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Which movie/musical delivered the most jazz standards?


Hardbopjazz

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Probably 'Porgy and Bess', as you say EJP. I make 6 standards from that one:

Summertime

My man's gone now

I got plenty of nuttin'

Bess you is my woman now

It ain't necessarily so

I loves you Porgy

Though I'm not sure that 'My man's gone now' is really a standard, perhaps only a jazz standard.

However, I get 7 each for 'The King and I' and 'South Pacific'.

King & I -

I whistle a happy tune

Hello young lovers

Getting to know you

We kiss in a shadow

Something wonderful

I have dreamed

Shall we dance

(and 'March of the Siamese children' is something of a jazz standard in Europe)

South Pacific

Some enchanted evening

There is nothing like a dame

I'm gonna wash that man right outa my hair

I'm in love with a wonderful guy

Younger than springtime

Happy talk

This nearly was mine

Not many Rodgers & Hammerstein songs are JAZZ standards. There's a general feeling against RR&OH in favour of RR&LH in the jazz world, I think.

MG

Girl Crazy

Only 4 I reckon -

Bidin' my time

Embraceable you

I got rhythm

But not for me

MG

Anything Goes had:

Anything Goes

You're The Top

Blow, Gabriel, Blow

All Through The Night

I Get a Kick Out of You

You'd Be So easy To Love

I hadn't got round to Coal Porter yet, but in addition there's 'It's de-lovely'. So that makes 7, as well as the two Rodgers/Hammerstein ones.

MG

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In terms of jazz instrumental standards (as opposed to vocal standards), I would probably also count "There's a boat dat's leaving soon." But maybe that's just me.

There are so many great Gershwin standards, though I think my favorite of all is "Someone to Watch Over Me," though that's from Oh Kay! which has relatively few other hits (and arguably just that one).

So I was checking something else on my hard drive and found the oddest Gershwin medley: Someone to Watch Over Me sandwiched between Summertime and Porgy. How odd. This is on Dorothy Ashby's Concierto de Aranjuez.

Edited by ejp626
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My Fair Lady:

The Rain In Spain

I Could Have Danced All Night

Get Me to the Church on Time

Wouldn't It Be Loverly

On The Street Where You Live

I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face

With a Little Bit of Luck

I thought about that one, then decided that 'The rain in Spain' was a bit wet :g Well, not really a standard. But you could be right about that one.

MG

In terms of jazz instrumental standards (as opposed to vocal standards), I would probably also count "There's a boat dat's leaving soon." But maybe that's just me.

No it's just Miles :)

Jazz is kind of unimportant in relation to the large area covered by 'standards'.

MG

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I hadn't got round to Coal Porter yet, but in addition there's 'It's de-lovely'. So that makes 7, as well as the two Rodgers/Hammerstein ones.

MG

I think that tune was not in the original production but was added to later revivals of the show.

My Fair Lady:

The Rain In Spain

I Could Have Danced All Night

Get Me to the Church on Time

Wouldn't It Be Loverly

On The Street Where You Live

I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face

With a Little Bit of Luck

I thought about that one, then decided that 'The rain in Spain' was a bit wet :g Well, not really a standard. But you could be right about that one.

MG

In terms of jazz instrumental standards (as opposed to vocal standards), I would probably also count "There's a boat dat's leaving soon." But maybe that's just me.

No it's just Miles :)

Jazz is kind of unimportant in relation to the large area covered by 'standards'.

MG

Yeah, there could be a debate about how many of the tunes we name could be considered "standards" for jazz musicians. Certainly the tunes are well known and a musician might make a quick allusion to a given tune during a solo, but I doubt if there will be many jazz instrumental versions of, say, "There Is Nothing Like a Dame" anymore these days.

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And it depends on when you're talking about. All of those tunes from Anything Goes were well known and oft recorded when the show was a hit of Broadway and afterwards. The tunes from Porgy and Bess took a while to catch on. Remember, that show was not exactly deemed a hit when it debuted. Still, there are many more versions of "Summertime" played/sung today than there are of "Blow, Gabriel, Blow".

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This thread is really about "standards" (or "popular standards") which came from popular music (in this case, movies/musicals). A "jazz standard" is a composition by a jazz musician, which has reached classic status or widely used in the rotation of jazz players.

This topic was/is bound to become problematic in terms of determining what songs are properly referred to as "standards". It's already apparent that this is very subjective. "I've grown accustomed to her face" is a standard, I would say. It stands on its own individually, apart from being included on "My Fair Lady" theme albums. "With a little bit of luck"... not so much. Who plays that, unless they're doing a theme album? Some of the musicals listed here so far include numerous songs that jazz musicians rarely if ever play individually.

The Rodgers/Hart vs Rodgers/Hammerstein comparison brings up another thing. Songs that were once "standards" in the repertoire of jazz players (say 1930's/40's) may be relatively obscure now, as compared to songs that jazz players were choosing in the 50's/60's. If one is more interested in swing than hard bop, for example, they're going to have a completely different perspective on this topic.

Edited by Jim R
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I am going for tunes that are played by jazz musicians which came from films/or Broadway musicals.

Understood, and it's a worthy topic of discussion. I think we should just refer to these as "standards", as played by jazz musicians. Otherwise we lose the ability to clearly make reference to and differentiate a category of compositions ("jazz standards") like "Scrapple From The Apple", "A Night In Tunisia", "Round Midnight", "Oleo", "Joy Spring", etc. etc., composed by jazz musicians.

Edited by Jim R
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Most standards played by musicians came from Hollywood movies or musicals.

I'm not sure that I agree with that statement. I would say that most standards played by jazz musicians were popular songs of the '40s. Of course, that included Broadway songs, but I wouldn't say that the plays and movies provided most of them. Just my speculation, of course.

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Most standards played by musicians came from Hollywood movies or musicals.

I'm not sure that I agree with that statement. I would say that most standards played by jazz musicians were popular songs of the '40s. Of course, that included Broadway songs, but I wouldn't say that the plays and movies provided most of them. Just my speculation, of course.

You need to go back farther, a lot of standards from musicals in the 1930s. The Astaire/Rogers films alone probably debuted at least a dozen standards.

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Most standards played by musicians came from Hollywood movies or musicals.

I'm not sure that I agree with that statement. I would say that most standards played by jazz musicians were popular songs of the '40s. Of course, that included Broadway songs, but I wouldn't say that the plays and movies provided most of them. Just my speculation, of course.

Many Broadway musicals made their way to the big screen at some point.

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