As an exercise in the craft, I’ve recently given myself a songwriting “assignment”.
In an effort to expand the reach of my songwriting I’m attempting to write some songs that, stylistically, fall outside of what has been my comfort zone, outside of what comes most easily to me.
The first assignment I’ve given myself has been to write some songs that emulate old standards. Having told a friend of mine what I’ve been working on, checking for an update he asked “How are your jazz songs coming along?”
Now, as I am not a particularly jazzy artist, I immediately wanted to steer him away from the term “jazz”, afraid he’d have jazz fans excitedly anticipating my new “jazz” songs- only to be let down by a very un-jazzy performance of the final product.
I had told him about the project using the term “Old Standards” thinking of “Old Standards” as a big tent in which a variety of performance styles could be applied to interpret the same song. For instance, many jazz performers recorded wonderful jazz performances of Cole Porter songs. However, the very same Cole Porter songs could be performed in mainstream Hollywood Musicals with arrangements that were totally Squaresville.
I argued that a songwriter does not write a jazz song, that a jazz song is not a jazz song until it is performed as a jazz song.
He argued that a song could be written as a jazz song, that a song written as a jazz song could be interpreted in a style other than jazz just as a song not written as a jazz song could be interpreted in a jazz style by a jazz artist, but that a songwriter can certainly be considered a jazz songwriter.
What say Dopers?
Can Jazz be inherent in a song from the writing alone?
Was Cole Porter a Jazz Songwriter? Was Gershwin? Or did it take Jazz performers to make the songs into Jazz songs?
Hoo boy! Quick answer - I think it’s mostly in the performance. A jazz musician can make a jazz tune out of anything that takes his or her fancy. Cassandra Wilson has two outstanding albums of jazz versions of songs that would never have been associated with jazz except for her. Bill Frissell’s whole career is based on extending what may be considered jazz. Willy Nelson has shown that jazz can be made into country music (‘Stardust’, ‘Don’t Get Around Much Anymore’).
Cole Porter and George Gershwin always intended most of their music to swing, which is a major element of jazz. (Can I safely ignore ‘Wunderbar’ and ‘Don’t Fence Me In’ for now, please? Many thanks.) The amount of swing depended on the musicians. However, from the earliest days, jazz artists have delighted in swinging music that had never been written as jazz. Benny Goodman’s versions of ‘Bei mir bist du shoen’ and ‘Loch Lomond’ come to mind (I don’t think the ‘Loch Lomond’ is a particularly successful jazz tune, mind, but that’s another debate.)
I recently found a podcast on NPR’s Jazz Profiles (Jazz in Song - ‘The Jazz Standard’) that addressed this very question. I’ve listened to it two or three times, and I could stand to listen to it a few dozen more.
So, I don’t think the labels are hard and fast. If you want to compose something in the style of Gershwin, go for it! If it sounds too square to your ears, don’t worry - a jazz musician can make it work as jazz. If it sounds too jazzy to start with, a country musician can simple it down until it works as a bluegrass tune. And if it’s a strong composition, it can take on different styles and still sound like itself.
I certainly wouldn’t disagree, but sometimes the jazz chords are put in by the arranger to add texture when the melody would be served sufficiently well by a simpler chord.
As for rhythms, I would argue that twenty different arrangers working with the exact same song could apply twenty different rhythms.
ETA: Hey, Le Ministre de l’au-delà, didn’t see your post when I responded to Zsofia. I don’t recall ever crossing paths with you before, but great input- thanks!
Ellington worked the deeper harmonic structures available through larger orchestras. Any number of great pieces he either wrote (Black and Tan Fantasy) or arranged (Take the A Train by Strayhorn). Monk found the quirks of getting weird notes rubbing up against each other and making them work. I find stuff of his like Brilliant Corners (which I assume is named after the angular structure of the hook) to be self-contained songwriting in the best sense of the concept.