The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire

by Ted Gioia

Overview

An updated new edition of Ted Gioia's acclaimed compendium of jazz standards, featuring 15 additional selections, hundreds of additional recommended tracks, and enhancements and additions on almost every page. Since the first edition of The Jazz Standards was published in 2012, author Ted Gioia has received almost non-stop feedback and suggestions from the passionate global community of jazz enthusiasts and performers requesting crucial additions and corrections to the book. In this second edition, Gioia expands the scope of the book to include more songs, and features new recordings by rising contemporary artists. The Jazz Standards is an essential comprehensive guide to some of the most important jazz compositions, telling the story of more than 250 key jazz songs and providing a listening guide to more than 2,000 recordings. The fan who wants to know more about a tune heard at the club or on the radio will find this book indispensable. Musicians who play these songs night after night will find it to be a handy guide, as it outlines the standards' history and significance and tells how they have been performed by different generations of jazz artists. Students learning about jazz standards will find it to be a go-to reference work for these cornerstones of the repertoire. This book is a unique resource, a browser's companion, and an invaluable introduction to the art form.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190087203
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/18/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	608
Sales rank:	777,221
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Ted Gioia is a pianist, critic, scholar, historian and educator. He is author of 11 books, including The History of Jazz and Delta Blues?both honored by the New York Times on their list of 100 notable books of the year. His three books on the social history of music?Work Songs, Healing Songs, and Love Songs?have each been honored with the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award. Gioia holds degrees from Stanford and Oxford, and previously served on the faculty of Stanford's Department of Music. Praised as one of the leading music historians of our day, Gioia is a preeminent guide to songs of the past, present, and future.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Introduction After You've Gone Ain't Misbehavin' Airegin Alfie All Blues All of Me All of You All the Things You Are Almost Like Being in Love Alone Together Along Came Betty Angel Eyes April in Paris Autumn in New York Autumn Leaves Bags' Groove Basin Street Blues Beale Street Blues Bemsha Swing Billie's Bounce Birdland Blue Bossa Blue in Green Blue Monk Blue Moon Blue Skies Blues in the Night Bluesette Body and Soul But Beautiful But Not for Me Bye Bye Blackbird C Jam Blues Cantaloupe Island Caravan Chelsea Bridge Cherokee A Child is Born Come Rain or Come Shine Come Sunday Con Alma Confirmation Corcovado Cotton Tail Darn That Dream Days of Wine and Roses Desafinado Dinah Django Do Nothin' Till You Hear from Me Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans Dolphin Dance Donna Lee Don't Blame Me Don't Get Around Much Anymore East of the Sun (and West of the Moon) Easy Living Easy to Love Embraceable You Emily Epistrophy Everything Happens to Me Evidence Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye Exactly Like You Falling in Love with Love Fascinating Rhythm Fly Me to the Moon A Foggy Day Footprints Gee, Baby, Ain't I Good to You? Georgia on My Mind Ghost of a Chance Giant Steps The Girl from Ipanema God Bless the Child Gone with the Wind Good Morning Heartache Goodbye Pork Pie Hat Groovin' High Have You Met Miss Jones? Here's That Rainy Day Honeysuckle Rose Hot House How Deep Is the Ocean? How High the Moon How Insensitive How Long Has This Been Going On? I Can't Get Started I Can't Give You Anything but Love I Cover the Waterfront I Didn't Know What Time It Was I Fall in Love Too Easily I Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good) I Got Rhythm I Hear a Rhapsody I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart I Love You I Mean You I Only Have Eyes for You I Remember Clifford I Should Care I Surrender, Dear I Thought about You I Want to Be Happy If I Should Lose You If You Could See Me Now I'll Remember April I'm in the Mood for Love Impressions In a Mellow Tone In a Sentimental Mood In Your Own Sweet Way Indiana Invitation It Could Happen to You It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) It Had to Be You It Might As Well Be Spring It Never Entered My Mind I've Found a New Baby The Jitterbug Waltz Joy Spring Just Friends Just One of Those Things Just You, Just Me King Porter Stomp Lady Bird The Lady is a Tramp Lament Laura Lester Leaps In Like Someone in Love Limehouse Blues Liza Lonely Woman Lotus Blossom Love for Sale Love is Here to Stay Lover Lover, Come Back to Me Lover Man Lullaby of Birdland Lush Life Mack the Knife Maiden Voyage The Man I Love Manh? de Carnaval Mean to Me Meditation Memories of You Milestones Misterioso Misty Moanin' Moment's Notice Mood Indigo Moonlight in Vermont Moose the Mooche More Than You Know Muskrat Ramble My Favorite Things My Foolish Heart My Funny Valentine My Heart Stood Still My Old Flame My One and Only Love My Romance Naima Nardis Nature Boy The Nearness of You Nice Work If You Can Get It Night and Day Night in Tunisia Night Train Now's the Time Nuages Oh, Lady Be Good! Old Folks Oleo On a Clear Day On Green Dolphin Street On the Sunny Side of the Street Once I Loved One Note Samba One o'Clock Jump Ornithology Out of Nowhere Over the Rainbow Peace The Peacocks Pennies from Heaven Perdido Poinciana Polka Dots and Moonbeams Prelude to a Kiss Rhythm-a-ning 'Round Midnight Royal Garden Blues Ruby, My Dear St. James Infirmary Blues St. Louis Blues St. Thomas Satin Doll Scrapple from the Apple Secret Love The Shadow of Your Smile Skylark Smile Smoke Gets in Your Eyes So What Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise Solar Solitude Some of These Days Someday My Prince Will Come Someone to Watch Over Me Song for My Father The Song Is You Sophisticated Lady Soul Eyes Speak Low Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most Spring Is Here Star Dust Star Eyes Stella by Starlight Stolen Moments Stompin' at the Savoy Stormy Weather Straight, No Chaser Struttin' with Some Barbecue Summertime Sweet Georgia Brown 'S Wonderful Take Five Take the A Train Tea for Two Tenderly There Is No Greater Love There Will Never Be Another You These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You) They Can't Take That Away from Me Things Ain't What They Used to Be Tiger Rag Time after Time Tin Roof Blues The Very Thought of You Waltz for Debby Watermelon Man Wave The Way You Look Tonight Well, You Needn't What Is This Thing Called Love? What's New? When the Saints Go Marching In Whisper Not Who Can I Turn To? Willow Weep for Me Yardbird Suite Yesterdays You Don't Know What Love Is You Go to My Head You Stepped Out of a Dream You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To

Editorial Reviews

…richly informative…Calling them "the soundtrack of my own life," [Gioia] takes the reader through hundreds of songs, rounding out each entry…with a list of his recommended versions. His main criterion for selection is "significance in the jazz repertoire of the current era," and though I missed a few favorites…it's hard to quarrel with Gioia's seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of what's still hot and what's not…The Jazz Standards…is awfully nice to dip into.
—Dennis Drabelle

The Washington Post

Jazz pianist and historian Gioia (Delta Blues) surveys 250 influential 20th-century compositions, including Broadway show tunes, movie songs, and original pieces by Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, and other composers. Each two-page entry serves up a chatty, fact-filled review of the tune’s birth pangs—Louis B. Mayer almost cut “Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz!—and a breezy analysis of its musicological mojo. (“Someone to Watch over Me,” the author avers, draws its wistful warmth from the all-black-keys pentatonic scale.) But Gioia is interested less in a melody’s first incarnation than in its afterlife as a template for jamming, riffing, and free-form stylistic variation, epitomized by John Coltrane’s saxy reinvention of “My Favorite Things.” He therefore includes critical appreciations of each standard’s best and most emblematic arrangements, along with a list of recordings. Gioia writes with an endearing blend of erudition and opinionating—”Come Rain or Come Shine”’s spare tune “isn’t a melody, it’s a musical starvation diet”—that makes the book both a delightful browse and a handy reference and roadmap for jazzophiles. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"Gioia brings his deep knowledge of jazz to bear when comparing how a wide variety of artists approached a given tune and does not shy away from voicing his opinions about the good, the bad, and the ugly." — J Farrington, CHOICE

"If you look up just one title in The Jazz Standards, before you realize it you will have spent an intriguing hour or two learning fascinating and new things about old songs that you have known most of your life." — Dave Brubeck

"Which is best: interpretation or song? In any case, jazz and standards are forever locked in loving embrace. A finely researched work." — Sonny Rollins

"Mr. Gioia's is the first general-interest, wide-ranging and authoritative guide to the basic contemporary jazz canon." — Will Friedwald, Wall Street Journal

"In virtually every instance, Gioia delivers." — The Atlantic Monthly

"One man's repertoire may be another man's B-list, but when the man is Ted Gioia, one tends to listen - in both senses. Gioia, among the most lauded of jazz writers, has chosen more than 250 songs. He tells the story behind each....Compulsively readable, and belongs on the shelves of every jazz lover, or jazz-lover wannabe." — Toronto Globe and Mail

"This book should be in the library of every gigging jazz musician and every serious jazz fan." — Library Journal

"What a useful and informative book The Jazz Standards is! Explaining the jazz repertory in a way that is accessible for the jazz beginner yet stimulating for the aficionado, Ted Gioia shows once again why he is one the best jazz writers around today." — Gerald Early, Editor of Miles Davis and American Culture

"Warning: This book is addictive....Putting together a compendium like this must involve prodigious research and an encyclopaedic memory. Fortunately Gioia...wears his learning lightly and conveys it with wit and insight, and a minimum of musicological jargon." — Dallas Morning News

"The book is wise, often funny—and it always accomplishes the highest mission of writing about music, which is to send you back to the music with wide-open ears." — Kansas City Star

"Ted Gioia's The Jazz Standards is an interactive joy. It's a book you can have fun with while learning from it and it can also serve a companion anthology and reference guide." — Steven Cerra , Jazz Profiles

From the Publisher

Jazz historian and pianist Gioia (The History of Jazz) here focuses on the most recognizable and iconic compositions known to and performed by jazz musicians. He details more than 250 pieces—some written by jazz musicians, some part of Broadway musicals, and some pop songs of their day, but all among the must-know repertory of the gigging jazz musician. Gioia presents a brief historical sketch of each composition, including information on its writer(s), significant recordings, and its popularity over the years as jazz styles have evolved. Although there is simply not enough room for the author to provide exhaustive notes on all of the prominent recordings of these jazz standards, he manages to mention a fair number of recordings and provide several salient details about each. The brief discography for each piece is helpful, but more detailed release information would have been nice. Gioia's writing style is friendly and easygoing, suggesting the way in which one jazz performer might rap with another about the tunes. VERDICT This book should be in the library of every gigging jazz musician and every serious jazz fan; to the extent that these 250-plus pieces remain in the repertory, it will be relevant for years to come.—James E. Perone, Univ. of Mount Union, Alliance, OH

Library Journal