Jazz standards are musical compositions which are an important part of

the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely

known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by
listeners. There is no definitive list of jazz standards, and the list
of songs deemed to be standards changes over time. Songs included in
major fake book publications (sheet music collections of popular
tunes) and jazz reference works offer a rough guide to which songs are
considered standards.
Not all jazz standards were written by jazz composers. Many are
originally Tin Pan Alley popular songs, Broadway show tunes or songs
from Hollywood musicals the Great American Songbook.[1] In Europe,
jazz standards and "fake books" may even include some traditional folk
songs (such as in Scandinavia) or pieces of ethnic music (such as
gypsy melodies) that has been played with a jazz feel by well known
jazz players. A commonly played song can only be considered a jazz
standard if it is widely played among jazz musicians. The jazz
standard repertoire has some overlap with blues and pop standards.
The most recorded jazz standard was W. C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues"
for over 20 years from the 1930s onward, after which Hoagy
Carmichael's "Stardust" replaced it.[2] Today, the place is held by
"Body and Soul" by Johnny Green.[3] The most recorded standard
composed by a jazz musician is Thelonious Monk's "'Round Midnight".[4]
Contents [hide]
1
Before 1920
2
1920s
3
1930s
4
1940s
5
1950s and later
6
See also
7
References
Before 1920[edit]
The Original Dixieland Jazz Band, from the original 1918 promotional
postcard while the band was playing at Reisenweber's Cafe in New York
City. Shown are (left to right) Tony Sbarbaro (aka Tony Spargo) on
drums; Edwin "Daddy" Edwards on trombone; D. James "Nick" LaRocca on
cornet; Larry Shields on clarinet, and Henry Ragas on piano.
Main article: List of pre-1920 jazz standards
From its conception at the change of the twentieth century, jazz was
music intended for dancing. This influenced the choice of material
played by early jazz groups: King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, New
Orleans Rhythm Kings and others included a large number of Tin Pan
Alley popular songs in their repertoire, and record companies often
used their power to dictate which songs were to be recorded by their
artists. Certain songs were pushed by recording executives and
therefore quickly achieved standard status; this started with the
first jazz recordings in 1916, with That Funny Jas Band from Dixieland

(1916) by Collins and Harlan for Thomas A. Edison, Inc. on Blue

Amberol in December 1916[5]:80 and in 1917, when the Original
Dixieland Jass Band recorded "Darktown Strutters' Ball" and "Indiana".
[6] The first record with 'Jass' on the label, The Original Dixieland
One-Step was issue 18255 by Victor Talking Machine Company in 1917.
[7]:7 Originally simply called "jazz", the music of early jazz bands
is today often referred to as "Dixieland" or "New Orleans jazz", to
distinguish it from more recent subgenres.[8]
The origins of jazz are in the musical traditions of early twentiethcentury New Orleans, including brass band music, the blues, ragtime
and spirituals,[9] and some of the most popular early standards come
from these influences. Ragtime songs "Twelfth Street Rag" and "Tiger
Rag" have become popular numbers for jazz artists, as have blues tunes
"St. Louis Blues" and "St. James Infirmary". Tin Pan Alley songwriters
contributed several songs to the jazz standard repertoire, including
"Indiana" and "After You've Gone". Others, such as "Some of These
Days" and "Darktown Strutters' Ball", were introduced by vaudeville
performers. The most often recorded standards of this period are W. C.
Handy's "St. Louis Blues", Turner Layton and Henry Creamer's "After
You've Gone" and James Hanley and Ballard MacDonald's "Indiana".[10]
1920s[edit]
Main article: List of 1920s jazz standards
A period known as the "Jazz Age" started in the United States in the
1920s. Jazz had become popular music in the country, although older
generations considered the music immoral and threatening to old
cultural values.[11] Dances such as the Charleston and the Black
Bottom were very popular during the period, and jazz bands typically
consisted of seven to twelve musicians. Important orchestras in New
York were led by Fletcher Henderson, Paul Whiteman and Duke Ellington.
Many New Orleans jazzmen had moved to Chicago during the late 1910s in
search of employment; among others, the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, King
Oliver's Creole Jazz Band and Jelly Roll Morton recorded in the city.
However, Chicago's importance as a center of jazz music started to
diminish toward the end of the 1920s in favor of New York.[12]
In the early years of jazz, record companies were often eager to
decide what songs were to be recorded by their artists. Popular
numbers in the 1920s were pop hits such as "Sweet Georgia Brown",
"Dinah" and "Bye Bye Blackbird". The first jazz artist to be given
some liberty in choosing his material was Louis Armstrong, whose band
helped popularize many of the early standards in the 1920s and 1930s.
[6]
Some compositions written by jazz artists have endured as standards,
including Fats Waller's "Honeysuckle Rose" and "Ain't Misbehavin'".
The most recorded 1920s standard is Hoagy Carmichael and Mitchell
Parish's "Stardust".[13] Several songs written by Broadway composers
in the 1920s have become standards, such as George and Ira Gershwin's

"The Man I Love" (1924), Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" (1927) and Cole
Porter's "What Is This Thing Called Love?" (1929). However, it was not
until the 1930s that musicians became comfortable with the harmonic
and melodic sophistication of Broadway tunes and started including
them regularly in their repertoire.[12]
1930s[edit]
Main article: List of 1930s jazz standards
Broadway theatre contributed some of the most popular standards of the
1930s, including George and Ira Gershwin's "Summertime" (1935),
Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's "My Funny Valentine" (1937) and
Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's "All the Things You
Are" (1939). These songs still rank among the most recorded standards
of all time.[13] The most popular 1930s standard, Johnny Green's "Body
and Soul", was introduced in Broadway and became a huge hit after
Coleman Hawkins's 1939 recording.[3]
1930s saw the rise of swing jazz as a dominant form in American music.
Duke Ellington and his band members composed numerous swing era hits
that have later become standards: "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't
Got That Swing)" (1932), "Sophisticated Lady" (1933) and
"Caravan" (1936), among others. Other influential band leaders of this
period were Benny Goodman and Count Basie.
1940s[edit]
Main article: List of 1940s jazz standards
The swing era lasted until the mid-1940s, and produced popular tunes
such as Duke Ellington's "Cotton Tail" (1940) and Billy Strayhorn's
"Take the 'A' Train" (1941). With the big bands struggling to keep
going during World War II, a shift was happening in jazz in favor of
smaller groups. Some swing era musicians, such as Louis Jordan, later
found popularity in a new kind of music, called "rhythm and blues",
that would evolve into rock and roll in the 1950s.[14]
Bebop emerged in the early 1940s, with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie
and Thelonious Monk leading the way. It appealed to a more specialized
audiences than earlier forms of jazz, with sophisticated harmonies,
fast tempos and often virtuoso musicianship. Bebop musicians often
used 1930s standards, especially those from Broadway musicals, as part
of their repertoire.[14] Among standards written by bebop musicians
are Gillespie's "Salt Peanuts" (1941) and "A Night in Tunisia" (1942),
Parker's "Anthropology" (1946), "Yardbird Suite" (1946) and "Scrapple
from the Apple" (1947), and Monk's "'Round Midnight" (1944), which is
currently the most recorded jazz standard composed by a jazz musician.
[4]
1950s and later[edit]
Main article: List of post-1950 jazz standards
Modal jazz recordings, such as Miles Davis's Kind of Blue, became
popular in the late 1950s. Popular modal standards include Davis's

"All Blues" and "So What" (both 1959), John Coltrane's

"Impressions" (1963) and Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage" (1965).
Later, Davis's "second great quintet", which included saxophonist
Wayne Shorter and pianist Herbie Hancock, recorded a series of highly
acclaimed albums in the mid-to-late 1960s. Standards from these
sessions include Shorter's "Footprints" (1966) and "Freedom Jazz
Dance" by Eddie Harris (1966).
In Brazil, a new style of music called bossa nova evolved in the late
1950s. Based on the Brazilian samba as well as jazz, bossa nova was
championed by Joo Gilberto, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Luiz Bonf.
Gilberto and Stan Getz started a bossa nova craze in the United States
with their 1963 album Getz/Gilberto. Among the genre's songs that are
now considered standards are Bonf's "Manh de Carnaval" (1959),
Marcos Valle's "Summer Samba" (1966), and numerous Jobim's songs,
including "Desafinado" (1959), "The Girl from Ipanema" (1962) and
"Corcovado" (1962). Later, composers such as Edu Lobo and Egberto
Gismonti contributed a great deal to the Brazilian jazz repertoire,
with tunes that include "Casa Forte", "Frevo Rasgado" and "Loro".
The jazz fusion movement fused jazz with other musical styles, most
famously funk and rock. Its golden age was from the late 1960s to the
mid-1970s. Top fusion artists, such as Weather Report, Chick Corea and
Return to Forever, Herbie Hancock and The Headhunters, The Manhattan
Transfer, and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, achieved cross-over
popularity, although public interest in the genre faded at the turn of
the 1980s. Fusion's biggest hits, Corea's "Spain" (1971), Hancock's
"Chameleon" (1973) and Joe Zawinul's "Birdland" (1977), have been
covered numerous times thereafter and are considered modern jazz
standards.
A number of songs written by pop and rock artists have become
standards, such as "Somewhere Out There" by Linda Ronstadt & James
Ingram, "Yesterday", by The Beatles and "Moondance", by Van Morrison.