The first song in this course is one that many of you will be familiar with already, the great Joseph Kosma standard, ‘Autumn Leaves’.

‘All of Me’ is a very popular standard originally written by Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons in 1931. Like many of the classic ‘Tin Pan Alley’ songs it has some interesting harmonic progressions which give the melody a distinctive flavour.

‘All The Things You Are’ is one of the best jazz standards around. It has been recorded be nearly every great jazz artist that has ever played / sung and is one of my favourites.

Blue Monk was first recorded on the 1954 album Thelonious Monk Trio, and is a very clever melody based over a simple 12 bar blues in Bb.

I’m sorry to say that Cantaloupe Island first found its way into my ears via a 90’s advertising campaign from Burger King!

For me, Cheek to Cheek is one of the greatest songs ever written. Composed by Irving Berlin in 1936, Cheek to Cheek is a classic, ‘Tin Pan Alley’ song. Written for the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film, Top Hat it has recently been recorded by Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga!

Cherokee is a rare standard, it’s a song which is more famous for the chord progressions it contains, than the melody!
The principal reason for this is that it is whilst soloing on this song that Charlie Parker said that, ‘he came alive, I felt I could fly’

One of my favourite tunes to play when I was in college was ‘The Chicken’ by Jaco Pastorius. It has since become a favourite of many of my students.

The Days of Wine and Roses is an Oscar winning song by Henry Mancini that was composed for the 1962 film of the same name

Footprints is one track I always seem to come back to playing in concerts and on recordings. It has a very simple modal melody and gives everyone a chance of playing a good solo, from the novice to the professional.

The Girl from Ipanema was written by Brazilian composer, Anton Carlos Jobim in 1962. However, it is the 1964 recording featuring saxophonist Stan Getz that has become a firm favourite of many.

Have You Met Miss Jones? Is a classic ‘Rodgers & Hart’ song from 1937. It is taken from the musical comedy, I’d rather be right’ and it has been recorded by everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to Robbie Williams!

‘I Got Rhythm’ is second only to the blues in its influence on jazz music. The chord changes to ‘I Got Rhythm’ are more commonly known as ‘Rhythm Changes’ and will form part of a future course on this site.

‘Lush Life’ was written by Billy Strayhorn in the 1930’s. It is reputed to be one of the two songs that Strayhorn played for his ‘audition’ with Duke Ellington, the other being ‘Take the A Train’.

Mercy, Mercy, Mercy was written by pianist Joe Zawinul and was made famous by Alto Saxophonist, Julian, ‘Cannonball’ Adderely.

The Nearness of You is another of those great 1930’s songs that have made it into our 20 songs in 20 weeks course. The Nearness of You was written by Hoagy Carmichael in 1938 and featured in the film Romance in the Dark.

‘Summertime’ is one of the most famous jazz standards around. It was originally part of the George Gershwin Opera Porgy and Bess and, (according to Wikipedia) is the most ‘covered’ song in history with over 33,000 versions recorded.

We’ve already covered ‘Take Five’ in a transcription project, (you can view the course by clicking here) but it is such a popular jazz standard, particularly for saxophone that I wanted to include it as part of this course.

‘Take the ‘A’ Train’ is the penultimate song in our 20 songs in 20 weeks series. It was written by Billy Strayhorn and it was the signature tune of the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

‘Well, You Needn’t’ was composed by legendary jazz pianist Thelonious Monk in 1944. The melody makes use of a second inversion chord of F concert, (G on the tenor, D on the Alto) and has a chromatic root movement in the ‘A’ section, (make sure you play the root tones once you have the head nailed down.)