jazz standards that work nicely for chord melody?

[markd]

Hey all! I'd like to put together a good set of standards that lend themselves nicely to playing some nice solo chord melody stuff. I'm just playing on my porch, so no backing band (or, rather by the time I learn them it won't be -53 outside and I can play on my porch). I'm looking for tougher than polly-wolly-doodle, but not quite Oleo.

So what's your favourites?

thanks!

[yZe]

misty

beautiful love

all the things u r

leaves

[brad347]

It would be a good idea to start out with tunes from the "Great american songbook."

Tunes by composers such as

Cole Porter
Jacob Gershovitz (AKA George Gershwin)
Richard Rodgers
Jerome Kern
Jimmy Van Heusen
Vladimir Dukelsky (AKA Vernon Duke)
Sammy Cahn
Irving Berlin
Kurt Weill
Alec Wilder

etc etc etc.

These composers wrote beautiful tunes with lyrical melodies designed to be sung, and are therefore relatively easy to perform self-accompanied on solo guitar. They will also often contain idiomatic patterns of harmony that crop up time and time again in the tunes (i.e. you will start to realize that learning the tunes becomes easier and easier and easier the more you learn... one tends to learn these tunes on a practically logarithmic development curve until it gets to the point where you just seem to somehow know "every single one you've ever heard").

Many of the tunes on Billie Holiday's record "Lady In Satin" are wonderful for these sorts of things. And the arranger on that record, Ray Ellis, is pretty gifted, so you can mine the arrangements on that record for things you can adapt to guitar. Also Barry Galbraith, one of the great studio players of the 50's, plays wonderful rhythm guitar on that one that's worth checking out.

Beyond that, Ellington's right-hand-man Billy Strayorn wrote some beautiful tunes that have interesting "hooks," harmonically and melodically, that can be fun to work out on guitar.

Tunes like

Chelsea Bridge
Isfahan
A Flower is a Lovesome Thing
Upper Manhattan Medical Group
My Little Brown Book

have a little more "meat" to them, harmonically and melodically, than the bulk of "popular standards," and while they may require bit more energy to explore, they are rich for the exploring and are a good source of inspiration.

[Clifford-D]

Try ripping one tune off and plugging in quotes of

that tune in other tunes with similar function.


Like the first couple bars to

The Girl from Ipanema and Take the A Train

This can open up chord soloing ideas.

Like whenever I see Robben Ford he always

manages to squeeze a quote out at the coolest times.

[brad347]

Originally Posted by tonefingers

The Girl from Ipanema and Take the A Train

If you're gonna go that route, why not look instead at "So Danco Samba" by Jobim. The changes are nearly identical to "A Train" all the way through.

[james russell]

In addition to the American songbook there are some very rewarding tunes for chord melody in the world of Brazilian music.

Gentle Rain and Manha de Carnival by Luis Bonfa

Triste, and anything else by Jobim

Triste works great on guitar in the key of A Major. There are lots of possibilities for open strings which help a chord melody solo to have good resonance as you are changing chords.

[brad347]

Originally Posted by james russell

In addition to the American songbook there are some very rewarding tunes for chord melody in the world of Brazilian music.

Gentle Rain and Manha de Carnival by Luis Bonfa

Triste, and anything else by Jobim

Triste works great on guitar in the key of A Major. There are lots of possibilities for open strings which help a chord melody solo to have good resonance as you are changing chords.

A very good point. And there are some not-quite-so-beaten-to-death Jobim compositions like "Zingaro," "Modinha" and "Olha Maria" etc etc etc that are a little off the beaten path but just beautiful. Also check out Tonino Horta for beautiful melodies and harmonies from that part of the world.

Finally, check out what some of the great masters of this are playing. I highly recommend listening to Gene Bertoncini. He is nonpareil in the world of solo "standards" type guitar playing right now, in my opinion.

[alotas123]

Great American Songbook tunes, by and large, all lend themselves to chord-melody. I play a lot of them. Are you looking for tunes for a repertoire or are you looking at graduated difficulty for learning purposes? If the second, then you might look into Georgia On My Mind as an easy start and then do something like The Nearness Of You or Angel Eyes. For more tunes to learn from, you might look into books by Howard Morgen. For repertoire, go through a fake book... Also, a lot of other tunes work well in chord-melody style. I play Crazy, for example, as well as a Wizard of Oz medley. Some of those old Jimmie Rodgers tunes work well in chord-melody, surprisingly. You might look into playing something like Desperado. I do that one, too.

[Jim Soloway]

Some great suggestions. I would add almost anything written by Richard Rodgers.

[Clifford-D]

Originally Posted by brad347

If you're gonna go that route, why not look instead at "So Danco Samba" by Jobim. The changes are nearly identical to "A Train" all the way through.

I'll check it out