Which 2 standards? (long-ish post)

[sir juice]

I have a music AS level (I'd rather not explain the British schooling system, I'm in my penultimate year of school, and this is going towards a formal qualification) recital in march in which I'll be playing trumpet.

It has to be 16 minutes long, 8 of solo, 8 of ensemble. I'll be playing classical stuff for my solo, which will simply be my (undecided) grade 8 pieces.

For my ensemble I'm looking to play some jazz stuff. I want to play one blues, simply because that's a great way to show off improvising ability, but I'm worried that the lack of "complex" changes could hinder my mark-getting ability. Ideally I'd want to do a Monk tune like Straight No Chaser or Bolivar Blues, but do you reckon these would be too simple technically, what would you recommend?

For my other tune, I'd want something a little less hard to play technically (my face will be more or less gone after the tricky stuff being played up to this point) but with some changes I can really go to town on.

What kind of things do you think I should be looking at?

ps. this is a friend of mine performing for last years recital (he's a year older than me):
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kwZhEFmJ0dU
I'm not sure how hard it is to play technically, but if it isn't that hard, it should mean I'll be fine doing a simple tune with a good performance.

[AlphaMale]

Are you playing jazz guitar too?


Well the monk tune with the most complex changes is probably 'Round Midnight

It is a hard song to follow though. but it's slow and a ballad.
It's also very musical.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=gRRR9ggmfis
http://youtube.com/watch?v=jhU2HP_-Q6M


Try playing a modal jazz tune then you can be more complex even though the changes are fairly simple. I hope they won't judge you on the changes but they might. But yeah if Thelonious can play on crazy changes but still had tunes with simple ones.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jhU2HP_-Q6M&feature=related

Instead of playing the 7 chord with the progression play mixolydian over the progression?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-zeZ52pRt58

Would I would really like to hear someone play is Summertime by George Gershwin
http://youtube.com/watch?v=qp-lTgapo_E
But the changes would take a bit of time to memorize.

Also consider some tunes like this.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=KL99-S0bt1I

[kissmybASS01]

Rhythm changes are always good (especially if the rhythm section and soloist knows their changes well enough to add chord substitutes ). As well, any originals are always good - be it complex or as simple as a blues tune like C jam blues.

[AlphaMale]

Actually the best advice I can give you is play whatever would impress you. Go look up vids of people playing the tunes you're playing. What matters most to you the nice improv or the complex changes, once you find a balance or that one doesn't matter you've found your piece.