Building your Jazz Repertoire part 2: Latin
All these tunes in this jazz repertoire have a straight 8 feel rather than swing.
The world of Latin American music is vast and would take a lifetime of study. What we are looking at here when building jazz repertoire is a small collection of jazz repertoire tunes with a Latin feel; songs that are likely to come up when playing with other musicians. I’ve tried to keep the list short, as it’s easy to get overwhelmed with too many choices. I’ve marked essential songs with *.
The compositions of Carlos Jobim are of particular interest as they don’t follow the usual II – V – I patterns.
You will find the complete list of ‘Building a Jazz Repertoire’ in book 3 of Learn Jazz Piano.
Here’s the link to book 3
At some stage you might find yourself comping behind vocalists singing this repertoire. A good reference is the Getz /Gilberto album (1964).
If you’re looking for an easy tune for starters I’d go for Blue Bossa.
Try Desafinado for something a little more advanced.
So here are my 10 choices of Latin tunes to build your jazz repertoire.
Although many artists have recorded these tunes, I’ve provided you with suggested listening.
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Blue Bossa*
Composer: Kenny Dorham
Listen: Joe Henderson
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Con Alma
Composer: Dizzie Gillespie
Listen: Wes Montgomery
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Desafinado
Composer: Jobim
Listen: Dizzy Gilespie
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The Girl From Ipanema*
Composer: Jobim
Listen: Stan Getz
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How Insensitive
Composer: Jobim
Listen: Oscar Peterson
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Meditation
Composer: Jobim
Listen: Joe Pass
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Manteca
Composer: Dizzie Gillespie
Listen: Red Garland
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Nica’s Dream*
Composer: Horace Silver
Listen: Art Blakey
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Song For My Father
Composer: Horace Silver
Listen: Horace Silver
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Wave
Composer: Jobim
Listen: Paul Desmond
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I have now produced 22 videos for my online Lean Jazz Piano course.
