Jazz Standards you never get tired of

[Soul Stream]

Yesterdays....

Laura....

Old Folks....

[B. Goren.]

Caravan

Whisper not

[Rooster_Ties]

Beatrice

Black Narcissus

plus any and all the Radiohead and Björk tunes currently making the rounds these days.

[brownie]

Jitterbug Waltz

[Jim Alfredson]

Jitterbug Waltz

Just heard that tonight in Philly as performed by Bootsie Barnes!

[Peter Johnson]

Ceora!

(well, if it's not a standard, it should be!)

[Bright Moments]

willow weep for me

strange fruit

[Brad]

Autumn Leaves

All the Things You Are

On the other hand too much of a good thing can be too much.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Way back home

Chitlins con carne

Cold duck time

Listen here

Back at the chicken shack

Freedom jazz dance

Soft winds

One o'clock jump

Lester leaps in

Blue & sentimental

Red top

Save your love for me

Since I fell for you

Sweet slumber

What's goin' on

Superstition

Killer Joe

Jive samba

Work song

Sack o' woe

Mercy, mercy, mercy

Sister Sadie

Song for my father

Dis here

Dat dere

Moanin'

Watermelon man

All day long

Christo redentor

Sermonette

Honky tonk

One mint julep

Night train

Soul serenade

AFTER HOURS

Harlem nocturne

Ain't misbehavin'

C Jam blues

That'll do for now

MG

[Hot Ptah]

Skylark

In a Sentimental Mood

Stablemates

It Never Entered My Mind

Someone to Watch Over Me

[mikeweil]

Out Of This World

Blues In The Night

Key Largo

If You Could See Me Now

[jlhoots]

Flight To Jordan

[alocispepraluger102]

wee small hours of the morning

it never entered my mind

lilac wine

peace piece

single petal of a rose

no me quitte pas

here's that rainy day

Edited 12 Oct 2006 by alocispepraluger102

[birdanddizzy]

Star eyes

[JohnS]

For starters

On Green Dolphin Street

My Ship

There Will Never Be Another You

[Matthew]

Stolen Moments. Love this tune and all the various covers....

[clifford_thornton]

"What's New"

"Everything Happens to Me" (don't it?)

and I'll second "Laura"

Ayler doing "Summertime" is pretty unbelievable as well - that's the version of the song for me!

[BFrank]

Jeannine

[danasgoodstuff]

If I get tired of hearing new versions, it ain't really a standard to me.. but then I can listen to Smokestack Lightening variations for ever so I geuss I'm just easy to please...

[catesta]

Tenderly

[GA Russell]

Most of my favorites have been mentioned...

Stablemates

Tenderly

Nancy with the Laughing Face

Since I Fell for You

Donna Lee

Empty Faces

Anybody else remember seeing Pete Barbuti play Tenderly on the broom?

[Rabshakeh]

There's been a recent, and predictably tedious, flare up on social media of the old question of whether standards are good or bad over the past fortnight. This latest came out of a blog / Twitter post by Ethan Iverson to the effect that jazz standards should be the core curriculum for jazz education, which was then attacked by Phil Freeman of the Burning Ambulance blog and record label. The usual dull stuff, with the usual predetermined sides.

However, it did make me think of the question of whether, leaving aside the issue of whether jazz standards are nice or whether they are Satan, there are any standards that I actually really enjoy hearing to the extent that I am actually interested to hear how an artist tackles them.

I think, for me it is really just two tunes:

"Just Friends", which I note does not even make it into the above list, but which has quite a dramatic shift in the tune early on that can be tackled in a number of ways, and which seems to me to be one of the most adventurous platforms for improvisation of any of the standards (although I am not musician, so have no authority in that respect); and

"Angel Eyes", which gives performers the option of whether to include the Sinatra refrain, and in any case allows for some very smokey playing.

There are plenty of other standards that I enjoy hearing: "Beatrice", "Autumn Rain", "Lover man", and half of the Monks, Carla Bleys and Damerons, but I'm not sure I'd be sad if they were never recorded again, given the wealth of recordings already available.

[Dan Gould]

Receiving more Percy France recordings from the Smithsonian, and from a time when his set lists had "They Can't Take That Away From Me" which I definitely do not tire of, now or back when I heard it by Ella/Louis/OP.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

'Just friends' is a wonderfully strange song. The tune wants to be a burner, but the words want it to be a slow sad song. I think this gives performers inspiration.

Etta Jones was the one who brought me to notice this.

MG

What I should have mentioned fifteen years ago  is

I'm just a lucky so and so

MG

[jcam_44]

My favorite standard though lesser known is Never Let Me Go.