Which movie/musical delivered the most jazz standards?

[David Ayers]

Just a note in passing that the comparative lack of protection in copyright law for performers as opposed to composers was related to the desire to stop performers claiming credit for material they had jazzed up. A lot followed from that, not least the constant debates here about PD. Hence our sense that improvisers have done a lot with the material they play, as opposed to the law's sense that all they did was play something written by someone else. Hence the over-use of new compositions, often on standard changes, on studio LPs, and the thankful presence of so many standards by the same musicians on live bootlegs. If I understand the history correctly.

[Chuck Nessa]

Has anyone mentioned Potemkin?

[JSngry]

Or that Porgy and Bess is an opera?

[danasgoodstuff]

My fav musical is Finian's Rainbow, but it has only 4 or 5 standards, and that's probably a stretch. But if I was going to do an album of a musical that would be the one, maybe I'd pad it out with other music, say political folksongs...

[JSngry]

Am I wrong in remembering that it was the crossover-hit-success of Shelley Manne's album of tunes from My Fair Lady that started the whole trend of "Jazz Versions Of Songs From..." concept albums?

[David Ayers]

I guess I'd be interested to learn more about the dynamics of the 'standard'. It is one thing to cover a song in the moment when it is popular. Another to cover it once it has ceased to be current but remans recognisable. Another again to cover it when it is little-remembered. Another, even, again, to do as Sinatra and Rollins did in their different ways and restore to their own songbook - and thereby to that of others - songs which are long-forgotten. Of course, many popular songs adopted as standards by jazz musicians are now no longer well-known at all as songs. I wonder if anyone has written even a brief history of this?

[BillF]

I guess I'd be interested to learn more about the dynamics of the 'standard'. It is one thing to cover a song in the moment when it is popular. Another to cover it once it has ceased to be current but remans recognisable. Another again to cover it when it is little-remembered. Another, even, again, to do as Sinatra and Rollins did in their different ways and restore to their own songbook - and thereby to that of others - songs which are long-forgotten. Of course, many popular songs adopted as standards by jazz musicians are now no longer well-known at all as songs. I wonder if anyone has written even a brief history of this?

You could try this:

[David Ayers]

I guess I'd be interested to learn more about the dynamics of the 'standard'. It is one thing to cover a song in the moment when it is popular. Another to cover it once it has ceased to be current but remans recognisable. Another again to cover it when it is little-remembered. Another, even, again, to do as Sinatra and Rollins did in their different ways and restore to their own songbook - and thereby to that of others - songs which are long-forgotten. Of course, many popular songs adopted as standards by jazz musicians are now no longer well-known at all as songs. I wonder if anyone has written even a brief history of this?

You could try this:

Hm - you might be right. The book is unimaginatively conceived (songs in alphabetical order of title, so not really any kind of history), but some of the information I am wondering about could be read off from it...

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I guess I'd be interested to learn more about the dynamics of the 'standard'. It is one thing to cover a song in the moment when it is popular. Another to cover it once it has ceased to be current but remans recognisable. Another again to cover it when it is little-remembered. Another, even, again, to do as Sinatra and Rollins did in their different ways and restore to their own songbook - and thereby to that of others - songs which are long-forgotten. Of course, many popular songs adopted as standards by jazz musicians are now no longer well-known at all as songs. I wonder if anyone has written even a brief history of this?

You could try this:

Hm - you might be right. The book is unimaginatively conceived (songs in alphabetical order of title, so not really any kind of history), but some of the information I am wondering about could be read off from it...

That's a problem with lots of stuff that perforce gets an encyclopaedic approach, because publishers and writers don't really know in how many ways it can be used. People should write these books as spreadsheets or databases so they could be sorted into whatever order is interesting (or include one on CDR to go with the book). I spent months and months copying Joel Whitburn's R&B and pop singles and album charts and Galen Gart's Record label directory onto spreadsheets so I could look at stuff historically, or by record label/company, or even region, for early post-war music.

MG

[AllenLowe]

to me the dynamics of the standard are harmonic - the motion of the chords and the way in which this motion effects melody; I do think it's a lost art in jazz, and few jazz composers today truly understand how it's done (I deal with a fair amount of these questions in Mulatto Radio; see the notes and the song Love is a Memory; also, Other Bodys, Other Souls). Jazz post-1945 was overwhelming affected by the '20s Broadway song. Duke of course was looking at this prior to that date, and Bud, Monk and Mingus built their compositional sytems on the standard.

Dick Katz told me how the post-swing era change was largely an adjustment of repertoire; Bill Crow has said that the pianist that he remembers as codifiying the reharmonization of these old tunes was Al Haig, though by the time I heard this it was too late to talk with Haig about it. But it makes sense.

Edited January 24, 2015 by AllenLowe

[Jim R]

Am I wrong in remembering that it was the crossover-hit-success of Shelley Manne's album of tunes from My Fair Lady that started the whole trend of "Jazz Versions Of Songs From..." concept albums?

A concept so successful that he tried it twice (although the second one had a different format). I'm interested in knowing the answer to this also. Don't see any pre-'56 examples in my collection, but even if there had been examples that preceded it, I would guess that this one really got the ball rolling.

[johnblitweiler]

Am I wrong in remembering that it was the crossover-hit-success of Shelley Manne's album of tunes from My Fair Lady that started the whole trend of "Jazz Versions Of Songs From..." concept albums?

A concept so successful that he tried it twice (although the second one had a different format). I'm interested in knowing the answer to this also. Don't see any pre-'56 examples in my collection, but even if there had been examples that preceded it, I would guess that this one really got the ball rolling.

One of the first 2 jazz LPs I bought in my life, at age 18. I still have a lingering fondness for some of Previn's arrangements.

[mikeweil]

What about West Side Story?

There are many tunes from many shows that were played by jazz musicians at some time or another, but I think only tune that was widely used deserves this attribution. In that sense, Porgy and Bess may be the winner. Perhaps a look at the first fake books ('The Real Book') will provide an assumption, becasue there you can find the tunes that were done real often, that you had to know to play a gig with little or no rehearsal.