Fig 1: Ella Fitzgerald (voc).

Jazz Standard
One of a repertory of popular songs, principally from the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, used by jazz musicians as vehicles for improvisation.

[Example 1: "Body and Soul": Ella Fitzgerald]

Jazz standards are popular songs, principally from the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, which are frequently used by jazz musicians as vehicles for improvisation. Jazz standards are a subset of the pop song genre, and form a significant part of the shared repertory of most jazz artists. Of these songs, jazz musicians use the harmonies, the melodic content, and forms, as frameworks around which to construct their own improvised solos, group collaborations, and written arrangements.

[Example 2: "Body and Soul": Coleman Hawkins & His Orchestra (1939)]

Fig 2: Coleman Hawkins (tenor sax).

Jazz Standards originate in Tin Pan Alley (1910s and 20s), Broadway shows, and the Hollywood motion picture industry. Well known composers of standards include George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers, Jerome Kern, Hoagy Carmichael, and Jimmy Van Heusen. Many standards were among the most beloved pop songs of their day, even before jazz musicians "adopted" them. At the same time, they form a common catalog of material that binds together jazz musicians from the time of Louis Armstrong to the present.

Form : the Standard Ballad "My Funny Valentine"

The majority of jazz standards are cast in simple song forms, the most common of which are AABA and ABAB. The B section of a standard, especially one in AABA form, is commonly referred to as the bridge (or "middle-eight"). Often, the bridges of these songs will offer certain contrasts to the A sections, both melodically and harmonically.

Fig 3: Babes in Arms

The song "My Funny Valentine," from the 1937 Broadway musical Babes in Arms with lyrics by Lorenz Hart and music by Richard Rodgers, is, in these respects, a representative standard. "My Funny Valentine" belongs to a category known as the standard ballad: a slow song, generally of a romantic nature. Typically for the standard ballad, the main body of the song is preceded by a reflective, soliloquy-like introduction, commonly referred to as the verse. The verse goes like this:

[Example 3: "My Funny Valentine," Judy Blazer: Intro]

While vocal renditions of a standard ballad frequently begin with the verse, most instrumental performances will eliminate it and use only the main body of the song, known as the refrain, or the chorus. The chorus of "My Funny Valentine" is in AABA form. The lyrics of the first two A sections are shown below:

--Three lines of verse, so three phrases of melody. The first takes two tentative steps up, then wavers. The second repeats this; the third, after the same two steps, launches up a 5th, and slides partway back down. These three melodic phrases are next repeated, to form the second A section -- but all a 3rd higher. You can see this upward shift in the diagram below. Also distinctive is the slow descent of the bass line by half-steps at the beginning of each A section (also shown in the diagram).

[Example 4: "My Funny Valentine," Judy Blazer: Chorus, A1--A2]

Fig 4: "My Funny Valentine": A1 -- A2 melody and bass.

The B and final A sections of the lyrics have four lines each:

The B section -- the bridge -- contrasts strongly with the A sections, in two respects. First, it is in major, instead of minor. Second, the contour of the melody is quite different: the A sections moved by step, wavering, with one upward leap, now the B section features ever-widening leaps up and down -- a 4th, a 7th, an octave. Third, whereas the bass of the A sections descended chromatically (that is, all in half-steps), the bass of the bridge now ascends and then descends diatonically (in a mixture of whole and half steps).

 

Fig 5: "My Funny Valentine": B section.

The final A section is a remarkable transformation of the first two As: the wavering phrase rises through three occurrences, reaching the song's climax in the high register, and then falls back again, ending not in minor but in major.

[Example 5: "My Funny Valentine": Chorus, B--A3]

 

Fig 6: "My Funny Valentine": A3 section.

Jazz Performance of "My Funny Valentine"

Jazz performances of standards are often constructed as:

MELODY OF CHORUS (the head) -- IMPROVISATIONS OVER CHORD CHANGES (repeated choruses) -- MELODY (the head).

Usually, when a musician "takes a solo" (i.e. improvises), he or she will improvise over the harmonies of the entire song (i.e. the chord progression, or chord changes). When the soloist has reached the end of this, he will either continue on over the next chorus, or give way to another soloist. The soloist may improvise over several successive choruses. By contrast, a soloist may play just the first half of a chorus, and then give way at the midpoint. Regardless of where a soloist begins or ends the improvisation, the chord changes will repeat consistently.

Fig 7: Chet Baker (tpt) and Gerry Mulligan (bar.sax).

A good example of this process is the performance of "My Funny Valentine" by the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, with Chet Baker, recorded in 1953. As is often the case with jazz performance of standards, the tune is here treated with melodic and rhythmic flexibility. Trumpet player Chet Baker offers a free rendering of the tune. You will recognize all the tune's basic characteristics: the two upward steps, the wavering, and the essential leaps.

This recording employs no chordal instruments, such as piano or guitar; so, by listening to the bass player alone you can hear a clear outlining of the chord progressions that are central to the tune's identity, in the chromatic descents of the A sections (played in the upper register), and the diatonic ascents and descents of the B section. (The tempo in this performance is extremely slow.)

[Example 6: "My Funny Valentine": entire first chorus: Chet Baker (tpt) -- Gerry Mulligan (bar sax)]

Fig 8: Girl Crazy.

Form : the Up-tempo Standard : "I Got Rhythm"

A standard of the non-ballad type is "I Got Rhythm," with lyrics and music by Ira and George Gershwin. One of the most widely played up-tempo standards, this song comes from the 1930 Broadway musical Girl Crazy, of which the 1943 Hollywood movie featured Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra.

[Example 7: "I Got Rhythm": Chorus: Judy Garland, Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (1943)]

Like "My Funny Valentine," this chorus is cast in AABA form and preceded by a verse. Again, the B section strongly contrasts with the A section. At the outset, it leaps to a remote key, distancing itself from the A section, and then works its way steadily back home. Furthermore, its constituent phrases are quite different in contour (turning up, then leaping down) from those of the A section.

Fig 9: "I Got Rhythm": phrase contours.

The jump into a remote key at the beginning of the B section is so prominent that when jazz musicians improvise in fast tempo over the chord-changes of "I Got Rhythm" it acts as an aural "sign post," telling performers and listeners alike where they are in the form.

Jazz Performance of "I Got Rhythm"

Fig 10: Sonny Stitt (tenor sax).

In his 1972 recording of this standard, the tenor saxophonist Sonny Stitt surprises us by starting at this sign post, and playing the B section followed by the A3 section. He does this, moreover, at half tempo. That done, he then doubles his starting speed, and plays a full chorus (AABA) at the more customary fast tempo. Listen carefully for the return of the B section at fast tempo: it is highlighted by a burst of drums, then a brighter cymbal sound.

[Example 8: "I Got Rhythm": half-head, first chorus: Sonny Stitt (sax), B. Harris (piano), S. Jones (bass), A. Dawson (drums)]

In jazz performances, the identity of jazz standards is not always immediately apparent to the uninitiated listener: throughout the history of jazz, musicians have taken delight in manipulating, altering, and concealing standards as a mode of expression. In this respect, "I Got Rhythm" occupies a special place within the jazz musician's repertory. Of all the jazz standards, this is the one most often played without its original melody!

"I Got Rhythm" has appeared in numerous guises in jazz performances, usually with another melody superimposed upon the original harmonies. Jazz artists have come to refer to improvising on the chord progression of "I Got Rhythm" without playing the tune (the "head") at the beginning, as "playing Rhythm Changes." As a vehicle for jazz improvisation, the chord progression of "I Got Rhythm" is second only to the Blues progression in importance.

Fig 11: Dizzy Gillespie (tpt).

Perhaps the most famous superimposition of a new melody upon Rhythm Changes is "Anthropology," by Dizzie Gillespie. The melody of "Anthropology" moves more rapidly and continuously than the original "I Got Rhythm" melody, and has different contours. But underneath, the chord-changes are quite recognizable.

[Example 9: "Anthropology": Gillespie (tpt), Milt Jackson (vibraphone), D. Byas (sax), Al Haig (pno), B. De Arango (guitar), Ray Brown (bass), J.C.Hurd (drums)]

Interestingly, the theme from the Hanna-Barbara cartoon series The Flintstones is also built on "Rhythm Changes"!

Some composers of standards in addition to those named earlier are: Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Frederick Loewe, and Harold Arlen.

A few popular songs originating outside the strictly American tradition have also become jazz standards. Examples of such songs from South America and Europe are "The Girl from Ipanema", "Triste", and "Wave" (all by the Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim), "Who Can I Turn To," and "What Kind of Fool Am I" (by the English songwriters Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricuse), and "Watch What Happens," and "Once upon a Summertime" (by French composer Michel Legrand).

Fig 12: Antonio Carlos Jobim (composer).

Standards form a large part of the jazz musician's repertory, alongside two other broad categories. Jazz compositions are tunes composed by jazz artists specifically for use in the jazz context -- tunes such as "Round Midnight" by Thelonious Monk and "Giant Steps" by John Coltrane. The term Blues refers more to a style of playing and to certain chord progressions than it does to specific melodies, its most common form being the 12-bar blues, in which tonic--subdominant--tonic--dominant--and tonic chords (I--IV--I--V--I) alternate.

[Example 10: "The Girl from Ipanema" (Jobim): Astrud Gilberto (voc), S. Getz (tsax), A. C. Jobim (pno), J. Gilberto (guitar), T. Williams (bass), M. Banan (drums)]

Summary:

• Jazz standard denotes a popular song, principally from the 1930s, 40s, or 50s, frequently used by jazz musicians as a basis for improvisation.
• The majority of jazz standards are cast in simple song forms, the most common being AABA and ABAB.
• Most jazz performers improvise only over the chorus (or refrain) of a song.
• The harmonies, or chord progression, of such a chorus are often called the chord-changes.
• The typical form in which jazz musicians improvise over a standard is: Head (the melody) -- Choruses (a succession of improvisations over the chord-changes) -- Head.
• Most jazz standards come from Tin Pan Alley, Broadway musicals or Hollywood motion pictures, written by such composers as Irving Berlin and George Gershwin.
• A few standards come from the popular song traditions of South America and Europe.

Copyright © Columbia University, Visual & Sound Materials from the Gabe M. Wiener Music & Arts Library of Columbia University
Jazz Standard written by: Dale Wilson Recording & Mixing: Christopher Bailey	Narration: Mark Burford Technology & Design: Maurice Matiz