The trouble is, that as a jazz lover, the great songs of jazz are all timeless for me. I first heard a song like “‘Round Midnight” thirty years after it was written, learned to play it, and heard it yesterday and still love it.
Of course we need to ask, what is a “jazz song”? Any song can be a “jazz” song. I demonstrated that to young children by swinging “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and played it for older students to show how some of my great tenor saxophone heroes might have approached it.
Most of the jazz greats have played other composers music, or adopted harmonic structures from popular songs of the day, like Charlie Parker’s “Ko Ko” which is based on the chord changes of the tune, “Cherokee”. Jazzmen got requests from club patrons to play hits from Broadway musicals, or received requests from jazz record producers for certain popular tunes in order to boost sales. The “smooth jazz” players of today may be accused of “selling out” but they’re not doing anything much differently than their predecessors. They are usually covering some R&B classic or playing their own melodic lines over R&B chord changes or funk grooves. So just like their jazz predecessors, they are trying to make a living and play what the public is listening to at the moment.
Take a look at the song list of almost any classic jazz album/CD and you will find tunes by Harold Arlen, Cole Porter, George gershwin, Jimmy Van Huesen and dozens of other great American “popular” song writers. Broadway show tunes, Popular vocal hits or hit movie songs all found their way into the jazz lexicon. To eliminate them from timeless status in the jazz repertoire would be sawing one of its legs off. But rating the Great American songbook classics should be a separate matter, so I will limit this piece to the great “Jazz” compositions.
In order to keep this on a strictly jazz basis, I would like to examine the work of the great Jazz composers of their day and acknowledge some of their timeless contributions.
For me, the first great jazz composer is Fats Waller. A big man with big appetites his whimsical music and lyrics were an instant hit in their own time. But with his brilliant “stride” piano technique and right-hand melodic invention, he was a jazzman, through and through. Gems, such as, “Ain’t Misbehavin’”, Honeysuckle Rose”, and “I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead, You Rascal You” were frequently recorded long after Waller’s death and covered by non-jazz artists as well. Even the great avant-garde reedman, Eric Dolphy, recorded “Jitterbug Waltz”. These tunes may be the first true jazz classics.
It’s impossible to consider the idea of timeless songs, without the Duke. Greatly influenced by Fats Waller and the “Harlem Stride” piano players, Duke Ellington’s enormous musical output rivals J.S. Bach or Mozart. Like Fats Waller, everyone has played his music. Writing on his own or with his under-appreciated collaborator, Billy Strayhorn, look at some of these treasures; “Take the A train”, “Satin Doll”, “Don’t Get Around Much Any More”, “Sophisticated Lady” and dozens more. Once again, the problem is that for me, all of Ellington’s work is timeless. I’m sure that all of the tunes I mentioned are well known to even the most casual jazz fans. I love “My Little Brown Book”, “in My Solitude”, and “Warm Valley”. Demonstrating his sly wit, When Duke was asked about his inspiration for “Warm Valley”, he said that it didn’t refer to a geographical place, but a biological place. You go, Duke!
The Swing Era tunes, composed in the time roughly encompassing the mid-30′s to the end of the Second World War, became emblematic of that period, and were associated with their corresponding Big Bands. “Sing, Sing, Sing” is exclusively attached to the name Benny Goodman, as was “In the Mood” with Glenn Miller and the war years. Most of the Swing era tunes became associated with a certain place in time and reside more in the realm of nostalgia rather than belonging to the category of timeless jazz standards. Some would argue that this wasn’t even jazz at all, but mainstream American popular music of its time, which was heavily influenced by jazz. The small group ensembles of the post-war years quickly abandoned Swing Era songs and moved to new harmonic and rhythmic ground. Enter Bird and Diz!
The guiding lights of the Bebop revolution, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker favored their own compositions, except for brief sojourns into more commercial territory, like Parker’s experimentation with a string orchestra.
The Bebop tunes, still remain a litmus test for the ability of jazz musicians to improvise and memorize the frenetic melodies like “Ko Ko”, “ornithology” and “Scrapple from the Apple”. Though not widely known or appreciated by the general public, as these twisting melodic lines are not exactly hummable, they remain jazz classics.
Of all the musicians of the Bebop school, it is Theolonius Monk, who has supplied the most memorable and idiosyncratic tunes. Everyone in jazz has recorded “‘Round Midnight” at one time or another and this wistful, bittersweet ballad captures the essence of jazz. Monk’s boppy “Straight, No Chaser”, the bluesy “Blue Monk” and quirky “epistrophe” are truly timeless jazz standards. The songs of Theolonius Monk continued to be loved and studied today for their unique melodic invention.
In the turbulent era of the 1960′s, it is the alumni of the various Miles Davis bands, which have contributed the most lasting compositions to the list of timeless jazz songs.
Gathering around himself the best young musicians he could find, Miles frequently relegated the composer’s chair to his young lions. Chief among them was Wayne Shorter. A protean saxophonist, he absorbed the influences of john Coltrane, bossa Nova and exotic Indian and Middle Eastern scales to create a unique compositional style. Some of his greatest songs are, “Footprints”, “nefertiti” and “Speak No Evil”. He continued to write and play with the groundbreaking jazz-fusion group, Weather Report, as well as, pursuing a solo career.
Next in this group, is the formidable pianist and electronics innovator, Herbie Hancock. Some of his most lyrical and beloved songs are “Maiden Voyage”, “Little One” and film title track, “watermelon Man”. Recently honored for album of the year, “The River: The Joni Letters”, Hancock has continued to explore electronics, funk and experimental music without losing his acoustic piano roots.
The late Josef Zawinul, co-leader of Weather Report with Wayne Shorter, is responsible for one of the most popular compositions in the jazz-fusion era. I am talking about “Birdland”. This catchy song with its many musical hooks, even made the pop charts. Manhattan Transfer recorded it in a vocal version, giving them their big breakout hit. It was even recorded by Maynard Ferguson in a big band arrangement, making this song one of the most recognizable songs of this genre.
Where will the future timeless jazz songs come from? With the crossover nature of today’s music, it is difficult to define or categorize a song as a “jazz” song. It is clear, however, that the low-down, syncopated music played in the parlors of New Orleans bordellos, has become American classic music. There is just one way to say it- timeless.