Description: An introduction for new fans, a useful handbook for jazz enthusiasts and performers, and an important reference for students and educators, this second edition of Ted Gioia's The Jazz Standards--now updated by popular demand-- belongs on the shelf of every serious jazz lover or musician.
Review Quotes: "Gioia brings his deep knowledge of jazz to bear when comparing how a wide variety of artists approached a given tune and does not shy away from voicing his opinions about the good, the bad, and the ugly." -- J Farrington, CHOICE
"If you look up just one title in The Jazz Standards, before you realize it you will have spent an intriguing hour or two learning fascinating and new things about old songs that you have known most of your life." -- Dave Brubeck"Which is best: interpretation or song? In any case, jazz and standards are forever locked in loving embrace. A finely researched work." -- Sonny Rollins"Mr. Gioia's is the first general-interest, wide-ranging and authoritative guide to the basic contemporary jazz canon." -- Will Friedwald, Wall Street Journal"In virtually every instance, Gioia delivers." -- The Atlantic Monthly"One man's repertoire may be another man's B-list, but when the man is Ted Gioia, one tends to listen - in both senses. Gioia, among the most lauded of jazz writers, has chosen more than 250 songs. He tells the story behind each....Compulsively readable, and belongs on the shelves of every jazz lover, or jazz-lover wannabe." -- Toronto Globe and Mail"This book should be in the library of every gigging jazz musician and every serious jazz fan." -- Library Journal"What a useful and informative book The Jazz Standards is! Explaining the jazz repertory in a way that is accessible for the jazz beginner yet stimulating for the aficionado, Ted Gioia shows once again why he is one the best jazz writers around today." -- Gerald Early, Editor of Miles Davis and American Culture"Warning: This book is addictive....Putting together a compendium like this must involve prodigious research and an encyclopaedic memory. Fortunately Gioia...wears his learning lightly and conveys it with wit and insight, and a minimum of musicological jargon." -- Dallas Morning News"The book is wise, often funny--and it always accomplishes the highest mission of writing about music, which is to send you back to the music with wide-open ears." -- Kansas City Star"Ted Gioia's The Jazz Standards is an interactive joy. It's a book you can have fun with while learning from it and it can also serve a companion anthology and reference guide." -- Steven Cerra, Jazz Profiles