Jonah Dempcy

 

Great Info on Jazz Standards

This site has a lot of great information on jazz standards: www.jazzstandards.com

This is useful both for knowing the legality of playing/recording/releasing a song (i.e. whether the song is in the public domain or not) as well as for historical and research purposes.

There is also a ranking system which ostensibly ranks a jazz standard by popularity. I'm not sure how this is determined, whether it is by looking at sheer number of recordings of that song or if other factors are taken into account. But, it is interesting and seems at least generally accurate&emdash; that is, songs in the top 100 are obviously more popular than those ranked 800 or 900 &emdash; but I'm not sure if I agree that Body and Soul is more popular than All the Things You Are. Here are the top 10 according to jazzstandards.com:

Rank

Year

Title  <- Sort contents by clicking on heading

1	1930	Body and Soul		C		J	R	S	A	O
2	1939	All the Things You Are		C	M	J	R	S	A	O
3	1935	Summertime		C		J	R	S	A	O
4	1944	'Round Midnight		C	M	J	R	S	A	O
5	1935	I Can't Get Started (with You)		C	M	J	R	S	A	O
6	1937	My Funny Valentine		C	M	J	R	S	A	O
7	1942	Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be)		C	M	J	R	S	A	O
8	1930	What Is This Thing Called Love?		C	M	J	R	S	A	O
9	1933	Yesterdays		C	M	J	R	S	A	O
10	1946	Stella By Starlight		C		J	R	S	A	O

Source: www.jazzstandards.com

 

Different Lands

Different Lands is an interesting independent record label primarily focusing on world fusion, but releasing music ranging from acoustic improvisation to electronic music (curiously referred to as "computer music" on their site). There are MP3 downloads so you can hear samples of the tracks.

The Different Lands links page has some good sites for more info about world music, electronic music, independent record labels and other topics.

 

Press Release Submission on All About Jazz

For all you jazz musicians out there, next time you have a release, make sure to post it on AllAboutJazz.com. You can use this handy form:

• All About Jazz press release submission form

 

Listen to the Real Book:

This is an excellent idea: Someone has gone through and taken the index of tunes from the "bootleg" Real Book we have all grown to know and love, and <em>linked the songs to MP3 samples</em> via Amazon.com. Great idea and a highly useful tool for learning new tracks. I used to check Amazon (well, CDNow.com which is currently an Amazon property) but this page now has direct links to the audio sample pages. Very useful and very cool.<br><br> Real Book Listen | Tune List

1   A Call For All Demons Sun Ra 2   A Child Is Born Thad Jones 3   A Fine Romance Jerome Kern 4   A Family Joy Michael Gibbs 6   A Foggy Day George Gershwin 7   A Night In Tunisia Dizzy Gillespie / Frank Paparelli 8   African Flower Duke Ellington 9   Afro Blue Mongo Santa Maria 10   Afternoon In Paris John Lewis 11   Airegin Sonny Rollins

etc...

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Expected vs. Unexpected

I believe that a crucial part of making good, entertaining and enjoyable music is striking the balance between expected and unexpected. Regardless of other music content, if this balance is not struck, the audience will either be bored or annoyed. True exhilaration can be elicited through building excitement through repetition, building expectation and then surprising the listener. But, it is very difficult to get this just right. I believe that this is one of the key factors to "great" music -- that it is stable, predictable and repetitive enough to build energy but erratic and spontaneous enough to excite the listener.

Labels: philosophy