In need of jazz song suggestions

Monkeyswithladders

Monkeyswithladders

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Bonjourno!

If any of you feel up to helping me make a set list, I'm searching for suggestions of jazz standards I should learn. I would really appreciate any suggestions :)

I was asked to play at an Art Gallery this February and am too self-loathing of a singer to attempt any uke/vocal songs, so my new project is arranging a bunch of chord/melody jazz standards for ukulele and am going to start practicing a ton. It's been a ball getting started over the last few days, and is been by far the most difficult playing I've attempted on ukulele. I'm really liking the push to do something harder and different than what I'm used to though.

So far I've tabbed out:
Epistrophy by Thelonious Monk
Fly Me to the Moon by Bart Howard
and Girl Talk by Neal Hefti

I might also use a melody tab of Here Comes the Sun and Somewhere Over the Rainbow I found online, so they really don't specifically have to be jazz. Just something cool that you'd expect to hear as you walk around a gallery viewing fine art :)

Oh, and when I'm done I'll definitely scan my arrangements and share them with the community, but it might take a bit for me to figure them out, tab them, and then revise them for what works. The Thelonious Monk piece was a B to get on our beloved little instrument, lol.
 
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The tracklist of Willie Nelson's Stardust album is a great place to start.

Stardust
Georgia On My Mind
Blue Skies
All of Me
Unchained Melody
September Song
On the Sunny Side of the Street
Moonlight in Vermont
Don't Get Around Much Anymore
Someone to Watch Over Me
Scarlet Ribbons
I Can See Clearly Now
 
Man, there are so many good ones out there! For starters...

  • Body and Soul
  • My Funny Valentine
  • All of Me
  • Any Gershwin, such as:
    • Summertime
    • I Got Rhythm
    • They Can't Take That Away From Me
  • Any Cole Porter, such as:
    • I Get a Kick Out of You
    • So In Love
    • Night and Day
    • I Concentrate on You
  • Any Jobim, such as:
    • Desafinado
    • Corcovado
    • Girl From Ipanema
    • Wave
  • Misty
  • Skylark
  • Any Rogers & Hart...
  • Days of Wine and Roses
  • Round Midnight
  • How High the Moon

Yeah, these are more "Great American Songbook" jazz than they are Be-Bop shredding tunes. But if you're playing for an audience, I say play stuff they know and like and want to hear.

JJ
 
More thoughts:

My comments about playing songs people "know and like" was based on a standard art galley audience of mostly "normal" consumers of music. Obviously there may be situations/audiences where busting out "Donna Lee" or "Peaches en Regalia" would be the perfect thing to do. :D

What makes something "jazz" isn't the song itself. It's the way the song is played. Heck, most of the jazz standards were originally just regular old Broadway show tunes that were jazzed-up. When Miles Davis plays a Cyndi Lauper song, or Coltrane plays something from "The Sound of Music", they make it jazz. But you can also play "Salt Peanuts" in a manner so square that it bears no relation to jazz.

JJ
 
Ukulele JJ said:
Man, there are so many good ones out there! For starters...
Click to expand...

Please let me know when the Ukulele JJ album with these songs comes out...:love:
 
wow, thanks for all the suggestions you guys! I'll be busy listening to all of those over the next few days!

As for the nature of what I'm doing, I don't think it's a "show" as in like an area with an audience coming to see me. When they asked me to play they seemed to want that (but they haven't seen or heard anything of me other than that I play ukulele). I declined saying that I probably wouldn't be the best for that kind of act, but if they wanted to set up a small stage in the gallery for me to play background music on an event night as people walked around, I'd be glad to do so. So that's what I think I'm doing.

As for jazz itself, I spent about a year listening to a ton of jazz (kicked off by a jazz appreciation course) and was really into musicians like Thelonious Monk, Jelly Roll Morton, Dizzy Gilespie, Charlie Parker... but I never "got out" into any jazz circles to know what songs other people recognize or enjoy, and slowly over time stopped buying jazz albums altogether- so my knowledge on popular jazz is pretty stale. So JJ, you kind of hit the nail on the head when you remarked on what people know and love. The thing is that I know what kinds of songs I know and love, but have no idea what the more common and popular jazz standards are so that people walking by might recognize a tune and smile while they're there:)
 
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11858836

This fellow's given me a measure of inspiration.. www.allaboutjazz.com is also a fantastic resource.

That said, I'd repeat the sentiment that jazz is never inherent in a composition. It's in the fingers, man! If you really get into it, a lot of cats just rip the heads off old standards and reharmonize them, or stick a new melody on an old set of changes. Love it like jazz. It's divine, it's asinine, it's depressing and it's almost certainly window dressing..
 
Sweet Georgia Brown

Stormy Weather

Makin' Whoopee

Ain't Misbehavin'

Only a Paper Moon
 
I might suggest just going ahead and investing in some books like the Standards Real Books which have a goodly variety of stuff with the changes and alternate chords as played by musicians and more than a few songs you'd recognize but might not immediately occur to you. The one I've been working my way through when I need something new has stuff from Fats Waller to Ellington to Henry Mancini (I was working out "Days of Wine and Roses" just yesterday. Just a gorgeous tune.) and tons of stuff I know from Sinatra records.

You'd also probably want a really good chord book to go with it too. It's been a great way to learn cool songs and all kinds of 11ths, 13ths and long ass compound chords full of Flat 5ths and Sharp 9ths.

I personally find it is entirely worth making the investment in the book with the actual chords for something over spending a lot of time fixing internet tabs.

I'd also love to see how you worked out "Epistrophy" if you wanna share....
 
great source for jazz songs

Glen Rose has two great little jazz books that are well worth the money, teach you about common jazz patterns, chords, voicing and give you a total of about fifteen very nice song. You can contact him at glenrose88@yahoo.com or I believe his website is jazzyuke. Anyway, look him up. He also shows how to use fake books.
 
Ukulele JJ said:
More thoughts:

My comments about playing songs people "know and like" was based on a standard art galley audience of mostly "normal" consumers of music. Obviously there may be situations/audiences where busting out "Donna Lee" or "Peaches en Regalia" would be the perfect thing to do. :D

What makes something "jazz" isn't the song itself. It's the way the song is played. Heck, most of the jazz standards were originally just regular old Broadway show tunes that were jazzed-up. When Miles Davis plays a Cyndi Lauper song, or Coltrane plays something from "The Sound of Music", they make it jazz. But you can also play "Salt Peanuts" in a manner so square that it bears no relation to jazz.

JJ
Click to expand...

Sorry to veer off topic here, but I feel compelled to say that the way Gillespie takes the bridge on Salt Peanuts is one of the most joyous moments in music, ever.
 
On A Clear Day (ever since I was blown away by a tenor sax man under the Chicago el tracks playing that tune, and for only $1)
 
Lyle Ritz is indeed an artist you should check out!

Mr. Sandman, Whispering and Sweet Georgia Brown generally work well. There's some Django Reinhardt uke tabs out there as well that you could sneak in.
 
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