100 Essential Jazz Standards

Since the release of The Jazz Standards Progressions Book where I analyzed 1000+ songs I have been asked many times for a list of essential jazz standards.

I do not want to promote uniformity in repertoire nor do I believe in programatic lists. Jazz is a personal intuitive journey. What I do believe in is finding our own voice. I think it’s the deepest experience  in music. It’s a self-realization process and everyone needs to create their own path.

Having said that, I’ve been inspired and guided many times in my personal ride with music. If taken only as a starting point, I believe this list can help some people get started. Also, having clear, specific objectives helps many students who feel overwhelmed by the dimension of the work ahead.

I encourage everyone to see the whole list of 1000+ songs included in The Jazz Standards Progression Book. They have full harmonic analysis, chord-scales, arrows & brackets and a full glossary of scales over the circle of fifths. A whole parallel collection of each song re-harmonized is available as well. 

Here’s a list of 100 songs I came up with. I’m sure there are lots of great songs missing in this list but again, I see it just as a starting point.