Pop songs we can revamp into Jazz?

[oops]

We've been asked to play some more songs 'people will know' by one of the waitresses at our weekly restaurant gig.

We desire to please, any suggestions for pop/funk/rock tunes we can play with a jazz quartet?

Some obvious ones we already have are Yesterday and A Day in The Life (Beatles), Hit The Road Jack. She's asked if we can play Fever... haha.

Any others?

[bobdadruma]

Are you sure that you want to go there? I like to Jazz up Van Morrison's Moon Dance with my band. And of course there is always Stairway to Heaven! (just kidding about Stairway).By the way, We play Fever all the time. It gets requested by people that know our band. We have a female vocalist.

[Old Doc Yak]

I don't know if this will help or be of any use but if you can find a copy of the album "Dave Digs Disney" by Dave Brubeck it might give you some inspiration. I bought this album more years ago than I care to remember and it gave me some insight into how to swing a standard pop tune. The quartet swings all the standard Disney stuff: When you wish upon a star, Whistle while you work, etc. Good stuff.

[Fur drummer]

Songs by Britney Spears. I think she did some jazzy versions of her songs on the Onyx Hotel tour. I can't remember what they were.

[boomboomda]

Look up "Paul Anka's" album "Rock swings".
Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, great playing.
They use songs like "eye of the tiger"(Survivor)
"jump" Van Halen
"It's my life" Bon Jovi
"Smells like teen spirit" Nirvana
and a lot more.

[dcrigger]

Check out Herbie Hancock's excellent "The New Standards" CD - for great examples of the kind of modern jazz arrangements can be made of even some fairly unlikely pop compositions.

Sadly this has become a sort of lost art. Years ago jazz renditions of pop tunes were standard fare for many jazz artists - and most really great. Shelly Manne doing songs from "My Fair Lady". Tons of artists rearranging songs from "West Side Story" or songs of the Beatles.

This, of course, long before it became excepted practice in the pop world to do covers that are almost straight copies of the original recordings. Which seems like the silliest thing to me for any artist to do. If it's YOUR record, why would you release something that sounds almost exactly like THEIR record. Isn't the point to be building an audience for YOUR sound. Sheesh. But I digress..

Anyway my point is don't focus just on some what jazzy pop tunes - ie: Moondance - no take something not jazz at all with a recognizable melody (not all vocal pop music qualifies here), and reharmonize and rearrange it, so that it sounds as though it was originally written in the style of the rest of your material. I don't know if your band is playing light cocktail jazz, hard bop, or free - doesn't matter... rework the structure and harmony of the pop tune until it fits right in with the rest of your material.

For example, for an upcoming project, I'm working on a large ensemble arrangement of Hendrix's "Burning of the Midnight Lamp" that has shifted it into 13/8 that alternates between a slow shuffle feel and a upbeat bop waltz feel (all still in 13) with the the verse being very reminiscent of the old Jazz Crusaders sound. It's turning out really cool!!!

Anyway check out that Hancock record... great examples of what I'm talking about.

dc

[TheGroceryman]

the band "the bad plus" does a bunch of really good covers on some popular tunes. they're like a "prog-jazz" trio (piano, bass, drums) and they covered stuff like smells like teen spirits, we are the champions, a really beautiful song you might not have heard of called Flim by Aphex twin. oh and they covered tom sawyer, iron man, and a bunch of other stuff.

youtube doesnt seem to have recordings of their songs. but if you wanna listen to it you can sign up to imeem.com and listen to a bunch of their recordings.

[caddywumpus]

Look up "Paul Anka's" album "Rock swings".
Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, great playing.
They use songs like "eye of the tiger"(Survivor)
"jump" Van Halen
"It's my life" Bon Jovi
"Smells like teen spirit" Nirvana
and a lot more.

That's a fun album. I've played several of those arrangements before, and they really get peoples' heads turning...

"Are they playing what I think they're playing???..."

[The Colonel]

I did a wedding with a quartet where we did all Nirvana songs. Bride and groom love them and didn't want a "jazz" band playing at their wedding - so we blasted that stuff during the cocktail hour.

[Drummer Karl]

Like dcrigger said...Herbie Hancock made some great tunes many people know.
A popular example is of course "Cantaloupe Island". Hehe, they played it in discos back then!

Also take a look at Brad Mehldau. He really loves to cover pop songs, he really puts out elegant stuff. Just listen to his cover of "Blackbird" by the Beatles or "Exit Music" by Radiohead. These are some examples.

Generally you could do that with any song. Last reheasal with a piano trio our pianist suddenly started off with the James Bond theme. Additionally we experimented with some simple children`s song. It was cool to amplify those songs with various chord progressions and rhythms!

Just a thought...

Karl

[zzdrummer]

Joshua Redman does some with Brian Blade on drums, The Crunge by Zep being a rockin' one, its really really funky...still jazz though

[sjr]

second on drummer karl's suggestion. mehldau ftw. that guy does some amazing pop covers

[Geoff Tipps]

anything by the bee gees!