Despite the many differences among jazz musicians, there is one unifying fact: a mutual expectation to know certain tunes. These tunes, commonly called “standards,” are culled from a sweeping variety of 20th-century music, including lyrical pop tunes of the ’20s, show tunes of the ’30s and beyond, tunes derived from pop songs and reinterpreted by jazz musicians (for example, saxophone great Charlie Parker’s innumerable rearrangements of George Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm”), and tunes written by and for jazz musicians. There is no formalized repertoire written down somewhere, and tunes go in and out of vogue with the passing years, but any serious jazz musician is expected to know certain core standards. Ignorance means suffering withering disapproval from bandmates on straight-ahead gigs.
If you memorize all these tunes as a rote process, seeing each chord, form, and melody as independent pieces of data to be stacked on top of one another ad infinitum, then sure, learning standards will suck. Fortunately, there’s an easier way out. First of all, formwise, jazz standards have a lot in common. They mostly fall into one of a handful of groups, AABA, ABAC, AABC, AAB, and 12- bar blues. (There are many more forms, but these are most common.) The letters refer to the sections of a song. For example, a typical AABA tune, like “Take the A Train” has an 8- bar A section and an 8-bar B section, with each section occurring in the AABA order for a total of 32 bars per “chorus” (one time through the form). This means that knowing the 32-bar form really means knowing the two 8-bar sections, and knowing when and how they repeat. Most song forms that incorporate repeating sections can be reduced in this way for easier digestion.
To both understand a tune on a deep level and memorize it, harmonic analysis is essential. Check out Ex. 1. It shows both the changes and a harmonic analysis to one of the most standard of all standards, “Body and Soul.” By assigning Roman numerals to each chord, we can begin to understand the tune not as a random series of chord names and qualities, but as a harmonic journey realized through logical chordal movement. The tune is in the key of Db major, except for the bridge, which modulates to D major for four bars and C major for four bars before returning to Db major for the final A section. The Roman numerals reference each chord to its home key, so the first chord, Ebm7, is the II chord in Db major. Slashes indicate a momentary modulation or secondary dominant. Chords are often anticipated with V7’s or II-V7’s borrowed from the key the target chord implies. For example, the second chord, Bb7, is functioning as the V7 of Ebm7 (if we’re sticking to Db major, that Bb would be minor). Thus, the V7/II, or “five of two.” Check out bar 6. The Cm7b5 and F7 comprise a II-V going to Bbm7, which is the VI chord in our home key, Db major.
Most standard tunes are suitable for this kind of analysis. If you see a lot of chords that aren’t diatonic to the home key, there may be chord substitutions or something called “modal interchange” at work, but for the basic jazz repertoire, harmonic analysis will be your best help in deciphering and memorizing tunes. It’s much easier to describe and internalize “Body and Soul” using the Roman numeric method than it is memorizing the names of all the chords. It’s also a crucial element in learning how to play tunes in any key. Once the harmonic structure of “Body and Soul” is memorized, for example, it can be applied to any key. Plus, analysis helps you see the deep harmonic structure of the tune, an insight that can only be helpful when it comes to playing it.
This month, harmonically analyze a standard of your choosing. If this is your first go at analysis, I suggest something fairly straightforward, say “Autumn Leaves” or “Blue Bossa.” First, find all the diatonic chords, and write the appropriate Roman numeral over them, including the quality. Next, look for non-diatonic IIV progressions and check if they logically lead to a diatonic chord in the subsequent bar. If non-diatonic chords make up a long section of the form, consider the whether the tune has modulated to a new key for that section. Dominant chords followed by a chord a half-step away are usually tritone substitutions; change the root of the dominant chord to the note a tritone away and see if this is the V7 of the following chord.
I could go on and on. Harmonic analysis is deep stuff. It’s an extremely healthy exercise for your practice routine.