The Song Book Gig
The Inspiration
Jazz wasn’t created in a vacuum. A huge part of its language evolved from songs that musicians borrowed, reshaped, swung, reharmonised, and made their own from The Great American Songbook aka The Songbook. The Great American Songbook isn’t a physical book with pages you can turn, it’s a widely recognised collection of the most famous and lasting American popular songs. Written mostly between 1920 and 1950, these tunes were originally created for Broadway stage musicals, Hollywood movies, and the bustling New York City music publishing industry known as Tin Pan Alley. Even though the original craze for these tunes was actually quite fleeting and passed long ago, they continue to be performed, recorded, and enjoyed by audiences and musicians all over the world today, thanks mostly to the jazz musicians who adopted them into the jazz tradition, transforming them into vehicles for improvisation.
In the mid-1970s, a group of students and faculty at the Berklee College of Music transcribed famous jazz recordings of Songbook standards into a new, unlicensed binder known as The Real Book. It became an immediate underground hit, setting the standard jazz repertoire in stone. But, lots of jazz cats don’t love the Real Book worrying that it’s like “jazz tablature”, simplifying chords and distracting beginners from the crucial oral/aural tradition of learning the tunes from the cats via the original recordings.
Furthermore, relying solely on the original Real Book reinforces a strictly US-centric canon of jazz. Fortunately, Tim Nikolsky developed the digital “Australian Jazz Real Book” with over 1,600 tunes by hundreds of Australian jazz cats. Exploring resources like the Australian Jazz Real Book allows us to go beyond the American standards, giving us a tangible way to connect with our own experiences and the broader global jazz community. But, to understand all of this, the Song Book is a great place to start.
The Gig
The gig is to learn, rehearse, and perform a short set of four foundational Songbook tunes:
- I Got Rhythm
- Autumn Leaves
- How High the Moon
- All the Things You Are
As a combo, your job is to learn the head, understand the form, hear the key harmonic features, and develop a playable arrangement of each tune.
Across the gig, you will work with:
- 32-bar AABA form
- major and minor ii–V movement
- Rhythm Changes
- modulation and shifting key centres
- comping, bass movement, melodic phrasing, and improvisation
By the end of the gig, your combo will present a short Songbook Set and explain how these four tunes open the door to bebop and broader jazz harmony.
The Originals
I Got Rhythm
From: Girl Crazy, 1930. Music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin. First known recording: Ethel Waters, recorded in 1930.
Autumn Leaves
Autumn Leaves began as the 1945 French song Les Feuilles mortes, written by Joseph Kosma with lyrics by Jacques Prévert, before Johnny Mercer later wrote the English words.
*chorus starts at 1:12
How High the Moon
From: Two for the Show, 1940. Music by Morgan Lewis, lyrics by Nancy Hamilton. First known recording: Benny Goodman and His Orchestra with Helen Forrest, recorded February 7, 1940.
All the Things You Are
From: Very Warm for May, 1939. Music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. re-created in its original form as it was first heard in the musical “Very Warm for May”. Performed by the London Sinfonietta.
*chorus starts at 2:18
GBL Recommended Version
I Got Rhythm
Autumn Leaves
*chorus starts at 0:50
How High the Moon
All the Things You Are
Practise your part with our resources
Rehearse your part with our backing tracks
Share your part using our band chart
Use these to get started, then try to rely on it less each time. Some gigs need more reading than others, but when you can, practise playing with your eyes up so you can respond to your bandmates and what’s happening in the room.
Analyse the music using our annotated charts
I Got Rhythm
Autumn Leaves
How High the Moon
All the Things You Are
The Background
From Pop Song to Jazz Vehicle
*Chorus starts at 1:20
*Intro starts at 0:19
Poor Butterfly is a great example of how a tune can move from its original 1s chart into a cleaner, more playable simple chart, and then into a more developed Real Book style version closer to what you hear on recordings like Cannonball Adderley’s, where the harmony starts to open up for jazz phrasing, comping, and improvisation.
GBL Curated Playlists
I Got Rhythm Covers
Autumn Leaves Covers
How High the Moon Covers
All the Things You Are Covers
Tutorials and Transcriptions
Understanding Rhythm Changes
A concise reference to one of jazz’s most common chord frameworks, based on I Got Rhythm by George Gershwin. This page outlines how dominant-to-tonic resolution, along with two–five–one and six–two–five progressions, shapes the structure of rhythm changes.
It also highlights how the same harmonic pattern is used and adapted across jazz, with examples linked to artists such as Charlie Parker and Ornette Coleman.
All the Things You Are (1940)
This document contains the sheet music for the song “All The Things You Are,” composed by Jerome Kern with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. The song was part of a musical comedy, and this specific edition includes a simplified arrangement by Albert Sirmay.
Joe Pass How High the Moon Transcription
Books and Articles
“Must-Know” Jazz Tunes:
Comparing Lists
A reference overview of commonly cited “must-know” jazz standards, comparing how different sources define the core repertoire and highlighting overlaps and differences to help you identify essential tunes and build a well-rounded list.
“Poor Butterfly” and What Makes
a Good Jazz Tune
A focused reference on what gives a jazz standard lasting value, using “Poor Butterfly” to examine elements like harmonic structure, melody, and adaptability for improvisation.
Cm7 in “All The
Things You Are”
A short harmonic reference on the role of the Cm7 chord within All the Things You Are, showing how it functions within the tune’s shifting key centers and overall progression.
The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire
A reference to The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire by Ted Gioia, offering historical context and insight into the development and significance of major jazz standards.
Websites
Origin and Evolution
of “Poor Butterfly”
Traces the tune’s origins and evolution from early 20th-century popular music into a jazz standard, noting its distinctive harmonic and melodic character.
Analysis of
Rhythm Changes
Highlights again the essential jazz progression based on “I Got Rhythm,” emphasizing its widespread use in bebop and jam sessions.
Visualizing Secondary
Dominants
Provides a visual and conceptual explanation of secondary dominants, illustrating how temporary tonicizations add tension and forward motion in tonal harmony.
How High the Moon
Analyzes its cycle-of-fifths progression and modulating harmony, showing how it became a key framework for contrafacts like “Ornithology.”
Autumn Leaves
Breaks down the song’s ii–V–I progressions in both major and relative minor keys, highlighting why it’s a staple for learning functional harmony and smooth voice leading.
All the Things You Are
Examines its complex and shifting key centers, demonstrating advanced harmonic movement and why it’s considered a masterpiece of jazz composition.
