TUNES

Here's our long list of learners.

Tune keys are interesting - most tunes have one or two standard keys that people have tended to use through their jazz history. But players also use different keys, and for various reasons. Sometimes a tune will sit better on the instrument in another key, sometimes players just prefer the sound of a different key for a particular tune, and sometimes players like to challenge themselves (and others) in live performance (or recording) by picking an unfamiliar key for a tune. It is a fundamental jazz skill (for the very advanced player) to be able to play anything they hear in any key. The emerging virtuosi of the 1940 bebop jam sessions used the strategy of shifting a tune through all the keys to keep the chancers off the stage!

The standard keys for tunes can sometimes be those of the originals, or sometimes the keys of the most widely-known versions - and these are usually, although not always, reflected in the various 'Real Books' that we have increasingly tended to use as reference charts. There is a movement though, I can feel it in the air, to return to the glorious past, when players learned by ear, not from the page...

Singers, have special constraints, in that they have to find a key for each tune that provides the best fit between the range of the melody and the range of their voice. Players who accompany singers quickly acquire advanced transposition skills, or else die a lonely death. Then again, the very best singers seem to make any tune work in any key, if they have to...

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TUNES	USUAL CONCERT KEY	NOTES
ALICE IN WONDERLAND	C	Original in G, Brubeck in Bb
ALL OF ME	C	Oscar Peterson likes Ab, female singers F.
ALONE TOGETHER	Dm	Kenny Dorham in Fm, Sonny Stitt and Artie Shaw in Cm
BAGS GROOVE	F
BEAUTIFUL LOVE	Dm
BLACK NARCISSUS	Abm	Modal - so starting chord, rather than key...
BLUE 7	Bb
BLUE BOSSA	Cm
BLUE DANIEL	D
BLUESETTE	Bb	Hank Jones in G, Blossom Dearie in D
BLUES FOR ALICE	F
THE BOY/GIRL NEXT DOOR	Bb	Griffin and Judy Garland in F, Sinatra Ab. Verse starts up a fifth.
CANTALOUPE ISLAND	Fm
CARAVAN	Fm
CHEEK TO CHEEK	C or Eb	Louis Armstrong and Couriers Ab, Ella F
CHELSEA BRIDGE	Db
CHEROKEE	Bb
CORCOVADO	C
FOUR	Eb
FREDDIE FREELOADER	Bb
THE GENTLE RAIN	Am	Sometimes in Gm or Em
GET OUT OF TOWN	Eb (Cm)
GOOD BAIT	Bb
HONEYSUCKLE ROSE	F	Ella Db, Sarah Vaughan Bb
HOW INSENSITIVE	Dm	Jobim Bm Astrud Gilberto Am Diana Krall Em Shirley Horn Gm!
I FALL IN LOVE TOO EASILY	Eb	sometimes in C
I'M OLD FASHIONED	F	Coltrane Eb Chet Baker Ab Ella Db Andra Sparks and Blossom Dearie C
IN A MELLOTONE	Ab	sometimes in C
IN YOUR OWN SWEET WAY	Bb
I THOUGHT ABOUT YOU	F
JOY SPRING	F
KILLER JOE	C
LADY BIRD	C
LOVER MAN	F	Billie holiday C, Blossom Dearie Bb
MAKIN' WHOOPEE	Our choice C!	Eb Louis/ Nat Cole Sinatra Db, Ben Webster Ab, LaFaro C, Esther Phillips Bb
MILESTONES	Gm
MOANIN'	Fm
MR PC	Cm
MY FOOLISH HEART	Bb	Most famous version (Bill Evans trio) in A
NARDIS	Em ish
OH LADY BE GOOD	G
ONE NOTE SAMBA	Bb	singers in G and C
POLKA DOTS AND MOONBEAMS	F
SOMEDAY MY PRNCE WILL COME	Bb	Original in G, Brookmeyer in Ab
STAR EYES	Eb
STOMPIN' AT THE SAVOY	Db
STRAIGHT NO CHASER	F	Monk always in Bb, then Miles Davis played it in F!
'S WONDERFUL	Eb
TENOR MADNESS	Bb
UP JUMPED SPRING	Bb	Abbey Lincoln in B!
WAVE	D	sometimes in F, often in C
WHISPER NOT	Cm
WITCHCRAFT	F	Ella and Sarah Vaughan in C
YARDBIRD SUITE	C