing it.



"The Look of Love" always goes over with the 60's generation, especially the ladies, it seems. I, of course, play it as a Piano Ballad from time to time, since I can't sing like Diana Krall:




While we are talking about the great Canadian jazz musicians like Diana, let's not overlook the fantastic Michael Buble, who has taken the Jazz Tenor Male Singer up two notches by covering a lot of the newer tunes. "Save the Last Dance for Me":



Hey, we got Harry Connick Jr. stateside. He covers 60s and newer songs as well as the older standards. Here he is doing Stevie Wonder's "For Once in My Life". That's fellow Pittsburgher Ned Gould sittin' the Alto Sax chair, he and I used to gig together in local bands we'd both likely rather not be mentioned today *grin*. (No, Mike plays the Tenor Solo here:




Don't forget about the R&B tunes, either, many of which were darn near jazz anyway, since many of the Studio Session Players of that era were actually Jazz Musicians hired to backup the singers when the sun was shining.

Here's Monty Alexander again, I Got My Mojo Workin'" which is also much the same as the other hit from the same era, "High Heel Sneakers" (And wear yo' wig hat on yo' head..."

Monty Alexander, John Clayton and Jeff Hamilton Swingin' HARD at KPLU FM NPR:



Hey, you can even cover a Radiohead tune, (!) here's "Creep" as a medium slow jazz piano ballad:



I don't think anyone would have ever known the name of Jim Morrison if it wasn't for Ray Manzarek, who, after all was first and foremost a jazz pianist. Almost any of the Doors tunes can work out as a jazz tune, give or take:



Same song makes a marvelous jazz minor performance for those into Gypsy Jazz:



Even Eric Clapton's tunes aren't safe from us jazzers. Note the use of an old standard as an Intro. That trick alone can be both fun, and the surprise of the audience always works - Duke Ellington's "In a Sentimental Mood" morphed into
Eric Clapton's "Layla" -note the audience response, I find this trick useful if not overdone in the same set:



If you can't figure out anything else that works with it, by all means try a Bossa. Here's "Bossa in Beatles" covering The Beatles' "Hear Comes the Sun" and advancing that particular method very well:



"Oh Darling" -- this is nuthin' but a Blooz tune, which to any experience jazzer means the sky's the limit on what can be done. Even as a Jazz Ballad w/female singer: (If a pianist knows their Chicago Blues Piano stuff, have at it as an instrumental!:



Some listings from my own setlist include:

Beatles' "Get Back" as piano jazz. (After all, that was Billy Preston on the track, right?)

"Killing Me Softly"

"Another One Bites the Dust" -- I save this one for when there is a savvy Tenor (or Bari!) Saxophonist on the gig.

Try The Door's "Light My Fire" as a piano ballad, being certain to play Manzarek's signature Organ Intro part to it, as that is when the audience recognition kicks in, judging from all the raised faces and interrupted conversations when I play it. Slow Ballad is my present usage. Works.

(Once I Found) A Secret Love may in actuality be slightly pre 60's tune, but for some reason is known to all and the song and its changes can work well in anything from Organ Trio to full on bigband, and in between.

"More Today Than Yesterday" - Works every time its played. This one is now a Jazz Organ Standard, covered by many of the greats, don't hesitate to make it happen on your own instrument.


Okay, that's enough, likely too much, hey, did I mention that I LIKE covering the more modern good tunes with usably good changes as Jazz? It is entirely about Audience Response.

Work 'em until you've attained Strong Performance and they will work well for you too.


--Mac

Here a few more:

Still Crazy
A Day In The Life of A Fool
Walk On By
All My Loving Smooth Bossa
Turn Me On - Norah Jones

Later,

'The Bad Plus' are the go-to piano trio specializing in modern day pop song covers.
They cover the whole spectrum of post 60's pop from Burt Bacharach to groups like Nirvana and even Abba.
Each song's melody is respected yet given a substantial makeover in a very modern post bop/fusion idiom which can sound by turns as Elegiac as anything by Bill Evans or else tricky and abstract and played with a decidedly rock sounding attack and physicality.

Their interpretations of well known tune are as revelatory as they are idiosyncratic and you should check out the samples of their work on Amazon or youtube.
A partial list of their cover versions includes

David Bowie : Life on Mars
Abba : Dancing Queen
Nirvana : Smells Like Teen Spirit
Burt Bacharach : This Guy's in Love with You
Rush : Tom Sawyer
Black Sabbath : Iron Man
Radiohead : Karma Police
Blondie : Heart Of Glass
Aphex Twin : Film
Tears for Fears : Everybody Wants to Rule The World
Longwave : Everywhere you Turn

Another artist in this vein is Brad Mehldau, one of the most gifted post-Bill Evans pianists of his generation. His covers are equally surprising in their source material but more within a typical Jazz piano trio vocabulary in their rendition. A partial list of his covers includes

Radiohead : Exit Music
Radiohead : Everything in Its Right Place
Radiohead : Paranoid Android
Sufjan Stevens : Holland
Neil Young : Harvest
The Beatles : Blackbird
Nick Drake : Things Behind the Sun
Nick Drake : River Man
Paul Simon : Still Crazy After All These Years


HTH

Alan

Brad is a bad dude alright.

Thanks for the headsup on 'The Bad Plus' Alan!


--Mac

FWIW, the Bad Plus are pretty hot on the indie/college music scene. Pitchfork magazine and all that.

Thanks for the replies. Great list ... and keep them coming!

Nice list, Mac.
If you go to jazz standards.com and sort their list by date, you get about 50 from the sixties and a handful from the seventies. Some of these the younger crowd won't be familiar with either but it' s a good selection (Bossa nova, Beatles, Stevie Wonder).

The Beatles, "She Came in The Bathroom Window" with a jazzy treatment. I think a performance like this would appeal right across generations.

Or how about taking an old standard and making it sound modern. Oh what strong and creative musicians can do.

Summertime

Check out what Cassandra Wilson did with "The Wichita Lineman" and "Last Train To Clarksville." She could sing the phone book and I'd listen.

Here's The Bad Plus doing their slow-burn jazz version of Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants To Rule The World", live from a club in Sydney. Take a look at the shots of the audience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9hOSZGMXlI

Mac-
that be Maurice White!

I am not sure that the premise of this topic is absolutely correct because I think a basic of appealing to a younger audience is that you have to change the rhythm to something more familiar. When you drop 'swing' from the format, it then becomes debatable as to whether you are still playing jazz.

For instance, perhaps the most successful big band we ever had in Australia was the Daly Wilson Big Band. Warren Daly was fond of saying something like, "We are not a 'swing' band. We are a big 'rock 'n roll' band!" That always made me smile because they had some of the best jazz musicians in the world in that band (James Morrison etc.) and it could swing like crazy when it wanted to. Ed Wilson is these days perhaps Australia's most successful arranger and his charts are played by all the youngsters in their High School big bands, jazz bands and stage bands. This is one of the original Daly Wilson Big Band Charts but played by a young band:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDDOUohc518

Is it jazz? I confess I sometimes have doubts but I love it nonetheless! We certainly have to interest the younger musicians if jazz is to survive.

And so I have personally used Band-in-a-Box to explore a lot of ways of playing tunes other than jazz standards, but still retaining the basic elements of jazz. One of the easiest ways is to play Smooth jazz, but a diet of music all played in that style bores me to tears. Great for sitting in a coffee shop or restaurant but for real jazz improvisation and excitement for a live audience, perhaps not. It is a dilemma for we jazz fans and musicians.

Anyway, that is enough soapboxing. Here is my list of suggestions:

Ain't No Sunshine by Bill Withers
The Air That I Breath by Albert Hammond & Mike Hazlewood
Always On My Mind by Thompson, James & Christopher
And I Love Her by Lennon and McCartney
And I Love You So by Don McClean
As Tears Go by Mick Jagger, Keith Riohard & Andrew Oldham
Better Be Home Soon by Neil Finn
Candle In The Wind by Bernie Taupin & Elton John
Can You Read My Mind by John Williams and Leslie Bricusse
Colour My World by James Pankow
Crazy by Willie Nelson
Crying by Roy Orbison & Bill Dees
Don't Cry Out Loud by Peter Allen & Carole Bayer Sager
Don't Know Why by Jesse Harris
Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight by James Taylor
Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying by Gerard Marsden, Les Chadwick & Les Maguire
Endless Love by Lionel Richie
Every Breath You Take by Sting
Every Time You Go Away by Daryl Hall
Have I Told You Lately by Van Morrison
He Ain't Heavy.. He's My Brother by Bobby Scott and Bob Russell
Hello by Lionel Richie
How Can You Mend A Broken Heart by Barry & Robin Gibb
How Deep Is Your Love by Barry, Robin & Maurice Gibb
I Don't Know How To Love Him by Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice
I'd Rather by Sorry by Kris Kristofferson
If by David Gates
If I Fell by Lennon & McCartney
If Tomorrow Never Comes by Kent Blazy & Garth Brooks
If You Leave Me Now by Peter Cetera
I'll Stand By You by Chrissie Hynde, Tom Kelly & Billy Steinberg
Imagine by John Lennon
In Dreams by Roy Orbison
In My Life by Lennon & McCartney
Just The Way You Are by Billy Joel
The Long And Winding Road by Lennon and McCartney
Long, Long Time by Gary B. White
Love Has No Pride by Eric Kaz & Libby Titus
My Love by Paul & Linda McCartney
On And On by Stephen Bishop
Please Don't Ask Me by Graham George Goble
She's Out Of My Life by Tom Bahler
Softly, As I Leave You by Hal Shaper & A. De Vita
Sweet, Sweet Love by Russell Morris
Tears In Heaven by Eric Clapton & Will Jennings
Through The Eyes Of Love by Marvin Hamlish & Carole Bayer Sager
True Love Ways by Norman Petty & Buddy Holly
Vincent by Don McLean
We're All Alone by Boz Scaggs
What I Did For Love by Marvin Hamlisch & Eward Kleban
While My Guitar Gently Weeps by George Harrison
Woman by John Lennon
Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton
Words by Gibbs Bros
World Without Love by Paul McCartney
You Are So Beautiful by Billy Preston & Bruce Fisher
You Are The Sunshine Of My Life by Stevie Wonder
You're The Inspiration by Peter Cetera & David Foster
You Needed Me by Randy Goodrum
You Raise Me Up by Rolf Lovland & Brendan Graham

Of course my taste in pop music might be a bit dated.

I also find that tunes played with a Latin rhythm (Bossa Nova, etc) tend to be liked by both old jazz fans and younger general audiences.

Then there is Funk and Ska with elements of pop and jazz built in.

Anything by Candi Dulfer would be great. Although she is more funk than jazz I believe we need more of this genre.



Edit - be sure to check out around the 30-45 minute range.