The Great American Song Book has formed the backbone of the jazz repertoire for the past one hundred years.
Whilst many of the songs are approaching the 100th anniversary of their composition, that is no reason not to play close attention to them. Jazz standards have played an important role in the development of jazz during the 20th and into the 21st century. I regularly get asked by students which jazz standards they should know, and whilst this list is not exhaustive, these are the top 100 that you should know, and in the Vlog episode below I explain how you should go about learning them, (tip start with the playlists below…)
Cambridge Saxophone 100 Essential Jazz Standards (click to download)
(If you’re reading this and Spotify isn’t showing correctly, please either view this page in Chrome or click here)