Our favorite jazz standards
 

Shake your jazz hands, lumpy.

I thought it would be nice to share our favorite jazz standards with each other. I'm sure there are lots you like. There's a lot I like.

If you're unsure what songs are considered standards, you can check out this list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_jazz_standards

Something fun about jazz standards is that they've often been recorded numerous times. Hence, I think a good format could be one standard per post and then perhaps a showcase of various recordings you like if more than one exists. However, it's just a suggestion so also feel free to post however you like.

To start, I present Time on My Hands. The song is from 1930 from a musical Smiles that I think is mostly forgotten. Many recorded versions of this song exist by people like Keith Jarrett, Glenn Miller and Django Reinhardt.

Here are some of my favorite recordings:



I'm a big fan of Billie Holiday so I'll say already that I'm sorry for posting her so much. She sings a lot of standards and those versions are typically great :)




Hot Club de Norvege is a relatively obscure band, but the people in it are highly important to the modern expression and continuation of the gypsy jazz genre as they've, in addition to being musicians, have worked with festivals and been on the production and publishing side of things with their Hot Club Records label which has put out artists like Jimmy Rosenberg.

As such, this is a more Djangoish version and quite laidback for the genre.




Even more laidback, here's Chet Baker and Bill Evans. I heard this from an album Alone Together which was released some years ago and this was one of the standout tracks for me. The atual recordings are from 1959, I believe.


So now you've seen mine. Let me see yours!

Is a guy brush a penis?

Actually, it is a guy drawn with a computerized paintbrush. A version of him has been my avatar for years and years.

Now get out of here, you beast.

Wouldn't that be brushguy?

No. Guybrush Threepwood to be exact. He's also he protagonist of the Monkey Island games franchise.

So what about those jazz standards?

So the fact that he's drawn with a computerized brush is actually incidental.

Yes, much like your posts.

So what's a jazz standard you like?

I don't have anything to say about jazz standards.

Alright.. I hope this thread will develop into something that you will find interesting :) and that it won't just be me posting standards in here. I guess we'll see.

I'll go on and post I Loves You, Porgy. It's a Gershwin tune from the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. In this song, Bess professes her love for Porgy and begs him to save her from her abusive lover, Crown.

I've heard a few different versions including the earliest recording, I believe, but none quite come close to Nina Simone's version (not even Lady Day's), so that's the only one I'm posting. She manages this perfect blend of blend of despair and hope and beautiful music that just makes it such a classic.

stfu batlord

Epistrophy's where it's at



I'm Confessin' is one of my favourite melodies period.



And Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise sparked these two gems