> How and where AJ fits into the remaking of covers/standards is not clear
to me.
I've noticed that many acid jazz bands have their own "standards" (usually
60s-70s jazz funk tunes , i.e. anything by Grant Green, Freddie Hubbard,
Roy Ayers, Miles and Herbie) and sometimes use updated versions of bebop
pieces.
Doing covers is fun, and especially adding something new to it.
Sometimes doing it by the book can be fun too, especially if you're
doing a tune that has difficult lines - the crowd will still give you
props for your effort.
My band does mostly originals, and has a "stay away from covers that
everyone does" policy. We all love Herbie, but we think that there are
enough bands that do "Chameleon" out there.
Plus, doing covers that everyone does also faces a challenge - you'll be
judged against other bands who do the same thing.
My band does a cover of Mancini's "The Pink Panther" theme, a tune that's not
a likely candidate for an acid jazz cover, but not impossible in any way.
I think the best covers are of tunes that are the farthest from your
genre as possible. That leaves more room for arrangement possiblities. We
even toyed around a jazz-funk version of Hootie & The Blowfish's "I Only
Wanna Be With You" during rehearsal. After all, what makes a bad tune "bad"?
The melody? The arrangement? The rhythm? If so, fix it and make it better!
I also think it would be a cool idea to do an funkified jazzy cover of an
alternative tune. Adding soul to a tune that originally lacks it would
certainly make it unique, IMHO (On that tip, I thought Chalie Hunter's
cover of Nirvana's "Come As You Are" sounded pretty cool).
Elson
-30-
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Elson Trinidad, Los Angeles, CA
elson@westworld.com
http://www.westworld.com/~elson
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