The Like a (Jazz) Version Gig

This gig is inspired by the Like a Version radio program on ABC Triple J. The program’s name plays on both the idea of a “cover version” and Madonna’s 1984 hit Like a Virgin, capturing the idea of making something fresh from something familiar. On Like a Version, musicians take well-known songs, morph them into different styles, and make them their own. Jazz musicians have been doing exactly that since the beginning.

 
In fact, many of the songs we now call jazz standards began life as popular songs before jazz musicians adopted them, adapted them, and transformed them into vehicles for improvisation. Tunes like Summertime (1935) from Porgy and Bess, “covered” by Billie Holiday; Someday My Prince Will Come (1937) from Disney’s Snow White, “covered” by Miles Davis; and My Favourite Things (1959) from The Sound of Music, “covered” by John Coltrane all started outside jazz. They became legendary because jazz musicians reinterpreted them and made them their own Like a Version.

 
In the 1960s, the centre of popular music shifted away from Tin Pan Alley, and both pop and jazz exploded into a kaleidoscope of sub-genres, borrowing from each other and absorbing just about everything happening in life and music. Since then, jazz has become increasingly difficult to define, especially in the 21st century. But that’s great news. Rather than being boxed in by narrow definitions, we have more than a century of the cats to draw on for inspiration.

 
So, in the spirit of Like a Version, this gig is your chance to dive into that rich jazz tradition and turn a popular song you love into your own jazz standard.