My Favorite Things? Jazz Cover Songs

Bobby Greenberg, call your office.

I’ve spent hours listening to (Bobby) Robert Greenberg, the mind behind dozens of the “Great Courses” lectures on classical music (When you’ve listened to him as much as I have, you can call him Bobby). His “How to Listen to and Understand Great Music”, “Concert Masterworks”, “The Concerto,” “30 Greatest Orchestral Works,” “Bach and the High Baroque,” and others have filled my commute with hours of insight about the history and mechanics of classical music (“concert music” he would call it). He provides the vocabulary and context for the uninitiated to become familiar with the history, structure, and processes of concert music, allowing them (um, me) to grow in delight listening to the great works of Western Music.

I would welcome lectures by Bobby on jazz music. Amid the sometimes confusing list of classical era musical forms (Sonata, Rondo, Minuet and Trio, etc), a pattern emerges of progress and return, a musical “there and back again.” We hear a theme and are given enough time with that theme to keep it in mind as the piece proceeds to modify and develop that theme and then return to it again–perhaps modified, changed by the journey. Departure and return are the recurring events in almost all of the classical musical forms, and that grand process of departure, adventure, and coming home is one of the elements that makes great works of Western music exciting and satisfying.

So too with Jazz. We hear a theme, and then we get to hear departures from that theme through improvisation often featuring virtuosic solo instrumental performances (as would be found in a classical concerto). The nature of these departures are wildly different between classical and jazz music of course, but the broad strokes remain. Some of my favorite works of jazz are those that take very familiar popular songs and turn them into something extraordinary through improvisation. With these cover songs, the theme is so well known that the adventure takes on an additional quality. The statement of the theme, the establishing shot of the cover song, is itself a departure, the adventure begins at note one. When improvisation begins, because our home is so well known, it makes the departure somehow more comprehensible, a bit easier to keep our bearings, and provides an additional thrill when the journey comes back home. By building off of a familiar tune, the adventure is both compounded and more comprehensible.

John Coltrane’s “My Favorite Things” may be the most famous example of this. Released in 1961, just two years after the Rogers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music premiered on Broadway, it features Coltrane’s interpretation of the familiar tune, clearly recognizable and clearly modified from the beginning. While Coltrane is often open to the charge–like Mozart–of using “too many notes,” his “My favorite Things” is not frenetic like some Coltrane recordings and the throughline of the original song can be glimpsed even through his sometimes outlandish improvisations. The same holds for pianist McCoy Tyner’s solo. It is a terrific introduction to the joy of a jazz cover song. While it may be a stretch (and I wonder what Bobby Greenberg would say), I think it is pulling on the same thread as those classical era forms to keep our interest and elicit delight and awe–the adventure of going there and back again.

Others would follow in Coltrane’s footsteps and cover “My Favorite Things” specifically, including Grant Green and Dave Brubeck. Coltrane did not invent this approach and many have carried on the practice of creating jazz interpretations of pop and rock songs. Brad Mehldau is the leading example of this today. Recognized as one of the world’s greatest jazz pianists, he often dives into pop and rock music for his source material, including the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Oasis, Radiohead, Soundgarden, and others.

Here is a list of some favorite jazz covers of familiar songs (a list that is always growing). Of course, what counts as a "familiar song” will vary, but these are terrific jazz tracks in their own right–even if the bonus of familiarity is missing.

Thelonious Monk, “The Way You Look Tonight” (1954), original by Frank Sinatra

John Coltrane, “My Favorite Things” (1961), original by Rogers and Hammerstein

Grant Green, “Joshua Fit The Battle of Jericho” (1963), traditional spiritual

Herbie Hancock “All Apologies” (1996), original by Nirvana

Brad Mehldau, “Dear Prudence” (2002), original by The Beatles

Brad Mehldau, “Got Me Wrong” (2012), original by Alice in Chains

John Scofield, “Red River Valley” (2016), traditional folk song

Hudson, “Up on Cripple Creek” (2017), original by The Band

Here’s a link to this list on Spotify