With the internet nowadays, you don’t really have to leave home to listen to jazz. When I look for some new tunes to listen to, here’s where I go:
Pandora: This radio is pretty interesting: you type in a song you love, and instead of playing that song, it starts playing songs you might grow to love.
Let’s say, for example, I type in a song that’s stuck in my head right now: All the Things You Are (in this case, played by Bill Evans). First song…Indiana/Ray Brown. 2…Have You Met Miss Jones?/David Arnay. 3…Stumble Monk/Vinson Valega. 4…Miss Razeau/Bob Beiden Ensemble. 5…Bert’s Playground/Ari Hoenig. 6…Tall Tale/John Patitucci. I don’t know many of these songs, which is excellent.
Youtube: Despite some of the crazy vloggers you might run into here (my sister is a diehard fan of Fred), you can actually get some quality jazz here as well. The way I use it is similar to Pandora; type in a tune you know, and see where it takes you.
Let’s take Miles Davis’s All Blues from the Kind of Blue album. First, I’m taken to a video of Miles Davis playing All Blues with Herbie Hancock, another great jazz pianist. 2…Monk’s Epistrophy (Thelonious Monk is my absolute favorite) with the Thelonious Monk Quartet. 3…another Monk, Straight, No Chaser. 4…Bill Evans’s Waltz for Debby. 5…Oscar Petersen, Soft Winds, with The Quartet Live. 6…Ella Fizgerald & Joe Pass, Stormy Weather.
You might run into some more familiar names here – unlike Pandora – but you’ll still find something new. Also, you’ll get to see some of the legends play; watching the jazz combos interact with one another is something you can’t miss, which is why many musicians insist that there’s nothing like live music. But at least this is one step closer.
If you want to get yourself familiar with the “standards,” here are the places to go: 1…JazzStandards.com. 2…Wikipedia’s Jazz Standards List. 3…Realbook Jazz Charts. 4…USC’s list of jazz standards. 5…the Real Jazz Standards Fake Book. 6…and KnowledgeRush’s list of jazz standards.
My favorite standards? 1…Blue Monk. 2…All The Things You Are. 3…Georgia On My Mind. 4…Now is the Time. 5…Autumn Leaves. 6…Just Friends.
Now run along and get yourself some jazz.
CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: Just Friends/Send in the Clowns (Remastered)/Sarah Vaughan & the Count Basie Orchestra/(i risk melting during her scatting solo (especially the part where the band doubles it behind her) every single time i play this.)
