Craig Buhler Jazz

How can you choose songs you love to play, the band loves to play, AND the audience loves to listen to? 

When Jim Fink and I put together our working jazz trio with Bob Woll in 1995, we needed an instant 4-hour book.  Coming up with a list of 60 titles – let alone writing out all the charts – would have been impossible for me to do in the 4 days before our first gig.  Fortunately, Jim had all 3 Real Books, so I just went through them and picked our list from there.

Jim and Bob prefered reading charts on stage.  At that time, I did not yet have my wonderful telescopic glasses, so I did not use paper at all on stage (except for a list of song titles and keys written in a huge 36 point font). 

I ended up picking songs I already knew and loved (I know a lot of songs), things I was not totally sick of.  Right from the start, I said, “forget about ‘Summertime,’ ‘Ipanema,’ and ‘Satin Doll.’  They may be great songs, but they’re way overdone.

At that time, we were doing corporate events, Starbucks, Neo Bistro, Argosy cruises, Grazzi’s, weddings, bar mitzvahs, etc.  Our audience did not contain many jazz aficionados, so we shied away from the more obscure tunes by Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Ornette, etc.  With only 1 horn and no drums, we did not think groove tunes like “Song for My Father” would come off too strongly, and we did not want to jam endlessly on the blues.  Basically, we ended up with tunes from the “great American song book” (Gershwin, Porter, Rogers, Kern, etc.)  These songs have great melodies which work well as instrumentals, and have therefore stood the test of time.  (Click here to see the list we used for several years.)  Although I am not a strong singer, I sing 1 chorus of those songs containing lyrics not to be missed like Mercer’s “I’m Old Fashioned” or “Skylark.”

When I am promoting a new CD, we add a couple of originals from that CD.  If they stand the test of time, we keep them.

Fast forward to 2007.  It is becoming increasingly clear that anyone under 60 does not relate personally to “All the Things You Are” or “Body and Soul” the way they do to Michael Jackson or the Beatles.  The songs are still great, but they are not as immediate to the younger audience. 

Is it possible for a jazz musician to retain integrity and still play songs familiar to a younger audience?

I have been thinking a lot about the jazz legacy, wondering how our jazz classics became jazz classics in the first place.  When Miles did “Someday My Prince,” “If I Were a Bell,” or “It Never Entered My Mind,” was he bowing to commercial pressure from the record company?  Knowing what we know about Miles, I don’t think so.  I believe Miles chose tunes which had great, enduring melodies and changes he could solo over effectively. 

Billie Holiday sang pop songs which were current in her day and came to ‘own’ those songs.  She would transform a superficial pop ditty such as “Them There Eyes,” “All of Me,” or “Miss Brown to You” into a jazz classic.  Many great jazz singers renovated current pop tunes into standards which we still perform today.

Does this mean that jazz musicians cannot use a song unless it has been ‘validated’ by Bird or Ella, given the ‘seal of approval’ by Sarah or Dinah?  I don’t think so.  I think the tradition of culling out today’s best pop songs for tomorrow’s jazz classics is still a valid jazz tradition, one which will help keep tomorrow’s jazz repertoire relevant and fresh.

Mind you, this practice is fraught with great risk.  For if I put together a CD of today’s pop hits, I will for sure be accused of selling out to commercialism, and my work will be viewed as shallow and superficial.  It takes discernment to find pop hits which are really great compositions, courage to commit yourself to them, and creativity to arrange a song to suit your identity.  Often times, records include superfluous riffs or entire sections which need to be eliminated in the same way Count Basie would nix licks from an arrangement which did not enhance the groove.

As you look through pop hits of the past 40 years, you will want to choose things that meet some or all of these criteria:

• Is it a good song (That is #1)?
• Do I love the song (not just the recording)?
• Can I arrange the song to suit my band?
• Can my instrumentation handle the arrangement?
• If I am playing dance venues, is the song danceable?
• Does the song speak to the average age / demographic of my audience?

For a gig such as the Sequim casino, I am looking at an older audience which loves to dance.  It is going to be wonderful to work with the fabulous trumpet of Ed Donohue.  He reads great, solos great, and can play anything in a believable way.  Our current rhythm section of George Radebaugh (piano), Robert Matthews (bass), and Tom Sovornich (drums) is as good and flexible as any on the Olympic Peninsula, so this gig should be a total blast.

For a typical 1-hour, 12-song dance set, our list will need to break down sort of like this:

• 4 fast dance tunes
• 1 or 2 fast shuffles
• 2 or 3 Latin tunes
• 1 or 2 mediums
• 1 or 2 slow ballads
• 1 waltz (this is the most difficult to come up with)
• 1 or 2 Dixieland jams
• Maybe 1 blues

Below are some ideas I have come up with in the last week which may work.  I won’t choose any of these, if the other band members strongly object.  I don’t EVER want to hear the band groan, when we call off a tune.  This situation can be partly averted by having a larger list and rotating the tunes to keep them fresh. 

So here is my quickly scriblled out list.  I welcome your suggestions, comments, questions, or complaints.

Beatles:  Elenor Rigby, Here Comes the Sun, Something, Taxman, I Feel Fine

Sam & Dave:  When Something is Wrong

Al Green:  I’m So Tired of Being Alone, Take Me to the River, How Can You Mend (he did sing it)

Stevie Wonder:  In My Dream (NOT “Sunshine of My Life”!!!)

Everly Brothers:  Wake Up, Little Suzy

Ike & Tina:  I Think It’s Gon’na Work Out Fine

FAST:  Poison Ivy, Caledonia, Tell Him, Old Black Magic, That’ll Be the Day, Walk On By, I Believe in You, Bandstand Boogie, This Could Be the Start of Something

SHUFFLES:  My Baby Just Cares, Just a Gigolo, Woodchopper’s Ball

LATIN:  Save the Best for Last, Save the Last Dance for Me, Superwoman, Spanish Harlem, Under My Skin, Poinsiana, This Magic Moment

MEDIUM:  Broken Hearted Melody, Fools Rush In, A Million to One, All In the Game, Misunderstood, Canadian Sunset

SLOW:  Blues in the Night, Black Coffee, Smoke Gets In, Someday, Somewhere Out There, You Don’t Know Me, I’ve Been Waiting, Across the Universe

WALTZ:  What the World Needs Now, She’s Leaving Home, Bluesette, Sunrise Sunset, Hello Young Lovers, Scarborough Fair, Never Land, Someday My Prince, Tenderly

DIXIE:  Way Down Yonder, What a Little Moonlight, When I Grow Too Old, Up a Lazy River

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 2nd, 2007 at 11:12 am and is filed under Jazz, Jazz Band, Jazz for Youth, music, musician, Sequim. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.