Jazz Articles

Michael Bluestein: Wild World

by Craig W. Hurst
June 3, 2002

Since the earliest days of jazz, musicians have utilized material drawn from the repertoire of popular music. Many of the “standards” that jazz musicians have used as a framework or springboard for further musical exploration form the backbone of the modern jazz performance tradition. While jazz musicians continue to create new music inspired by the Great American Songbook, there are also jazz musicians who are discovering material by more recent popular music songwriters. Pianist Herbie Hancock demonstrated this discovery with ...