The best thing about old jazz is how just one good song will serve as a reminder of how brilliantly romantic that time period was. The soulful cry of artists like Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong was just made to intertwine with the rat-tat-tat-tat of crisp drums and and the wail of blaring horns. The collaboration between the big band and those big voices was -- and still is -- absolute magic.
And because it was such a magical time, we feel that everyone should spend part of their day dancing around to old jazz songs. While we may not be able to transport you back to the time when Dizzy Gillespie reigned supreme (our flux capacitor has gone missing) we can throw this here list your way to help you out instead.
So just throw on these old jazz standards and dance around like you're on some airy New Orleans veranda instead. We'll never tell.
10. "Sing, Sing, Sing," Benny Goodman This song -- widely believed to be completely instrumental -- actually has lyrics that were written by another jazz great, Louis Prima, who composed the song back in 1936 as the B Side to "It's Been So Long." But it truly became a jazz staple once Goodman got his hands on it a year later, and he recorded an instrumental version with guys like Harry James and Ziggy Elman.
9. "Take the A Train," Billy Strayhorn & Duke Ellington This standard was written and recorded by Billy Strayhorn, the pianist who wrote arrangements for Duke Ellington's band, back in 1941. Strayhorn said writing the song, about the the New York subway line to Harlem, felt much more like writing a letter to an old friend. It became the signature opener for Duke Ellington and his Orchestra, and is today thought of one of the greatest jazz tunes to emerge from that time.
8. "La Vie en Rose," Louis Armstrong "La Vie en Rose," written in 1945, was the signature song of French cabaret singer Édith Piaf. The title translates as "life is pink," for those of us who don't speak French, and the song is about reclaiming love during times of war. Piaf's remains the definitive version, but something about Armstrong's deep vocals and wailing trumpet make this one spectacular as well.
7. "Summertime," Ella Fitzgerald Ella's version of "Summertime," technically a cover of George Gershwin's aria composed for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess, is still utterly jaw-dropping. Gershwin's mix of jazz elements and African-American folk music worked so seamlessly that it would be hard to ignore the song's validity as a jazz standard even if Fitzgerald had never touched the tune. But she did, and did so in a way that really can't be outdone.
6. "Round About Midnight," Miles Davis This 1944 jazz standard was composed by Thelonious Monk, who can hardly be written off on either his solo piano version or the one with his quartet. Still, when jazz icon Miles Davis reworked it in 1957, renaming the song "'Round About Midnight," it became something pretty darn incredible.
5. "Strange Fruit," Billie Holiday This haunting song is actually a poem that protested racism in America, particularly in the South of the '30s. Written by Abel Meeropol in 1937, the poem spoke of the horrors of the lynchings of African-Americans that continued in the South well past the turn of the century.
Billie Holiday was the first to sing a musical rendition of "Strange Fruit," pushing for it to be recorded even after her own label, concerned over the potential reaction by Southern record-store owners, refused. Thanks to her, it's now one of the most famous, and hauntingly perfect, jazz songs ever recorded.
Story continues on the next page.
