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Jazz Standards you shouldn't do


Bilbo
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Prompted by responses to the guy who is gooing to play jazz at the Jazz Cafe.....

Some jazz standards are just sickeningly over played and almost always suck. OK, I accept that it is still possible to do something creative with them if you are Iain Ballamy but, in the main, these 'evergreens' keep appearing at jam sessions etc being played badly by people that can't play. I have heard (and played) them all a million times but now refuse to play them (really, I do). Its the jazz equivalent of 'James Galway plays The Beatles'. So I am starting a campaign to have them banned.

The offending tunes are:

Fever
Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
Canteloupe Island
Watermelon Man
Summertime
Mac The Knife
Tenor Madness


Please feel free to add any jazz standards you consider banal, boring or just bad. I get the last say :)

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[quote name='chris_b' post='241011' date='Jul 16 2008, 04:10 PM']Isn't Iain Ballamy in the Archers?[/quote]
I know he was in Earthworks with Django Bates, not sure what he's up to these days.

Anyone mentioned [i]All Of Me[/i] yet? [i]Take The A Train[/i], or [i]The Lady Is A Tramp[/i]? I still like [i]Linus and Lucy[/i], [i]Goodbye Pork Pie Hat[/i] and [i]Take Five[/i], but I can imagine some people getting tired of them.

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[quote name='jakesbass' post='241081' date='Jul 16 2008, 05:12 PM']Can't agree, it's got the best middle section in the real book. If you can make a really good improvisation in that section you can really play.[/quote]

I love Ipanima too! Great number!

One I hate to death is Dancing Cheek to Cheek. Bloody despicable.

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God I am worried now!!!

My band plays two of those in our set - Mercy,Mercy,Mercy and Watermelon Man. Mind you the Mercy is done in the Morrissey Mullen style ie very quick and with some rip roaring keys and sax solos and Watermelon Man is done in the Headhunters style which has a real groove and a dirty funk bass sound courtesy of my EBS Bass IQ!!!

If they were in the standard jazz style then yes I think they might be classed as PAP.

What about Nature Boy?

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='240952' date='Jul 16 2008, 03:23 PM']Prompted by responses to the guy who is gooing to play jazz at the Jazz Cafe.....

Some jazz standards are just sickeningly over played and almost always suck. OK, I accept that it is still possible to do something creative with them if you are Iain Ballamy but, in the main, these 'evergreens' keep appearing at jam sessions etc being played badly by people that can't play. I have heard (and played) them all a million times but now refuse to play them (really, I do). Its the jazz equivalent of 'James Galway plays The Beatles'. So I am starting a campaign to have them banned.

The offending tunes are:

Fever
Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
Canteloupe Island
Watermelon Man
Summertime
Mac The Knife
Tenor Madness


Please feel free to add any jazz standards you consider banal, boring or just bad. I get the last say :)[/quote]

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[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='241008' date='Jul 16 2008, 04:08 PM']- Sketchy Trombone[/quote]

Oh come on!! Turnham Green and his Young Jazz Lido do a fantastic version of this. I can't believe anyone would hate that tune the way they play it....

Edited by Old Horse Murphy
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Mine are Take 5 and So what (along with a load mentioned already)....

I really like autumn leaves tho, so cant agree with that. Admitadly the way most people play it sucks to high heaven, but if it really swings and doesn't have those god awful cheesy stabs in (ala Cannonball...) it really is a tune :-)

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[quote name='aj5string' post='241123' date='Jul 16 2008, 05:56 PM']Mine are Take 5 and So what (along with a load mentioned already)....[/quote]

If you play just the bassline, its tedious but I tend to play the chords and bassline just to fatten it up a bit. Very do-able with just a piano and drums. ERB is a great instrument to play in jazz trios!

My list of tedious covers includes:
Basin Street Blues (and a lot of other Dixie)
On Broadway
All Of Me
Green Dolphin Street
Watch What Happens

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Heh, we play Summertime and Fever in my Jazz band, we do pretty unique and entertaining versions of them though and our singer does such a good job of those two that even with a midi backing track they'd probably still be amazing.

One Jazz song that I don't specifically hate but do find quite boring to play is 'Fly Me To The Moon', a lot of singers seem to like it but to me it just feels very average.. generic chords, generic melody, generic lyrics etc. plus you always end up playing it in 4/4 because thats the time sig that all the singers learn it in.

Edited by Oscar South
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[quote name='Oscar South' post='241155' date='Jul 16 2008, 06:44 PM']One Jazz song that I don't specifically hate but do find quite boring to play is 'Fly Me To The Moon', a lot of singers seem to like it but to me it just feels very average.. generic chords, generic melody, generic lyrics etc. plus you always end up playing it in 4/4 because thats the time sig that all the singers learn it in.[/quote]
That one is on my list to learn for playing the chords, harmony and melody on the Shuker 6 when its finished.

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[quote name='jakesbass' post='241081' date='Jul 16 2008, 05:12 PM']Can't agree, it's got the best middle section in the real book. If you can make a really good improvisation in that section you can really play.[/quote]

Love the tune.
But i am amazed how many people still get lost in the middle :huh:

Blue bossa gets done to death.
Fly me to the moon...Just " I will survive" really :) :huh:

Garry

Edited by lowdown
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I'm really not into jazz at all, but our ex-keyboard player has decided he is and tried to get me interested in a jam session. Proposed pieces included 'Summertime' and 'Fly Me to the Moon'. I think he got his 'Summertime' from 'Gershwin Made Easy', because the most complex chord in it was D minor. But then I based my 'Fly Me to the Moon' on The Shadows' version, which I don't think went down too well. He hasn't asked again.

In our rock band, he wanted to do 'Smoke on the Water', which we did, usually as a very drunk encore. And 'Stairway to Heaven', which we didn't.

There's a good version of 'Summertime' by Leslie West :)

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