[JPL] Educational Presentations

[Nou Dadoun]

>> Re:  jazz versions of pop or rock tunes -
>>
>> I wonder just how effective this is and I don't know how to measure it.
>>  It does seem to me that rock fans are more interested in the performer than
>> the song.  How do they react to an artist unknown to them messing up their
>> favorite Beetles or Elvis tune?  Would they rather hear the Beetles or Elvis
>> doing the song?    I can't imagine an Elvis fan buying and loving Cyrus
>> Chestnut's CD or hearing Carmen McRae sing "Love me Tender", but maybe it
>> happens.

In terms of jazz versions of pop songs, I think this ties into the
whole notion of looking for the new
standards.  A lot of younger artists are looking beyond the 'great
American songbook' for raw material,
and not Beatles or Elvis tunes (personally I generally don't like
covers of Beatles and Elvis tunes because
the originals are so idiosyncratic that it's hard to separate the
composition from the performance).
And they're looking to the music they grew up with.

The Joni Mitchell songbook is very popular with jazz artists these
days and not just Herbie Hancock,
Kenny Werner does Very Cool on the Delirium Blues Project etc.
Hancock attacks "The New Standards"
with his take on Peter Gabriel and Prince tunes (admittedly spicing
them up a bit).  Brad Mehldau does Nick Drake,
Radiohead etc. Andy Bey does Nick Drake.  The Bad Plus do Tears for
Fears, Bowie, Nirvana and Black Sabbath.
Don Byron does James Brown, Henry Mancini and Junior Walker.  Zappa
tunes are well-covered too.

I think jazz musicians of every generation take their own pop songs
and reinterpret them in their own style
because that's how the music keeps growing.  When I've given talks
about jazz, notably jazz and 'the world
music' connection, I like to point out that jazz started as an amalgam
of African, marching band and European
parlour music and it's rolled forward by absorbing innovations and
other influences but it's at heart a mongrel music
that has something for everybody.

N.



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Nou Dadoun
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