Jazzstandard

The term includes jazz standard jazz compositions of recent years and decades, which were played by jazz musicians very often and continuously and be and have survived the style development. Many jazz standards is also the transition into other musical styles succeeded.

Conversely, came many tunes that were to jazz standards, originally from the various genres of American popular music since the invention of the record, including genres such as Chanson, Pop, pop song, from Broadway shows and musicals or the melodies of Hollywood movies. The high point of this standard production was the era of swing. However, some jazz standards come from " the traditions of the 19th century, from ragtime, blues and early jazz classic, ... from the Chicago jazz of the twenties, the thirties and forties of the swing, bebop and hard bop, bossa nova, the modal and even free jazz. "

The corpus of jazz standards is continuously changed until today and expanded. Some " makeovers " of songs from the Great American Songbook at the time of bebop ( bop head) are more popular today as a starting point of a jazz interpretation as the originals.

Function

Standards form a basis of the repertoire of jazz musicians. They serve as the basis for improvisations and arrangements. On spontaneous jazz musicians meeting, the jam sessions, standards play a central and indispensable role, because they form the musical intersection between foreign musicians. In fact, the Jam Session may have been the reason why a fixed corpus of pieces took shape. The presentation form of jazz standards is not fixed, even melody, harmony, rhythm and composition can be changed by the musicians. But often dictate stylistics and time of composition, the musical means.

Molding

32 -bar forms

Many standards have 32 bars. In this group we can distinguish several common forms:

• AABA: On the repeated A section is followed by a bridge and a possibly varied repetition of the A section, in which often a coda is added. These ajar to a song form AABA is typical of older songs and pop melodies as for the swing piece Take The A-Train.
• ABAB ': The Swing number How High The Moon. also owns the 32 -bar form ABAB '. About the chord progression improvised Charlie Parker a catchy new tune, but in contrast to the quieter basic theme mainly consists of quaver movement. The recording of this Improvisation became the new standard Ornithology.

12 - and 24 -bar forms

This group refers to the Blue scheme. Jazz standards that adhere closely to the Blue scheme, are as Straight No Chaser and Blue Monk by Thelonious Monk. Many standards expand the blues pattern and belong to the genre of jazz blues. In Bessie's Blues, the shifting of our I is anticipated to IV in the 2nd clock once, for example; in the last cycle, the I is replaced by a VII, which has dominant tables, that is, to the home key back leading character, allowing a repeat. Also typical are the harmonization of Charlie Parker topics such as Blues for Alice and Au Privave: The stages of the cycles 1, 5 and 9 are only - with which one of the three Blue Line begins - with the schema of the original Blues identical. The intermediate bars are filled with Quint case sequences so that the steps harmony is replaced by a harmonic cadence.

Jazzwaltz

Another common form is the Jazzwaltz in swing rhythm over a three - quarter time; frequently arise changing cross rhythms, Synkopisierungen and emphases. A well-known standard slower this form is All Blues, a faster My Favourite Things.

Newer forms

Since the 1950s, the standard forms have greatly increased mainly due to the inclusion of Latin American and African rhythms and themes, as well as by extending the harmonic and melodic. In the 1960s and early 1970s, the experimentation of jazz music in the free jazz led to the replacement or resolution of all formal conventions that dictated by standards. Since the 1970s, a partial reversion to traditional improvising on standard topics and forms was observed. However, the experience gained in the meantime with the free play of many combos has been integrated. Standard forms are now just as variable and diverse as the jazz music in general.

Collections

Jazz musicians use different collections of jazz standards. Especially popular is the so-called Real Book, which exists in several editions.

• The original Real Book is a mimeographed illegal copy of just 500 pieces. These are listed only as a melody with chord symbols and usually one, rarely more DIN -A -4 pages ( Lead Sheet ). You name the composer of the melody and give sporadic references to the character (such as ballad ), rhythm (eg swing ), and most important artists ( such as Charlie Parker) of standards. The older editions of it still contained many errors that were corrected only gradually.

• Only with the appearance of the New Real Book. came a verified and authorized version of ancient and modern standards in circulation. In contrast to the often very rudimentary and even erroneous information of the precursor of this work is mainly recorded not only the melody and chords, but also makes accurate and differentiated information on package, polyphony, inputs and discharges, rhythms, tempo, artists and recordings ( phonograms ) for this piece. Thus, a specific, jazz musicians and jazz listeners familiar arrangement of the standard is usually favored. Therefore, this work is considered particularly true source. However, its contents focused on the styles of jazz since the 1970s, so many of the older and popular standards of the swing and bebop eras missing it.

Popular among jazz musicians are in addition also

• 557 standards. available next to the DIN -A -4 format as a practical DIN - A-5- ring hardcover book. This edition combines the advantages of the old with those of the new Real Books: it contains only the most essential information at the greatest possible freedom of interpretation, but more accurate notation of the themes and chord progressions, so source loyalty. They are - as is now the older Real Books - in several, suitable for various wind instruments keys (C, Eb, Bb).

• There are also so-called Fake Books. in which both pop songs and jazz standards are listed and provided with arrangements varying quality. A popular collection of "classic" pop songs is the Great American Songbook.