The Songbook — Reference Recordings
The Songbook — Reference Recordings
Every tune mentioned in this course, with the recording it usually means. When a workshop says “Autumn Leaves”, this is the version to have in your ear — the one whose harmonic language, feel, and arranging choices the exercises quietly assume. Throughout the course, the first mention of a song in each chapter links directly to its recording below.
Listen before you play. Most workshop exercises land twice as fast when the reference version is already in your head.
The songs
| Song | Reference recording | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| “Happy Birthday” | Traditional — most famously performed by Marilyn Monroe at Madison Square Garden (1962) | ▶ YouTube |
| “Mack the Knife” | Bobby Darin (1959) — Grammy Record of the Year, the definitive swing version | ▶ YouTube |
| “The Bare Necessities” | Louis Armstrong — The Bare Necessities (Live At The BBC) (1968) | ▶ YouTube |
| “Misty” | Erroll Garner — the composer's original instrumental (1954) | ▶ YouTube |
| “Autumn Leaves” | Cannonball Adderley with Miles Davis — Somethin' Else (1958) | ▶ YouTube |
| “Naima” | John Coltrane — Giant Steps (1959) | ▶ YouTube |
| “Giant Steps” | John Coltrane — Giant Steps (1959) | ▶ YouTube |
| “Footprints” | Miles Davis Quintet — Miles Smiles (1966) | ▶ YouTube |
| “Blue Bossa” | Joe Henderson with Kenny Dorham — Page One (1963) | ▶ YouTube |
| “All the Things You Are” | Ella Fitzgerald — Jerome Kern Songbook (1963) | ▶ YouTube |
| “Take Five” | The Dave Brubeck Quartet — Time Out (1959) | ▶ YouTube |
| “So What” | Miles Davis — Kind of Blue (1959) | ▶ YouTube |
| “Invitation” | John Coltrane — Standard Coltrane session (1958) | ▶ YouTube |
| “Fly Me to the Moon” | Frank Sinatra with Count Basie — It Might as Well Be Swing (1964) | ▶ YouTube |
| “All of Me” | Frank Sinatra — Swing Easy! (1954) | ▶ YouTube |
| “There Will Never Be Another You” | Chet Baker — Chet Baker Sings (1954) | ▶ YouTube |
| “The Girl from Ipanema” | Stan Getz & Astrud Gilberto — Getz/Gilberto (1964) | ▶ YouTube |
| “Take the A Train” | Duke Ellington & His Famous Orchestra (1941) | ▶ YouTube |
| “Stella by Starlight” | Miles Davis Sextet with Coltrane & Bill Evans (1958) | ▶ YouTube |
| “Spain” | Chick Corea & Return to Forever — Light as a Feather (1972) | ▶ YouTube |
| “Night and Day” | Frank Sinatra — Sinatra & Strings (1962) | ▶ YouTube |
| “Nefertiti” | Miles Davis Quintet — Nefertiti (1967), the famous no-solo take | ▶ YouTube |
| “My Funny Valentine” | Chet Baker — Chet Baker Sings (1954) | ▶ YouTube |
| “Moanin’” | Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers — Moanin' (1958) | ▶ YouTube |
| “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” | Cannonball Adderley Quintet — Live at "The Club" (1966) | ▶ YouTube |
| “Maiden Voyage” | Herbie Hancock — Maiden Voyage (1965) | ▶ YouTube |
| “Freedom Jazz Dance” | Miles Davis Quintet — Miles Smiles (1966) | ▶ YouTube |
| “Chameleon” | Herbie Hancock — Head Hunters (1973) | ▶ YouTube |
| “Caravan” | Duke Ellington & His Orchestra with Juan Tizol (1937) | ▶ YouTube |
| “C Jam Blues” | Duke Ellington & His Orchestra (1942) | ▶ YouTube |
| “Blue Rondo à la Turk” | The Dave Brubeck Quartet — Time Out (1959) | ▶ YouTube |
| “Afro Blue” | John Coltrane Quartet — Live at Birdland (1963) | ▶ YouTube |
| “Actual Proof” | Herbie Hancock — Thrust (1974) | ▶ YouTube |
| “A Night in Tunisia” | Dizzy Gillespie — the composer's own recording | ▶ YouTube |
| “Watermelon Man” | Herbie Hancock — Head Hunters version (1973) | ▶ YouTube |
| “Cantaloupe Island” | Herbie Hancock — Empyrean Isles (1964) | ▶ YouTube |
| “Summertime” | Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong — Porgy and Bess (1958) | ▶ YouTube |
| “Georgia on My Mind” | Ray Charles — The Genius Hits the Road (1960) | ▶ YouTube |
| “What a Wonderful World” | Louis Armstrong (1967) | ▶ YouTube |
| “Blue in Green” | Miles Davis — Kind of Blue (1959) | ▶ YouTube |