rec.music.makers.saxophone

2.20 What to play?

The question comes up frequently about what to play. You get asked to play something at a gig, what songs should you know? Here is a list, courtesy of the group and the Guitar players FAQ:

From: Saggy
Date: Wed, Jan 18 2006 9:51am

This is from the guitar player's faq

This is an unalphabetized list of tunes commonly called at jam sessions. Some are standards and some are "jazz standards". A separate list of standards is given below. The choice of tunes in a jam session are often limited to "Real Book tunes", i.e., tunes that are in the illegal fakebook known as the Real Book. While generally accurate and a big improvement over existing fakebooks at the time, the Real Book has some idiosyncracies and errors that have now become the de facto structure or changes of the tune. Some of these are noted below.

What are some essential standards that I should know?

This list is in alphabetical order and the usual key is listed in parentheses afterwards. This list is necessarily incomplete for brevity's sake and inclusion of a particular tune on the list is also arguable. However, these tunes are a good place to start and comprise a reasonable repertoire of standards. Note that these are STANDARDS, i.e., usually show or pop tunes that have made it into the jazz canon. "Jazz standards" such as "Four" or "Blue Bossa" are not included and may have their own list someday. See also the list of typical jam session tunes.

From: Pete Thomas
Date: Wed, Jan 18 2006 12:42pm

Hey, great answer and very helpful. There's a couple here I haven't even heard of but I've always hated the real/fake book approach - sorry, I know I should really fall into line.

However it can be very differnt depending on geography. When i was doing jam sessions there were some other necessary tunes:


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