Exposure to the standards on a budget

[Chasarms]

While I realize that there is very little standard about standards, I am looking to compile a collection of CDs that will allow me the most comprehensive exposure to the standard jazz repertoire that I can gain.

I know there are a bunch of guys here at TB that can offer great suggestions. So, in offering them, I would ask that you consider the following:

1. Availability of the recording. (I usually order off Amazon or the like)

2. Price. (I don't think I want to drop $100 on box set unless it has a BUNCH of tunes that do what I want)

3, Value (I'd hate to buy a CD to get one tune)

4. A "standard" standard. (Again, this is a tough wrinkle, but I'm more interested in hearing the tunes how they are more commonly approached rather than a very unique take on it. No matter how amazingly creative that take may be)

5. Clarity of the bass on the recording. (probably not a huge issue. but it is always nice to hear the bass)


I am probably going to drop a couple hundred bucks in the first wave, and build from there.

Another option would be to try to score the tunes individually off iTunes. That seem less appealing though.

Many thanks in advance.

Charles

[hdiddy]

Forget CD's for this. Sam "I SHOT THE" Sherry turned me to emusic.com through TB. I've got the $15/mo - 65 downloads subscription and it's a pretty good deal. Works well if you have cable/dsl as they download pretty quick and are pretty good quality. The best thing is that the jazz catalog is pretty big. You shouldn't have a problem coming up with a collection of standards. Also since you can download one tune at a time, you can just grab the standards you want instead of having to buy whole albums.

It's much cheaper that going through a record store or iTunes. I guess if you ever get enough tunes, you can just cancel the service. One thing tho, always make sure you use all of your downloads every month, otherwise you'll lose them since they don't add up.

[Chasarms]

Originally Posted by hdiddy

Forget CD's for this. Sam "I SHOT THE" Sherry turned me to emusic.com through TB. I've got the $15/mo - 65 downloads subscription and it's a pretty good deal. Works well if you have cable/dsl as they download pretty quick and are pretty good quality. The best thing is that the jazz catalog is pretty big. You shouldn't have a problem coming up with a collection of standards. Also since you can download one tune at a time, you can just grab the standards you want instead of having to buy whole albums.

It's much cheaper that going through a record store or iTunes. I guess if you ever get enough tunes, you can just cancel the service. One thing tho, always make sure you use all of your downloads every month, otherwise you'll lose them since they don't add up.

This does seem like the best way to approach it. Thanks for the tip. That said, I'd still be interested in recommended recordings that "best" represent the tune as a standard.

[Andy Allen]

Originally Posted by hdiddy

Forget CD's for this. Sam "I SHOT THE" Sherry turned me to emusic.com through TB. I've got the $15/mo - 65 downloads subscription and it's a pretty good deal. Works well if you have cable/dsl as they download pretty quick and are pretty good quality. The best thing is that the jazz catalog is pretty big. You shouldn't have a problem coming up with a collection of standards. Also since you can download one tune at a time, you can just grab the standards you want instead of having to buy whole albums.

It's much cheaper that going through a record store or iTunes. I guess if you ever get enough tunes, you can just cancel the service. One thing tho, always make sure you use all of your downloads every month, otherwise you'll lose them since they don't add up.

+1 on eMusic, although they just restructured their subscriptions and the deal is not quite so good now for new members.

They have a good selection of jazz - one can nearly always find a few representative versions of standards, and they also have access to otherwise hard-to-find CDs.

Andy

[Dave Speranza]

I havent looked at emusic but I just signed up at rhapsody...2 week free trial, but its $15/mo or so. You don't get to download the songs and burn them unless you pay additional for the download, however, you can listen to EVERYTHING at your computer. This has been awesome for me. Need to learn a tune? Type in the name, you'll often find 70 hits for a tune. I love it

[hdiddy]

Originally Posted by CHARLESINCHARGE

This does seem like the best way to approach it. Thanks for the tip. That said, I'd still be interested in recommended recordings that "best" represent the tune as a standard.

You can listen to samples of each tune before you download. For a set of "reference" standards, either look at the Realbook to see where the changes are "based" on or look at the back of Mark Levine's "Jazz Theory" Book. IIRC, there is a list of "reference" recordings in the addendum or something like that.

EDIT: One more thing. I like finding the "reference" recording if possible but if not, I'll take a guess at what a recording with the "typical" changes would be and supplement that with a different version that has vocals. This works pretty dang well for me in terms of learning standards.

[orlfl]

Originally Posted by Dave Speranza

I havent looked at emusic but I just signed up at rhapsody...2 week free trial, but its $15/mo or so. You don't get to download the songs and burn them unless you pay additional for the download, however, you can listen to EVERYTHING at your computer. This has been awesome for me. Need to learn a tune? Type in the name, you'll often find 70 hits for a tune. I love it

+100

[Sam Sherry]

If I had to pick four records that would cover the Standard Canon, it would be the sides from Mile's First Great Quintet on Riverside -- Workin', Cookin', Steamin' and Relaxin'. Although not every single cut remains in the everyday repertoire (anybody played "Dianne" lately?) the entire package is well worth the coin.

Especially, as Huy and Andy note, when the whole four-piece kit will cost you less than ten bucks at EMusic. Pretty darn cool.

If you want to spend a little more, the Ella Fitzgerald "Songbook" records on Verve are also uniformly outstanding (and you hear the lyrics). Man, that Johnny Mercer disc is just to-die-for . . . Ella sings "Midnight Sun" and your knees get weak . . .

Which makes me want to underscore something you already know, Charles. There are a lot of perfectly-good versions of the standard tunes. Try to hold out for the hair-raisingly great ones.

[billyfalconer]

If you can deal with vinyl, you can pick up LPs for dirt cheap at a variety of places, including Goodwill, Salvation Army, and secondhand book and record stores. They also have cheap CDs and cassettes. If your town has record conventions you can pick up boatloads of LPs and cheap CDs.

[Sippy]

www.half.com I got jazz GREATS for around $.75 a cd.

[Paul Warburton]

Originally Posted by Sam Sherry

If you want to spend a little more, the Ella Fitzgerald "Songbook" records on Verve are also uniformly outstanding (and you hear the lyrics). Man, that Johnny Mercer disc is just to-die-for . . . Ella sings "Midnight Sun" and your knees get weak . . .

#1

[oliebrice]

Theres a 4 cd box set of most of charlie parker's studio recordings, that used to be very cheap on amazon. Don't know if it still is, but its called 'Boss Bird'. That contains loads of standards, as well as some of the most exhilarating music in history...

I learned alot of standards from the Mercury Songbook. It's great because it's all vocalists abd you'll never forget the tunes.As an added bonus, you can work on transposing keys because you'll probably have to transpose them to play with other people. It was also super cheap when I bought it (around $30) Here's an amazon link:


http://www.amazon.com/Mercury-Songbo...e=UTF8&s=music

[damonsmith]

http://efi.group.shef.ac.uk/labels/v.../artelier.html

[hdiddy]

Don't forget there are used CD places that you can buy stuff on the "cheap-er". In SF and LA, we have Amoeba which has been a nice boon but the used prices seem to me a little higher than they used to these days.

[Jake]

I've gotten a lot out of listening to Frank Sinatra on CD singing standards. A good jazz pianist I used to play with told me Sinatra's classic recordings almost always have the right chord changes to the songs, unlike the fake books. Sinatra was an amazing musician. His singing, especially on ballads, has had a big infuence on me.