Jazz Songs to Play Along With

Tama Player

Silver Member
As some of you might know (if you even remember me) I am a huge metal head, been listening basically all of my life - but I've come to a point where all I have played to is classic rock and metal (basically every type of metal mind you) and I'd love to dabble in a new field of drumming. Jazz has always struck me as a very interesting genre and I have always liked jazz in a way, I just have never actively pursued any of the music itself, so here I am looking for simpler jazz to play along with (No one I know really likes jazz).

All suggestions welcome.

Thanks!
 
Miles Davis ...."So What"

first song on Kind of Blue......Jimmy Cobb on drums

nice simple form....straight ahead jazz......nice tempo

I use it as an introduction to jazz for all my students ...

I recommend just listening for a while before playing along.....Jazz is about being able to listen first.....knowing when not to play
 
Spencer Strand's Turn it Up and Lay it Down Volume 4 has incrementally increasing BPMs w/o drums.
 
The biggest thing for a drummer to realize about jazz is that the structure of the song repeats, except at the beginning, where there is often a brief intro, and at the end, where usually the last 4 bars of the form gets repeated (tagged). There are of course exceptions to every rule!

See if you can follow the 32 bar structure in So What. Do you hear the AABA form during the head (when the "melody" is played), and also during each of the solos? Notice that there is usually a very small drum fill at the very end of the 32 bars. Otherwise, the drums are reacting to the other players, creating texture and nuance.

Next, try Straight No Chaser (12 bar form). How many times through the 12 bars does each solo last? Which part of the 12 bars gets tagged at the end, if any?

Also remember that if you hear the band and drummer "trade 4s", the overall structure of the song is uninterrupted. It will help immensely to find a Real Book so you can follow along with the chord changes, and see exactly where the band is at all times.
 
@brentcn - Nice post, very informative.

I too recommend the use of a Real Book so you can follow along and start to learn how most jazz tunes are structured. Then it becomes imperative that you commit to memory the melodies of the songs that you are learning to play. This will free up your ability to express yourself in a way that's more meaningful than just playing licks within the rhythmic context of the tunes. Hearing a song's melody clearly in your head, will not only dramatically improve your comping it will also provide you with a compass to navigate the portions of a tune where soloists are doing their thing. In other words you'll hear the chord changes better and in turn be free to play with more conviction.

As far a play along stuff is concerned, there are two earlier Diana Krall discs that have no drum tracks (Love Scenes, All For You). All the tunes are fairly straight forward and fun to play a long to.
 
Meet The Bass Player is a great resource for learning to play jazz. There is no drummer to play along to, but there is a swinging rhythm section of bass and guitar and they'll help you through the two most important song forms in jazz - i.e. 12-Bar Blues and Rhythm Changes - at every imaginable tempo range. Highly recommend it.
 
Miles Davis ...."So What"

first song on Kind of Blue......Jimmy Cobb on drums

nice simple form....straight ahead jazz......nice tempo

I use it as an introduction to jazz for all my students ...

I recommend just listening for a while before playing along.....Jazz is about being able to listen first.....knowing when not to play

I will listen too all of them quite a few times before I play, glad you said that actually, usually I just try and jump right into it. Thanks for the suggestions!


Spencer Strand's Turn it Up and Lay it Down Volume 4 has incrementally increasing BPMs w/o drums.

Ah very cool, I'll check it out.

The biggest thing for a drummer to realize about jazz is that the structure of the song repeats, except at the beginning, where there is often a brief intro, and at the end, where usually the last 4 bars of the form gets repeated (tagged). There are of course exceptions to every rule!

See if you can follow the 32 bar structure in So What. Do you hear the AABA form during the head (when the "melody" is played), and also during each of the solos? Notice that there is usually a very small drum fill at the very end of the 32 bars. Otherwise, the drums are reacting to the other players, creating texture and nuance.

Next, try Straight No Chaser (12 bar form). How many times through the 12 bars does each solo last? Which part of the 12 bars gets tagged at the end, if any?

Also remember that if you hear the band and drummer "trade 4s", the overall structure of the song is uninterrupted. It will help immensely to find a Real Book so you can follow along with the chord changes, and see exactly where the band is at all times.

Wow, thanks for taking to the time to type all that out for me, I'm going to read over it thoroughly; I'll also check out that book situation too.


@brentcn - Nice post, very informative.

I too recommend the use of a Real Book so you can follow along and start to learn how most jazz tunes are structured. Then it becomes imperative that you commit to memory the melodies of the songs that you are learning to play. This will free up your ability to express yourself in a way that's more meaningful than just playing licks within the rhythmic context of the tunes. Hearing a song's melody clearly in your head, will not only dramatically improve your comping it will also provide you with a compass to navigate the portions of a tune where soloists are doing their thing. In other words you'll hear the chord changes better and in turn be free to play with more conviction.

As far a play along stuff is concerned, there are two earlier Diana Krall discs that have no drum tracks (Love Scenes, All For You). All the tunes are fairly straight forward and fun to play a long to.

Ah yes, all very well said. I'll check those songs out as well.


Meet The Bass Player is a great resource for learning to play jazz. There is no drummer to play along to, but there is a swinging rhythm section of bass and guitar and they'll help you through the two most important song forms in jazz - i.e. 12-Bar Blues and Rhythm Changes - at every imaginable tempo range. Highly recommend it.

Oh nice, this is all so new to me, I'll check it out and try and play along.
 
Sorry to bring up an old thread... But, I was looking at the real book and I noticed that the one you can buy (By Hal Leonard) is not the same as the illegal versions before it. It is even missing certain songs (Zappa). Is there a different company I should look for this book from, or just get this one and deal with the missing songs?
 
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