How to play a pop song in a jazz style?

[j4zz]

Another question that probably shows my lack of knowledge, but here goes.

Say I wanted to play a pop song in a jazz style. I am always impressed with what some artists can do to a familiar song, and give it a completely new jazz feel. What are the various techniques/tricks/ideas that would apply?

Tempo changes? I am imagining that often slowing it right down, and/or changing the beat from straight ahead to a swing feel, is a good start.

What about the melody ? Changing the phrasing of the melody seems to be something I hear being done often. Then I also hear a song being sung to what sounds like an improvised melody, rather than as written.

What about the chords? Are there "standard" substitutions for the chords? A few have been suggested to me over the years, like adding 6ths, 9ths, 13ths to existing chords. Then I hear chords being added between the standard chords, to the point where it's almost like a melody is being played using chords.

Well, even if you can just point me in the right direction for some of this stuff, I will be grateful. Even just the right keywords to search by

[Jimmy blue note]

One thing that helps me is to get 'inside' the original tune and think of how the composer thought, in terms of rhythm, harmony, melody and the relationship with the words. Songs are easier for me to work with if I am aware of the elements they're made of; then I can take them apart and make variations with that awareness in mind.
So when I'm practicing and getting to know a song, I might take the first phrase, and just work with how I might play it differently, just rhythmically... or change the melody a little... or use a tasty IV chord where a II might have been called for. Just get to know the tune by playing with how differently you might hear it if this had been done differently or that.
I also take a walk, get away from the guitar and sing different lines that can bring out some nice lines.
I imagine the way a singer might phrase, or hear the song being played by Dexter Gordon, or Lee Konitz, or Fred Hersch, or Keith Jarrett; hearing a voice in my mind separate and before turning my fingers loose on the instrument. Listening to a recording or seeing live music always wakes my imagination up.

For me, it's important to step outside of the 'completeness' of a pop tune. I also try to start with fewer notes, simpler combinations of notes that can suggest a stronger essential melodic seed you can then create variations and more complicated lines from.
Simple to elaborate. Find the simple essence and apply the principles of variation that make any good jazz solo. Know your language and speak articulately at all times.
Have fun.

[j4zz]

One thing that helps me is to get 'inside' the original tune and think of how the composer thought, in terms of rhythm, harmony, melody and the relationship with the words. Songs are easier for me to work with if I am aware of the elements they're made of; then I can take them apart and make variations with that awareness in mind.
So when I'm practicing and getting to know a song, I might take the first phrase, and just work with how I might play it differently, just rhythmically... or change the melody a little... or use a tasty IV chord where a II might have been called for. Just get to know the tune by playing with how differently you might hear it if this had been done differently or that.
I also take a walk, get away from the guitar and sing different lines that can bring out some nice lines.
I imagine the way a singer might phrase, or hear the song being played by Dexter Gordon, or Lee Konitz, or Fred Hersch, or Keith Jarrett; hearing a voice in my mind separate and before turning my fingers loose on the instrument. Listening to a recording or seeing live music always wakes my imagination up.

For me, it's important to step outside of the 'completeness' of a pop tune. I also try to start with fewer notes, simpler combinations of notes that can suggest a stronger essential melodic seed you can then create variations and more complicated lines from.
Simple to elaborate. Find the simple essence and apply the principles of variation that make any good jazz solo. Know your language and speak articulately at all times.
Have fun.

Thanks. Many great insights for me to absorb. Great idea to just imagine how it might go, before jumping in with the instrument. I get bogged down with the original, and it's hard to step outside.

[gitman]

Look at the "construction" of the song : where are the V (7) chords, where do these resolve to, can you find substitions for these, place a II chord in front, etc. Voice leading plays a major role in many "jazz" harmonisations so try and connect your upper and lower notes in a direct and musically logical manner. Chord extensions help : add a 6th, a 9th , try altering the V chords with added tension notes such as a b9, #9, etc.
With so many different "Jazz Styles" present it's difficult to isolate one particular issue - Michael Buble will do it his way and Tony Bennett in another... Russell Malone has his style,
as did Stanley Turrentine. Herbie Hancock did an album with Joni Mitchell tunes and some are hard to recognize !
There is a reason why so many Stevie Wonder tunes are favorites among jazz musicians : they have a rich harmonic content to begin with, often including a key change and function within a relative wide range of tempo and rhythmic treatment. Studying these will open your ears ....
- You are the sunshine of my life
- Creepin'
- Isn't she lovely
- Always
- Don't you worry 'bout a thing
....

[Average Joe]

I think an important part of it is to try and remove the original arrangement and assess what you have to work with. Some pop and rock songs are tied to specific arrangements, or at least very hard to do without them. Most of U2s catalog for instance. If you can play the song on an acoustic or a piano or whatnot, and feel that you still have a song, there's room to rearrange the rhythm, chords, phrasing of the melody.

[j4zz]

Look at the "construction" of the song : where are the V (7) chords, where do these resolve to, can you find substitions for these, place a II chord in front, etc. Voice leading plays a major role in many "jazz" harmonisations so try and connect your upper and lower notes in a direct and musically logical manner. Chord extensions help : add a 6th, a 9th , try altering the V chords with added tension notes such as a b9, #9, etc.
With so many different "Jazz Styles" present it's difficult to isolate one particular issue - Michael Buble will do it his way and Tony Bennett in another... Russell Malone has his style,
as did Stanley Turrentine. Herbie Hancock did an album with Joni Mitchell tunes and some are hard to recognize !
There is a reason why so many Stevie Wonder tunes are favorites among jazz musicians : they have a rich harmonic content to begin with, often including a key change and function within a relative wide range of tempo and rhythmic treatment. Studying these will open your ears ....
- You are the sunshine of my life
- Creepin'
- Isn't she lovely
- Always
- Don't you worry 'bout a thing
....

A mine of information here. I will work though it. Yes, I have noticed the different jazz styles of different artists. There some I like more than others so I will concentrate on those.

[marcwhy]

This singer's whole thing is taking tunes from any genre and making them "old school/big band" sort of jams, and she always has great players with her -- fun stuff/ideas!

[j4zz]

I think an important part of it is to try and remove the original arrangement and assess what you have to work with. Some pop and rock songs are tied to specific arrangements, or at least very hard to do without them. Most of U2s catalog for instance. If you can play the song on an acoustic or a piano or whatnot, and feel that you still have a song, there's room to rearrange the rhythm, chords, phrasing of the melody.

I see. I have in the past, changed arrangements of songs for my own purposes, so yes, I can also do this as part of turning it into a jazz version. Certainly my attempts so far have been sitting down with an acoustic and experimenting as per my first post. I have found it hard to make the changes, as my mind keeps returning to the original form.

[j4zz]

This singer's whole thing is taking tunes from any genre and making them "old school/big band" sort of jams, and she always has great players with her -- fun stuff/ideas!

While the style is not what I will be aiming for, this is a great example, I feel, of totally re-jigging the song and ending up with something very different, and very nice.

[marcwhy]

While the style is not what I will be aiming for, this is a great example, I feel, of totally re-jigging the song and ending up with something very different, and very nice.

Exactly! If she can do this, you can make anything "jazz!"

Another fun one:

[docsteve]

Oh well, wasn't the whole point of Jazz that some bored musicians took a pop song and played the h*ll out of it?

[j4zz]

Oh well, wasn't the whole point of Jazz that some bored musicians took a pop song and played the h*ll out of it?

Maybe as good a definition as I need

[PatrickWD]

Since most pop songs usually have a simple chord progression, the easiest way i find of making a jazzy version of pop songs is to add more chords, or just different chords. One way can be like has been mentioned before to simply add a few extentions like 9s or 13s, but another way can be adding secondary dominants. Adding the dominant of the chord before the chord. If the chords of a pop song is F / Dm / Bb / C /, you can add the dominant of the Dm (A7), and the dominant of the Bb(F7). Or you can even add a ii - V before each chord. So the song can become: Fmaj7 A7 / Dm Cm7 F7#5 / Bbmaj7 /C9.

But you have be careful that the chords matches the melody. If the melody of the song is a C, adding a A7 doesent work, since the C# in the A7 will clash with the C natural.

You can also think about most chords in standard harmony as 3 families: Tonic: i-major, ii-minor, vi-minor, subdominant: ii-minor and iv-major, dominant: V7 and Viim7b5. These can often be swapped for another of the same family. Often pop songs will use the iv-major as the subdominant, so changing it to a ii-minor can give the song a jazzier feel. So in the last example the Bb ( the iv-major) can be changed to a Gm (the ii-minor). And you can add a secondary dominant before that one, turning the original Bb into a D7 Gm7.

[j4zz]

Since most pop songs usually have a simple chord progression, the easiest way i find of making a jazzy version of pop songs is to add more chords, or just different chords. One way can be like has been mentioned before to simply add a few extentions like 9s or 13s, but another way can be adding secondary dominants. Adding the dominant of the chord before the chord. If the chords of a pop song is F / Dm / Bb / C /, you can add the dominant of the Dm (A7), and the dominant of the Bb(F7). Or you can even add a ii - V before each chord. So the song can become: Fmaj7 A7 / Dm Cm7 F7#5 / Bbmaj7 /C9.

But you have be careful that the chords matches the melody. If the melody of the song is a C, adding a A7 doesent work, since the C# in the A7 will clash with the C natural.

You can also think about most chords in standard harmony as 3 families: Tonic: i-major, ii-minor, vi-minor, subdominant: ii-minor and iv-major, dominant: V7 and Viim7b5. These can often be swapped for another of the same family. Often pop songs will use the iv-major as the subdominant, so changing it to a ii-minor can give the song a jazzier feel. So in the last example the Bb ( the iv-major) can be changed to a Gm (the ii-minor). And you can add a secondary dominant before that one, turning the original Bb into a D7 Gm7.

Thanks so much. This last part particularly, is new to me. Great stuff to explore...

[Peter C]

Maybe something along these lines?

[j4zz]

You can also think about most chords in standard harmony as 3 families: Tonic: i-major, ii-minor, vi-minor, subdominant: ii-minor and iv-major, dominant: V7 and Viim7b5. These can often be swapped for another of the same family. Often pop songs will use the iv-major as the subdominant, so changing it to a ii-minor can give the song a jazzier feel. So in the last example the Bb ( the iv-major) can be changed to a Gm (the ii-minor). And you can add a secondary dominant before that one, turning the original Bb into a D7 Gm7.

As I said, new stuff for me, but as I played them I realised I had already encountered a couple. The i-major/v1-minor and ii-minor/iv-major substitutions, and I have encountered v7/vii7 substitution without the m7b5 form (is that the tri-tone?).

[JazzPadd]

Perhaps not considered jazz by some but I like what Bill Frisell does with pop and rock songs. He has an old video explaining his approach that emphasizes “melody, melody, melody” coupled with one other note within reach. That minimalist approach really helped me to get “inside” a tune, as noted above, and away from chords and the reliance on chord progressions.

Some pop tunes have a note that gives it a kind of flavor, like using an F natural against an A major melody, or E flat with a G major melody, etc. Finding and emphasizing those flavors keeps a tune familiar without relying on full chords and progressions.

Sometimes it’s fun to listen to how others have approached a pop tune with a jazz ethos. One is to play the tune once through and then blow on the changes with alterations or a vamp (i.e. Gabor Szabo), which moves the emphasis away from melody and more toward improvisation and groove. Others work up chord melodies lushly reharmonizing virtually every note. And so on.

[Victor Saumarez]

Pop songs don’t always easily translate into jazz. The reason is they are different in terms of melodic content and harmony. It has been said even Beatle’s songs don’t make the grade, although I believe Frank Vignola dedicated a CD to their tunes. Michelle is in the Real Book and and Martin Taylor did a version of Hear Their and Everywhere. Bireli Lagrene has a great arrangement for Isn’t She Lovely. I don’t know what the original harmony is but he adds extensions and uses many chord types. I guess it’s just a case of choosing a pop song that has a strong melody, and a harmonic structure that lends itself to reharmonising and improvisation.

[Litterick]

Pop songs do not translate easily into jazz because we know the originals too well. We know them not as songs but as recordings. They stick in our heads in all their specificity. We can instantly distinguish the original from a cover, we can hear when a recoding has been remastered or otherwise altered. We know we are hearing something other than the original.

Jazz standards are songs. We know them in many different interpretations of the original sheet music. Julie London's recording of Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most might be the best, but so might the recordings by Ella Fitzgerald, Blossom Dearie or Carmen McRae. They are all roughly equal, individual contributions to the history of the song.

Any interpretation of Michelle will always be a version of the recording made at Abbey Road on 3rd November 1965 between 2.30 and 7pm (with the vocals and overdubbed guitars added between 7pm and 11.30pm). The interpretation always is in danger of sounding generic, like lobby music, unless it has something intrinsically different from the original to make it specific.

But if you want to hear covers of popular songs done well as jazz, listen to Prog by the Bad Plus.

[PatrickWD]

As I said, new stuff for me, but as I played them I realised I had already encountered a couple. The i-major/v1-minor and ii-minor/iv-major substitutions, and I have encountered v7/vii7 substitution without the m7b5 form (is that the tri-tone?).

The V7 and the m7b5 share a tritone. G7 and Bm7b5 share the notes F# and B. Bm7b5 can also be seen as a sort of G9/B without the root.

[docsteve]

Pop songs don’t always easily translate into jazz. The reason is they are different in terms of melodic content and harmony. It has been said even Beatle’s songs don’t make the grade, although I believe Frank Vignola dedicated a CD to their tunes. Michelle is in the Real Book and and Martin Taylor did a version of Hear Their and Everywhere. Bireli Lagrene has a great arrangement for Isn’t She Lovely. I don’t know what the original harmony is but he adds extensions and uses many chord types. I guess it’s just a case of choosing a pop song that has a strong melody, and a harmonic structure that lends itself to reharmonising and improvisation.

Basically, you are right. I don't want to sound picky, but Beatles songs have been played by jazz musicians since they first appeared. Ella did a version of A Hard Day's Night in 1966 IIRC. You will find any number of jazz treatments of their songs.

BTW Isn't She Lovely is by Stevie Wonder. If that song translates better into jazz than Michelle, it's possibly for the aforementioned reason that the Michelle recording done on 3rd November in Abbey Road is more present in peoples' heads than Songs In The Key Of Life; or that the arrangement is more distinctive - Isn't She Lovely sounds like a jam, while Michelle is very tightly arranged.

[fep]

Pop songs often have simple chord progressions when compared to jazz. Jazz players will often reharmonize the tune. Here is reharmonization, chord substitutions, and embellishments to the extreme. Maybe jazz, maybe not, but improvising with chords and melody. You might want to listen to the original Coldplay version to hear how different this is.

[mr. beaumont]

The reharmonization is the "easy" part.

The real issue lies in the fact that a whole lot of current pop tunes have really repetitive, uninteresting, melodies.

[marcwhy]

[Litterick]

The reharmonization is the "easy" part.

The real issue lies in the fact that a whole lot of current pop tunes have really repetitive, uninteresting, melodies.

'Take it the bridge!'

'There is no bridge.'