Double Bass 30 most essential bebop jazz tunes?

[dlargent]

I'm working on making a list of the top 30 songs to work on when learning to play bebop. Only thinking of chord changes (i.e., no need to list more than one song with 'blues' changes). I plan to focus intently on just these 30 songs when practicing technique and soloing over changes:

(List updated)
1. Airegin - Sonny Rollins
2. All The Things You Are - Jerome Kern
3. Blues - Jazz - Exercise
4. Blues For Alice - Charlie Parker
5. Bluesette - Toots Thielemans
6. But Not For Me - George Gershwin
7. Cherokee - Ray Noble
8. Confirmation - Charlie Parker
9. Days Of Wine And Roses - Henry Mancini
10. Groovin' High - Dizzy Gillespie
11. Half Nelson - Miles Davis
12. Have You Met Miss Jones? - Richard Rodgers
13. How High The Moon - Morgan Lewis
14. I Hear A Rhapsody - Fragos-Baker-Gasparre
15. I Remember You - Victor Schertzinger
16. Indiana (Back Home Again In) - James Hanley
17. Joy Spring - Clifford Brown
18. Just Friends - John Klenner
19. Just One Of Those Things - Cole Porter
20. Lazy Bird - John Coltrane
21. Like Someone In Love - Jimmy Van-Heusen
22. Lover - Richard Rodgers
23. Milestones (Old) - Miles Davis
24. Rhythm Changes
25. Stella By Starlight - Victor Young
26. There Will Never Be Another You - Harry Warren
27. Up Jumped Spring - Freddie Hubbard
28. Voyage - Kenny Barron
29. What Is This Thing Called Love - Cole Porter
30. Woody'n You - Dizzy Gillespie

I'd like to limit it to 30 so I could have an attainable goal. Are there any glaring omissions? It occurs to me that 'Invitation' might be really good too, but not sure if it would be crucial enough to replace anything on the list...

Thanks for your help!

 

[Tom Lane]

How did you assemble your list? There are a number of tunes that I, personally, consider standards and not bop tunes, such as All the Things You Are and How High the Moon. Also, are Latin jazz tunes bop tunes? Ceora? I would add Donna Lee and probably start with all the tunes in the Charlie Parker Omnibook.

 

[dlargent]

Thanks Tom- I will add 'Indiana' (Donna Lee). Thanks for mentioning it!

I am looking for songs with chord changes most suitable for practicing bebop soloing. Certainly if I were looking for bebop heads, Omnibook would be my first stop.

 

[Tom Lane]

Thanks Tom- I will add 'Indiana' (Donna Lee). Thanks for mentioning it!

I am looking for songs with chord changes most suitable for practicing bebop soloing. Certainly if I were looking for bebop heads, Omnibook would be my first stop.

How is bop soloing different than soloing over the changes using the bop scale? With that definition, anything but a modal tune would work. I'm still considering bop soloing over a Latin jazz tune. Certainly, Dizzy did it, some of the Jazz Messengers. Maybe Stan Getz? but it seems like Getz changed his lines when he played Latin jazz to me.

 

[Ed Fuqua]

Not that it's a bad list of tunes, but it's not really a list of "bebop" tunes. For most of these tunes , you can apply a lot of different "language" or approaches and it's not really going to help develop anything you don't already have under your belt.
Now for me, the idea of this music is to develop the ability to express your own concept of the melody that is the most honest expression of how you're hearing your current aural environment. But if all you're interested in doing is replicating bebop vocabulary, then your list needs to consist of bebop tunes - Fats Navarro, Bird, Bud Powell, Diz, Oscar Pettiford, etc - learn the heads, learn the solos, get that vocabulary imbedded and it'll come out no matter what the tune is.

No matter how inappropriate...

 

[Huy Nguyen]

You could do a small study on the different Rhythm Changes variations and heads alone - not even the solos.

 

[Tom Lane]

Here's a page from the Jamey Aebersold infamous *Red Book* about bebop tunes. This might better articulate why we're skeptical about your list.

BEBOP CHARACTERISTICS
Compiled by David Baker
1. COMPLEX HARMONIC IDEAS
2. LONGER MELODIC PHRASES USING ODD INTERVALS BUILT ON THE EXTENSION OF CHORDS (9ths, 11ths, 13ths, etc.).
3. HARMONY GAINED EQUAL FOOTING WITH MELODY AND RHYTHM (WESTERN INFLUENCE).
4. A SOUND INSTRUMENTAL TECHNIQUE WAS MANDATORY.
5. A GOOD EAR AND A QUICK MIND WERE INDISPENSABLE.
6. EIGHTH NOTES AND SIXTEENTH NOTES BECAME THE BASIC UNITS OF TIME.
7. HORNS AIMED FOR CLEAN, PIANO-LIKE EXECUTION.
8. PLAYERS FOLLOWED THE TREND TOWARD THE VIBRATO-LESS SOUND (REDUCING THE LATITUDE AND FLEXIBILITY OF SOUND PRODUCTION IS ANOTHER WESTERN CONCEPT). AS A PRACTICAL CONSIDERATION, VIRTUOSITY DEMANDS AN UNENCUMBERED SOUND.
9. THE EMPHASIS WAS MORE ON CONTENT THAN ON SOUND.
10. COMPLEX CHORDS PROVIDED SOLOISTS WITH A BROADER HARMONIC BASE; MAKING POSSIBLE A GREATER VARIETY OF NOTE CHOICES AND A HIGHER INCIDENCE OF CHROMATICISM.
11. CHORDS SERVED AS THE IMPROVISATIONAL REFERENTIAL RATHER THAN THE MELODY.
12. HOT IMPROVISATION (FAST, INTENSE, IMPASSIONED) WAS THE RULE.
13. COLLECTIVE IMPROVISATION WAS EXCLUSIVELY BETWEEN THE SOLOIST AND THE RHYTHM SECTION.
14. BEBOP WAS PRIMARILY A SMALL BAND MUSIC, BUT FOUND SOME EXPRESSION IN A FEW SELECT BIG BANDS.
15. A BROADENED CONCEPT OF CHORD SUBSTITUTION CAME INTO BEING; THIS HELPED TO PROVIDE A BROADER HARMONIC BASE.
16. THE MUSIC MOVED EVER CLOSER TO WESTERN EUROPEAN MUSIC BECAUSE OF ITS EMPHASIS ON HARMONY AND INSTRUMENTAL FACILITY AND ITS INCREASING USE OF OTHER WESTERN MUSICAL DEVICES.
17. THE ENTIRE LANGUAGE OF JAZZ WAS QUESTIONED, SUBTRACTED FROM, ADDED TO, PURGED, AND REAFFIRMED.
18. POLY-RHYTHM BECAME AN IMPORTANT FACTOR AGAIN.
19. BEBOP TENDED TO CODIFY ALL THAT HAD GONE BEFORE; IT IS CONSIDERED THE COMMON PRACTICE PERIOD IN JAZZ.
20. UNISON MELODY STATEMENTS WERE THE RULE OF THUMB BECAUSE THE INCREASING HARMONIC COMPLEXITIES MADE COUNTERPOINT AND SECONDARY LINES LESS FEASIBLE.
21. THE BREAK AS A STRUCTURAL DEVICE REGAINED POPULARITY.
22. BEBOP PLAYERS MADE LIBERAL USE OF “QUOTES” OR INTERPOLATIONS FROM OTHER TUNES.
23. BEBOP REDUCED MELODY TO ITS ESSENTIALS. THERE WERE FEW BACKGROUNDS, SOME BRIEF INTRODUCTIONS AND ENDINGS, AND SOME UNISON INTERLUDES.
24. MELODIC LINES WERE SCALAR RATHER THAN CHORDAL.
25. MORE SOPHISTICATED SCALES WERE INTRODUCED INTO THE LANGUAGE; ONE EXAMPLE IS THE DIMINISHED SCALE (1 b2 b3 3 #4 5 6 b7 8)
26. THERE WAS MORE EFFORT TO MAKE THE SOLO LINES COHESIVE BY LINKING THEM TOGETHER WITH TURN-BACKS, CYCLES, AND OTHER MUSICAL ADHESIVE DEVICES.
27. PIANO BECAME THE CENTER OF THE NEW EXPRESSION.
28. ASYMMETRICAL SOLO CONSTRUCTION BECAME A FACT.

 

[fjadams]

Where are Coleman Hawkins, Earl Hines, Lester Young?

It don't be bop without them.

 

[Robert Strickland]

Also, don't forget Led Zeppelin's Kashmir. That thing bopped me in the head the first time I heard it.

 

[Baswithone"s"]

That's a great list of tunes. While a lot of them aren't actually bop tunes, the standards you've chosen were used so often by beboppers let's count them anyway. Just be aware that the jazz police are going to jump down your throat!
It looks like you're pretty new to improvising, and I think bebop is a great place to start. You'll find your own voice faster and more clearly if you're well grounded in the traditions of the past. Here's a couple of things you might want to keep in mind:
Do you know the difference between the bebop style of playing and other styles of improvising?
Have you picked one player to really study and get an idea of their approach to playing music?
Do you know the theory - terms like flat nine, tritone sub, sharp 11, enclosure, and chromaticism, etc?
Just some thoughts, as obviously we can't go into everything. Good luck!

 

[Ed Fuqua]

Well, there you go, then.
Good luck with that. Have a blessed day.

 

[Stick_Player]

flat nine

 

[Tom Lane]

and the #9?

 

[Stick_Player]

and the #9?

 

[tmntfan]

I 'll agree with the ppl saying those are mostly standards not really "bop" tunes.

however since it's jazz and most ppl listening won't know or care about the difference between swing and bop play what you want over any changes.

add donna Lee and maby some monk Tunes; the 1 to b2 chord change is fun to mess around on. check well you needn't or epistemology

spain is a fun head to run down and the solo section is very open to play some pretty stuff on.