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

Haha, great stuff Frownland :)

I can't remember hearing these before, but I quite like them. Drunken.. was fun.

Thelonious wrote Epistrophy, you might have heard that one through him



Summertime's an obvious one that I'll go ahead and get out of the way. I'm partial to Ayler's passionate take on it.



Lonely Woman is an unlikely standard imo because the original performance is such a high watermark for the tune but here we are. Otomo Yoshihide made an EP of solo, duo, trio, and so on performances of the standard that worked out pretty excellently.

Yes, I've heard Monk's Epistrophy, probably a few versions. I have listened to that album by Ornette Coleman too.. It's actually the only one of his that I've checked out as it's regarded such as classic. Yoshihide's version's not for me, in part because there are sounds in there that remind me of my tinnitus :laughing:

Summertime is such a popular standard. I like it, but it's not actually high on my list. I do think it's interesting how the song's musically quite sad while the lyrics seem positive. My current favorite is Billie Holiday's version, but again.. I like other songs more.

I actually wanted to watch Porgy and Bess one day, but I've yet to hunt down a version of it. This is a good reminder.

^That's the biggest saxophone I've seen. Sounds like a boat horn.

I'll do one for Aquarela do brasil, also known simply as Brazil. It's a song thats been dear to me for a long time, longer than I've been here. The reason is I've been a huge Monty Python fan since childhood and am, of course, also a fan of MP's animator and since then director Terry Gilliam.

In the 80s, Terry Gilliam did his own spin on Orwell's 1984 and made a dystopian sci-fi movie about a stifling future society in which bureaucracy has gone a little mad. The movie's protagonist is Sam Lowry, an unfortunate man oppressed by his work, his mother, even his friends. The only place he is free is in his dreams in which he can fly, fight monsters and try to save the woman he loves. Along with imagery, Gilliam also used the jazz standard Brazil to symbolize Sam's hopes and dreams and freedom that he yearns for, but never seem able to achieve.

The movie has a score by Michael Kamen and while Brazil makes various appearances, the most notable version of it features none other than Kate Bush (!) on vocals. So this is my first meeting with Brazil:




Of course, I later learned that the song was penned by brazilian composer Ary Barroso in 1939. According to legend, it was a wet day and Ary Barroso was watching the rain on his window pane and how the raindrops turned the world into a watercolor painting, hence the title Aquarela do Brasil, Aquarela being watercolor.

The song was popularized in the US through the Disney movie Saludos Amigos from 1942. This was during the second world war and some countries in latin America had close ties with the nazi regime. To counteract this, the US government commissioned a friendship tour from Disney as their characters were popular in latin America. Saludos Amigos is some of the lasting results of this and, as such, was made to strengthen ties between South America and the US.

The movie has a clip which features animation set to Barroso's Aquarela do Brasil, here sung by Aloysio Oliveira. It's a nice version with Tico Tico following it.




Various other versions exist by artists such as Carlos Antonio Jobim and Joao Gilberto. A rather popular, more lavish and kinda cheesy big band version by Ray Conniff can be seen below.

jazz standard?

Sure. Anyone you like?

I’m referring to your watercolors of “Brazil” selection.
I thought the thread was about jazz standards.

Check the list under A (Aquarela do Brasil): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_jazz_standards

I’m still skeptical, but OK, carry on...

I predicted that there might be some contention about what constitutes a standard, f.ex. possible criteria to how it's been published or not.

I think for the purposes of a thread on a forum, a lenient definition that enables music discussion rather than stifte it, is preferable.

Hence, I think the Wikipedia list of standards is just fine for this sort of thing.

Just reviving this thread with a quick posting of Girl from Ipanema. The Frank Sinatra recording feat. Carlos Antonio Jobim is of course hugely popular.

No surprise really <3

Got that Jobim & Sinatra album, great choice. Unfortunately can't post links before reaching 15.

Água de Beber is also in that list you provided. There's a great version singed by Astrud Gilberto.

Sonny Crib Mono

McCoy Tyner - Passion Dance

Was waiting to get enough posts to post a video, but since it doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon: love Anita O'Day's version of Old Devil Moon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkMkTE4s7ts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGz03kMbZdk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWUoX2M8riA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8cFdZyWOOs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g19AixJ6_w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6CZKVGSb1E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=567auA7bQlc


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXw-vcfxO5A

Very nice, Melon :)

When I think of Groucho Marx, I am often reminded of this very funny song:



Marx is extremely nasal and so on, so I prefer this 1939 version by Rudy Valee.



The lyrics (which may vary depending on version) are always a treat:

Oh Lydia, oh, Lydia, say have you met Lydia
Oh, Lydia, the tattooed lady
She has eyes that folks adore so
And a torso even more so

Lydia, oh, Lydia, that encyclopedia
Oh, Lydia, the queen of them all
On her back is the Battle of Waterloo
Beside it the Wreck of the Hesperus too
And proudly above the waves
The Red, White and Blue
You can learn a lot from Lydia

La la la la la la
La la la la la la

She can give you a view of the world
In tattoo if you step up and tell her where
For a dime you can see Kankakee or Paree
Or Washington crossing the Delaware

La la la la la la
La la la la la la

Oh, Lydia, oh, Lydia, say have you met Lydia
Oh, Lydia, the tattooed lady
When her muscles start relaxin'
Up the hill comes Andrew Jackson

Lydia, oh, Lydia, that encyclopedia
Oh, Lydia, the champ of them all
For two bits she will do a Mazurka in Jazz
With a view of Niagara that no artist has
And on a clear day you can see Alcatraz
You can learn a lot from Lydia

La la la la la la
La la la la la la

Come along and see Buffalo Bill with his lasso
Just a little classic by Mendel Picasso
Here is Captain Spaulding exploring the Amazon
And Godiva, but with her pajamas on

La la la la la la
La la la la la la

Oh Lydia, oh, Lydia, say have you met Lydia
Oh, Lydia, the tattooed lady
When she stands, her laps go littler
When she sits, she sits on Hitler
Lydia, oh, Lydia, that encyclopedia
Oh, Lydia, the queen of them all

She once swept an Admiral clear off his feet
The ships on her hips made his heart skip a beat
And now the old boy's in command of the fleet
For he went and married Lydia
I said Lydia (he said Lydia)
I say Lydia (we said Lydia)
La la

I thought it would be off-topic, but was surprised to find it in Wikipedia's list of jazz standards, so I guess that's alright :)

I heard he invited the band Queen to his house one day and singed that music for them. He has some great songs, don't know how many became jazz standards though.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29E6GbYdB1c

Already posted Quoth the Raven from the movie Ghost Catchers, by also vaudevillian comedians Ole Olson and Chic Johnson, neither them nor the movie nor the musicians involved retained the popularity of the MB though, even Ella Mae Morse has been somewhat forgotten. It features several other tunes, including by singer Gloria Jean and Morton Downey.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2P5dCjHgjU

Not to digress from the main topic here are two different versions of the same standard, also immortalized in a movie, I think. Heard a child's toy playing the melody today:


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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGUyy348pC0

Don't know why, the first always sounds like a precursor of acid jazz.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn8SYV2RdBY


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSkBIn_be6c