Jazz "covers" of rock music

[boptilUdrop]

Obviously, early popular music was a great source of inspiration for a lot of classic jazz, a perfect example being "My favorite things."

Is this concept getting updated today with stuff like Brad Mehldau interpreting Radiohead, etc.?

I can think of a couple of other jazz versions of modern pop/rock ... what does everyone think of this trend?

Off the top of my head:

Christian McBride: Aja by Steely Dan

Charlie Hunter: Come as you are by Nirvana; Fly like an eagle by Steve Miller

Cassandra Wilson: Last train to Clarksville by the Monkees

And I know there was the Blue Note series with artists covering entire albums, like Charlie Hunter doing a Bob Marley album.

[Muskrat Ramble]

Alex Skolnick, formerly a guitarist with 80's thrash metal band Testament, has put out an album with jazz covers of classic rock tunes by Ozzy, The Scorpions, KISS, and others:

http://www.alexskolnick.com/

Also, These Are the Vistas by The Bad Plus includes versions of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and Blondie's "Heart of Glass."

[Joel]

Pat Metheny and Dominic Miller- Shape Of My Heart (Sting)


Last I heard was this has not been released as a audio (CD) recording but is only available as a video stream/download.

You can watch it at Dominic Miller's website in this link
Its a 22 mb mpeg so a high speed net connection is recommended.

Recorded during the Salzau Jazz Festival of this year.

[rhinozoot]

ANY OLD TIME is an excellent recording

love me tender is done very well

I actually prefer it to the original elvis version

[summerleaf]

Cassandra Wilson also does a very nice take on The Bands "The Weight and I just heard (pulled out an old album) a live version of Bob Dylans "Just Like A Woman" offered up by Nina Simone Live - NOT a very good one I might add.

[clifton]

The history of jazz is filled with covers of the pop songs of the day. A few examples should suffice: Armstrong "Stardust", Goodman "Sometimes I'm Happy", Bird "Just Friends", Miles "All Of You" in the '50's, "Time After Time" in the '80's, Coltrane "My Favorite Things", etc. etc. If jazz is to expand its audience, reach young people, and stay out of the museum, jazz musicians must deal with the times, and that means today's pop music. I realize there's a big obstacle in all this. Most pop tunes offer next to nothing in terms of melodic or harmonic interest. In other words, there's not much substance for improvisation. In his liner notes for "Goodbye To Romance" (excellent CD, BTW), Alex Skolnik said he weeded out hundreds of rock songs in order to select the good ones, the ones that could be good jazz vehicles. Jazz musicians would have to improvise modally or drastically reharmonize today's pop tunes in order to play them. But isn't that what the boppers did with the pop tunes of their time? I say, Skolnik, Bad Plus, J. Redman, McBride, Dave Douglas, etc. have the right idea. Find the best pop yunes and play them, and use them as vehicles for great jazz.

[jazzypaul]

Let's not forget Beatles and Stevie Wonder tunes done by just about everyone from Dizzy Gillespie to Pat Martino to Sexmob to Marian McPartland. Great pop tunes deserve to be played, just as much, if not moreso than their "standard" counterparts. A few off the top of my head...

Happy Together -- Bobby Broom
Eleanor Rigby -- Gephart - Long Quartet
Too High -- Pat Martino
You Keep Me Hangin On -- Charlie Hunter
Sign o' The Times -- Sexmob
Hey Joe -- Medeski Martin and Wood
Lenny -- Soulive
Who Are the Brain Police? -- Ed Palermo

[jacman]

i like Buddy Rich's take on the Beatles' Norwegian Wood.

[nwabhu]

Originally posted by clifton
I realize there's a big obstacle in all this. Most pop tunes offer next to nothing in terms of melodic or harmonic interest. In other words, there's not much substance for improvisation. In his liner notes for "Goodbye To Romance" (excellent CD, BTW), Alex Skolnik said he weeded out hundreds of rock songs in order to select the good ones, the ones that could be good jazz vehicles. Jazz musicians would have to improvise modally or drastically reharmonize today's pop tunes in order to play them. But isn't that what the boppers did with the pop tunes of their time?

Your last question is a good one. Out of all the Tin Pan Alley tunes and pop tunes from the 20s onwards, how many have become jazz standards? Only a very few. I'm not sure it has that much to do with the intrinsic quality of the tunes.

I found that Mehldau's "Exit Music (For A Film)" provided an easy path into his music, those many years ago when I was a jazz novice. Even though I hadn't even heard the original, it spoke to me more immediately than the other tunes, be they standards or Mehldau originals.

[jlhoots]

Michael Moore, a pretty "advanced" reed player, has an entire CD of Bob Dylan songs on a label called Ramboy.
Well worth getting.

[marxmarvelous]

cold turkey--freddie hubbard

[Nikhil]

Theme from 'M.A.S.H' by Bill Evans in the album, 'You Must Believe in Spring'.

[rhinozoot]

NINA SIMONE "HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN"

CARMEN MCRAE the cd SECOND TO NONE includes cloudy morning and night has a thousand eyes


shirley horn cd may the music never end includes yesterday

[rhinozoot]

Carmen McRae on one of her LIVE AT RATSOS cd's has a version of some stevie wonder songs,I think they are very good,much better than the originals

[Grub]

To these ears jazz covers of pop tunes dont work and in fact show up the weaknesses of pop composition. Beatles covers in particular are usually pretty cheesy.