Every time I write about repertoire I end up just listing all the tunes I am working on. Let me just write a bit about a few tunes, commenting on different versions, how I feel about the arrangements I’m working on, which ones I want to perform with a group, etc.

  • “Invitation,”: This tune was written by Bronislau Kaper & Paul Francis Webster, apparently for a movie soundtrack (I need to find the movie). I know Coltrane did a version of this tune, but I don’t have it on CD. I need to do a search for other versions. I love the minimal feel of the guitar arrangement I’m learning, written by Dave Frackenpohl. I could easily see playing this with a rhythm section.
  • “All of You”: Written by Cole Porter. I love this tune. The only recorded version I know I have is by Bill Evans, though his version is very impressionistic. The guitar arrangement I’m learning, by Barry Greene, can be played as a solo or with a rhythm section. It would be very cool to cop some ideas from Evans in order to flesh it out a bit, but I love Greene’s voicings - he uses a bunch of close intervals without creating too much of a stretch for the left hand. The arrangement, as it stands, is written as a one chorus solo, so I would need to add some sort of intro and cadence material. What would be really cool is to also write some sort of arranger’s chorus to play somewhere in the middle of the tune.
  • “Bluesette”: Written by Toots Thielemann. Another great tune. I don’t really have any recorded versions to listen to, but somehow it’s a very familiar melody. The guitar arrangement I’m learning is another of Dave Frackenpohl’s - he would be a cool person to study with, if he lived close by. In any event, this is another arrangement that could be played as a solo or with a rhythm section. Nice, bouncy (bouncy?!) 3/4 jazz waltz; I guess this figures, coming from a European composer.
  • “Speak Low”: Written by Kurt Weill & Ogden Nash. Again, I don’t have a recorded version of this tune other than the recordings of the arrangements. This tune is an interesting one to learn since I have three separate arrangements to learn: two by Howard Morgen, and one by Rick Stone. Stone’s version would lend itself to being played with a rhythm section, while both of Morgen’s versions are definitely fingerstyle chord solos. I’d like to also find a vocal version of this tune so I can get an idea of Nash’s lyrics.
  • “Summertime”: Written by George Gershwin with DuBose & Dorothy Heyward (Ira Gershwin as well?). The arrangement I’m learning, written by John Purse, is very rhythmically and harmonically intricate, so this has been a difficult one so far. I know the Louis Armstrone and Miles Davis versions of this tune, and I have played it many times with a group. Purse’s arrangement is definitely a chord solo, but if I thinned it out a bit I could play it with a rhythm section. This is definitely one of my favorite jazz standards.