First Jazz standards to learn?

[King Of Drums]

Hey what's up everybody? I've been working specifically on jazz drumming for about 6 months now. I've worked out of the books advanced techniques and art of bop and have spent some time improvising on my own. I think my independence is quite good with hands and feet against the ride pattern now and I think I can keep it swinging good. I understand form/song structure pretty good and my brush work is decent too I feel.

I'm wondering What are some of the first standards I should learn? One drummer that I respect told me I should learn all blues so I have been working on that this week. If someone could recommend maybe 5 or 10 standards I should learn I would appreciate it. I'm looking for songs that are popular but the simpler the better as I'm quite new at this genre.

Thanks!

[blade123]

Art Blakey-Moanin'
Count Basie-April in Paris
Dave Brubeck-Take 5

I recommend and Basie stuff.
April in Paris is a fun easy song to play to.

[oops]

Easy.

Autumn Leaves
All The Things You Are
Fly Me To The Moon
How High The Moon

Blue Bossa
Black Orpheus

God Bless The Child
The Nearness of You

4 standards
2 bossas
2 ballads

There's sooooo many standards you can work on. Everyone will give you a different list of essentials, but these ones are some of my favs.

[blade123]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gci_PaIZMQ
There are too many standards to list
And I agree on what oops said.
I like Fly Me to the Moon

[KCDrummer]

It's good to be familiar with some tunes that are typically played at FAST tempos like Cherokee, Giant Steps, Milestones, Minority, Oleo, etc.

Also, be aware of the form and progressions of the tunes(blues, rhythm changes, AABA, AAB, ABAC, etc.) It's important for the drummer to know this because the drummer has the most potential to frame (or destroy) the phrasing of a tune.

[King Of Drums]

It's good to be familiar with some tunes that are typically played at FAST tempos like Cherokee, Giant Steps, Milestones, Minority, Oleo, etc.

Also, be aware of the form and progressions of the tunes(blues, rhythm changes, AABA, AAB, ABAC, etc.) It's important for the drummer to know this because the drummer has the most potential to frame (or destroy) the phrasing of a tune.

Yes I really need to work on this. I've been listening to the jazz station on the radio and just trying to identify the form lately. Thanks everyone for the recommendations I'll check them out.

[Tryitagain]

I'd say that if you plan on being an all-around working drummer, some mandatory standards would be things like:

Misty
New York, New York (Sinatra)
A-Train
In the Mood
The Lady is a Tramp

Learn 'em and put 'em in your hip pocket cuz you'll probably HAVE to play one of them someday, like it or not!!

[spleen]

It's good to be familiar with some tunes that are typically played at FAST tempos like Cherokee, Giant Steps, Milestones, Minority, Oleo, etc.

Also, be aware of the form and progressions of the tunes(blues, rhythm changes, AABA, AAB, ABAC, etc.) It's important for the drummer to know this because the drummer has the most potential to frame (or destroy) the phrasing of a tune.

Good advice as usual Zach.

King of Drums - Buy a Real Book and you'll be set.

spleen

[rendezvous_drummer]

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers- Moanin'

Best Jazz album to play to if you're a beginniner.

[Cymbalrider]

Brush Work etc. = Autumn Leaves, My Funny Valentine, etc.
3/4=All Blues, Footprints (although this one often is in 6/8 but same feel)
Straight ahead stuff that's fun and most people know=In the Mood, Take the A Train, American Patrol, Sing Sing Sing, (basically a lot of Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Count Basie)

[Class A Drummer]

Johnny Carson theme song was one of the first ones i learn. Pretty straight forward swing with only a few kicks in it.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ncoKSaWTCnk

Once you feel like you are good at playing along with music and musicians i would suggest "Groovin Hard", which is a really fun Buddy Rich tune which isnt really that difficult whatsoever, unless you wanna make it sound insane like Buddy did. But getting all the kicks written in the music isnt so bad.

[brittc89]

Johnny Carson theme song was one of the first ones i learn. Pretty straight forward swing with only a few kicks in it.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ncoKSaWTCnk

Once you feel like you are good at playing along with music and musicians i would suggest "Groovin Hard", which is a really fun Buddy Rich tune which isnt really that difficult whatsoever, unless you wanna make it sound insane like Buddy did. But getting all the kicks written in the music isnt so bad.
Neither of those are really standards though man. Youre never gonna go to a gig and a saxaphone players just gonna call the Johnny Carson Theme.

[foursticks]

Get a Real Book, that'll cover you for life. Learn em all if you can - though that sounds like a mission, just one tune a week starting from A-Z will do you a load of good.

A cool excersise is to use the heads of the songs as independence excersises, so try to play them (rhythm wise) against the swing pattern and use two hands if gets too much for one hand - hope that makes sense.

[Bart Elliott]

As far as jazz combo, I think Miles Davis' album, Kind of Blue is one of the best albums to start with and play to for beginners.

If you are looking for a list of "must have" albums, here's my list of Essential Jazz Standard CDs (http://www.drummercafe.com/content/view/3/29/) that you might find useful.

[OceanDirt]

two of my favorites have always been:

someday my prince will come
soflty as in a morning sun rise

foursticks is right though. if you want to learn standards, grab a real book and just start playing them. most of the tunes in there get called all the time (stella, autumn leaves, etc. etc.). there's a few you can probably skip over, like the steve swallow tunes for instance.

[aydee]

[quote=foursticks;419908]Get a Real Book, that'll cover you for life. Learn em all if you can - though that sounds like a mission, just one tune a week starting from A-Z will do you a load of good.
quote]

Foursticks, as always, you make a lot of sense on this forum.

[spleen]

[quote=foursticks;419908]Get a Real Book, that'll cover you for life. Learn em all if you can - though that sounds like a mission, just one tune a week starting from A-Z will do you a load of good.
quote]

Foursticks, as always, you make a lot of sense on this forum.

Yes Aydee, too bad someone didn't suggest it back on, oh I don't know, say...POST # 8 ?!?! ;-)

LOL - Of course, just kidding my friend--hope you are well!

spleen

[foursticks]

[QUOTE=aydee;420104]

Yes Aydee, too bad someone didn't suggest it back on, oh I don't know, say...POST # 8 ?!?! ;-)

LOL - Of course, just kidding my friend--hope you are well!

spleen

OOPS! My bad.. You make alot of sense too :-)

Cheers Aydee for the compliment anyway.

[spleen]

[QUOTE=spleen;420151]

OOPS! My bad.. You make alot of sense too :-)

Cheers Aydee for the compliment anyway.

No worries foursticks--just giving my friend Aydee a hard time. He was probably too busy scheming to steal other bands' musicians to notice my post. ;-)

spleen

[mkelley]

satin doll is a good example for brushes and just something to keep in your hat...

[aydee]

[quote=foursticks;420153]

No worries foursticks--just giving my friend Aydee a hard time. He was probably too busy scheming to steal other bands' musicians to notice my post. ;-)

spleen

Go right ahead and hit me where it hurts, J........... with friends like you, I will need a shrink ; )

Ya, I shoulda scrolled all the way down and expected to see good advice coming from Zack n you .

[lifetime]

Some of these have been mentioned, and some of them might be new to you.

All Blues
All of Me
All the things you are
Blue Bossa
Confirmation
ESP
Freddie Freeloader
The Girl from Ipanema (Don't forget to learn your bossa nova's)
Killer Joe
LadyBird
Solar
Maiden Voyage
My Favorite Things
A night in Tunisia
So what
Sugar
Summertime
Take Five
Wave

[Pollyanna]

I might have missed it ... has anyone mentioned Duke's Caravan?