Advanced Combo Songs & Goals
Song Selection Criteria
- Any song is acceptable
- We encourage:
- Complex and/or faster moving harmony
- Time signatures other than 4/4 encouraged, particularly 5 and 7 based meters
- Less frequently played composers or tunes
- Student originals, transcriptions, and arrangements
- Non-traditional forms and jazz subgenres
Examples:
| Song Title | Style | Composer | Model Recordings |
| A Night In Tunisia | Afro-Cuban | Dizzy Gillespie |
|
| Cubano Chant | Afro-Cuban | Ray Bryant |
|
| Juju | Afro-Cuban | Wayne Shorter |
|
| Ask Me Now | Ballad | Thelonious Monk |
|
| But Beautiful | Ballad | Burke & Van Huesen |
|
| Chelsea Bridge | Ballad | Billy Strayhorn |
|
| Django | Ballad | John Lewis |
|
| Everything Happens to Me | Ballad | Matt Dennis & Tom Adair |
|
| Goodbye Pork Pie Hat | Ballad | Charles Mingus |
|
| Here's That Rainy Day | Ballad | Jim Van Heusen |
|
| I Remember Clifford | Ballad | Benny Golson |
|
| Isfahan | Ballad | Billy Strayhorn |
|
| Naima | Ballad | John Coltrane |
|
| Round Midnight | Ballad | Thelonious Monk |
|
| Soultrane | Ballad | Tadd Dameron |
|
| The Peacocks | Ballad | Jimmy Rowles |
|
| Theme For Ernie | Ballad | Fred Lacy |
|
| Anthropology | Bebop | Charlie Parker |
|
| Confirmation | Bebop | Charlie Parker |
|
| Freight Trane | Bebop | Tommy Flanagan |
|
| Groovin' High | Bebop | Dizzy Gillespie |
|
| Ornithology | Bebop | Charlie Parker |
|
| Bessie's Blues | Blues | John Coltrane |
|
| Blues Five Spot | Blues | Thelonious Monk |
|
| Blues For Alice | Blues | Charlie Parker |
|
| Blues March | Blues | Benny Golson |
|
| Laird Baird | Blues | Charlie Parker |
|
| Black Eyes | Bossa Nova | Wayne Shorter |
|
| Chega De Saudade | Bossa Nova | Antônio Carlos Jobim |
|
| Corcovado | Bossa Nova | Antônio Carlos Jobim |
|
| Girl From Ipanema | Bossa Nova | Antônio Carlos Jobim |
|
| How Insensitive | Bossa Nova | Antônio Carlos Jobim |
|
| Meditation | Bossa Nova | Antônio Carlos Jobim |
|
| Pensativa | Bossa Nova | Claire Fischer |
|
| St. Thomas | Calypso | Traditional |
|
| Afro Blue | Latin 6/8 | Mongo Santamaria |
|
| A Foggy Day | Med Swing | George Gershwin |
|
| Alone Together | Med Swing | Dietz & Schwartz |
|
| Along Came Betty | Med Swing | Benny Golson |
|
| April In Paris | Med Swing | Vernon Duke |
|
| Beatrice | Med Swing | Sam Rivers |
|
| Bemsha Swing | Med Swing | Thelonious Monk |
|
| Bright Mississippi | Med Swing | Thelonious Monk |
|
| Dolphin Dance | Med Swing | Herbie Hancock |
|
| Doxy | Med Swing | Sonny Rollins |
|
| Evidence | Med Swing | Thelonious Monk |
|
| Falling In Love With Love | Med Swing | Rodgers & Hart |
|
| Footprints | Med Swing | Wayne Shorter |
|
| I Mean You | Med Swing | Thelonious Monk |
|
| I Should Care | Med Swing | Cahn, Stordahl, Weston |
|
| I'm Old Fashioned | Med Swing | Mercer & Kern |
|
| If I Were A Bell | Med Swing | Frank Loesser |
|
| It Could Happen To You | Med Swing | Burke & Van Heusen |
|
| It's You Or No One | Med Swing | Cahn & Styne |
|
| Jordu | Med Swing | Duke Jordan |
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| Joy Spring | Med Swing | Clifford Brown |
|
| Moanin' | Med Swing | Bobby Timmons |
|
| Monk's Dream | Med Swing | Thelonious Monk |
|
| Nardis | Med Swing | Davis & Evans |
|
| Oleo | Med Swing | Sonny Rollins |
|
| One By One | Med Swing | Wayne Shorter |
|
| Pannonica | Med Swing | Thelonious Monk |
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| Pent-Up House | Med Swing | Sonny Rollins |
|
| Stablemates | Med Swing | Benny Golson |
|
| There Is No Greater Love | Med Swing | Symes & Jones |
|
| Witch Hunt | Med Swing | Wayne Shorter |
|
| You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To | Med Swing | Cole Porter |
|
| Cantaloupe Island | Other | Herbie Hancock |
|
| Maiden Voyage | Straight 8th | Herbie Hancock |
|
| Una Mas | Straight 8ths | Kenny Dorham |
|
| All The Things You Are | Various | Kern & Hammerstein |
|
| Nica's Dream | Various | Horace Silver |
|
| Woody 'N You | Various | Dizzy Gillespie |
|
| Alice In Wonderland | Waltz | Sammy Fain |
|
| Little B's Poem | Waltz | Bobby Hutcherson |
|
| Up Jumped Spring | Waltz | Freddie Hubbard |
|
Goals For All Instruments
- Discuss the music being learned, its composer(s) and performers, and their musical and life experiences
- Study and emulate the great players of the music, both in technique and concept
- Is actively listening, transcribing, and internalizing the sound of the jazz tradition beyond the lead sheet
- Can demonstrate clear mastery of the harmonic material through improvisation and creative interpretation
- Form, chord progression, and melody of all tunes in repertoire memorized
- Is developing and using their “voice”—their unique sound and/or approach to the music and their instrument
- Is further refining command of swing, and other common jazz styles and feels
- Is gaining experience with complex rhythmic feels and/or meters through repertoire
Goals By Instrument
Drums
- Comfort with feels for all common jazz subgenres including afro cuban and brazilian basics
- Experience with odd time signatures
- Ability to improvise clearly and keep a song’s form, while unaccompanied
- Never get lost in song form
- Able to be the leader in spontaneously affecting shape and arrangement of performances
- Ability to read rhythmic figures and learn new grooves quickly
- Experience with brushes and hand percussion
Bass
- Improvised walking lines which prioritize line shape over roots
- Use of triplet, offbeats, and 8th notes in walking lines
- Afro-cuban, Brazilian standard lines (Tumbao, 6/8, Bossa, Samba)
- Experience with odd time signatures
- Can clearly articulate harmonic movement with melodic improvisation (targeting 3rds and 7ths of chords), when playing unaccompanied
- Very comfortable in the upper register of the instrument
- Two octave scales and arpeggios in time over all tunes in the repertoire
- Can play melodies to all tunes in the repertoire
Guitar
- Multiple rootless voicings across all strings
- Melody memorized for all tunes in repertoire
- Soloing with phrases which sound musical, use the harmony, and show compositional ability
- Can construct constant 8th note melodies reflective of harmonic content
- Experience with odd time signatures
- Chord extensions, alterations, and substitutions improvised in real time
- Experience improvising endings and intros
- Solo guitar techniques
Piano
- Standard rootless and two-handed voicings
- Creative voicings which use extensions and partial chords
- Experience with odd time signatures
- Soloing with phrases which sound musical, use the harmony, and show compositional ability
- Can construct constant 8th note melodies reflective of harmonic content
- Chord extensions, alterations, and substitutions improvised in real time
- Experience improvising endings and intros
- Solo piano techniques
Melody Instrument
- Soloing with phrases which sound musical, use the harmony, and show compositional ability
- Can construct constant 8th note melodies reflective of harmonic content
- Fluid, natural, idiomatic articulations
- Experience with odd time signatures
- Command of intonation across full range of instrument
- Developing command of various sound production techniques, timbres, vibrato, mutes, doubles, etc.
You can learn more about Jazz Night School levels by reviewing our Student Skill Levels Matrix.