The 25 Best Jazz Standards Every Jazz Musician Should Know

These are the 25 jazz standards we think every jazz musician should know, each with its composer, the year it was written and one recording to learn it from. “Body and Soul,” “All the Things You Are,” “Summertime” and “‘Round Midnight” head the list, the same four that top the JazzStandards.com ranking of the most-recorded standards. The rest cover the forms you meet on any bandstand: ballads, the blues, rhythm changes, bebop heads, a calypso, a bossa and the modal tunes of the 1960s.

What Makes a Tune a Jazz Standard

A jazz standard is a tune that jazz musicians know well enough to play together without rehearsal. Most began as songs for Broadway shows, Hollywood films and Tin Pan Alley publishers between the 1920s and the 1950s; others were written by jazz musicians for their own bands. There is no official list. The practical test is whether a tune is in the fake books, above all the Real Book, and whether it gets called at jam sessions.

This page is about repertoire: the tunes you learn to play. The records that listeners know from radio, film and the sales charts are on our list of famous jazz songs. Most standards rest on a handful of chord patterns, above all the ii-V-I, which our guide to jazz chord progressions explains.

The 25 Best Jazz Standards

1. “Body and Soul” (Johnny Green, 1930)

Green wrote it in New York for the British singer Gertrude Lawrence. It is a 32-bar AABA ballad usually played in D-flat, and the bridge jumps up a half step to D major before finding its way home, a test for any soloist. Learn it from Coleman Hawkins’s Bluebird recording of October 11, 1939: he states the melody only in passing and improvises two choruses over the changes. It became his biggest hit.

2. “All the Things You Are” (Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, 1939)

Kern wrote it for the Broadway musical Very Warm for May. The chorus runs 36 bars instead of 32: the second A section repeats the first a fourth lower and the last one adds four bars, and each section ends with a half-step key change, so one chorus passes through A-flat, C, E-flat, G and E major. Charlie Parker wrote “Bird of Paradise” on its changes. Hear the version on Jazz at Massey Hall (Debut), recorded on May 15, 1953, by Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus and Max Roach.

3. “Summertime” (George Gershwin and DuBose Heyward, 1935)

Gershwin wrote it in 1934 as Clara’s lullaby for the opera Porgy and Bess, which opened in 1935. The melody sits almost entirely on the pentatonic scale over slow-moving, blues-like harmony, so it works at any tempo. The Jazz Discography counted 1,161 releases by 2005. Start with Sidney Bechet’s 1939 recording for Blue Note, which is in the Grammy Hall of Fame, then Miles Davis and Gil Evans’s 1958 arrangement on their Porgy and Bess.

4. “‘Round Midnight” (Thelonious Monk, 1943)

Monk probably wrote it around 1940 or 1941 and copyrighted it in 1943; Cootie Williams made the first recording in August 1944. It is a slow ballad in E-flat minor, and most bands still play the introduction Dizzy Gillespie added. Monk’s own first version, recorded for Blue Note on November 21, 1947, is the source, but the one most players learn from is Miles Davis’s on ‘Round About Midnight (Columbia, 1957). It is one of the most recorded standards by a jazz composer.

5. “Autumn Leaves” (Joseph Kosma, 1945)

Kosma wrote “Les Feuilles mortes” with the poet Jacques Prévert; Johnny Mercer added the English lyric in 1950. The chords are almost all ii-V-I and ii-V moves, first toward the relative major and then the minor, which makes it a common first tune for students, usually in G minor. The standard reference is Cannonball Adderley’s Somethin’ Else (Blue Note, 1958) with Miles Davis, who credited the arrangement idea to Ahmad Jamal. Bill Evans’s 1959 trio version on Portrait in Jazz is the other one to know.

6. “Stella by Starlight” (Victor Young, 1944)

Young wrote the theme for the Paramount film The Uninvited; Ned Washington added words in 1946. Its A-B-C-A form sets it apart from the usual AABA song. JazzStandards.com ranks it tenth. Charlie Parker made the first jazz recording in 1952; the model is the Miles Davis sextet’s May 1958 version with John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley and Bill Evans, issued on Jazz Track (Columbia, 1959).

7. “My Funny Valentine” (Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, 1937)

Mitzi Green introduced it in the Broadway musical Babes in Arms. It is a C-minor ballad that turns to the relative major in its second section, and it has been recorded on more than 1,300 albums. Chet Baker made it his signature: first as trumpeter in the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, whose version is in the National Recording Registry, then as a singer on Chet Baker Sings (Pacific Jazz, 1954). Miles Davis’s quintet version on Cookin’ (Prestige) is the instrumental version to know.

8. “All of Me” (Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons, 1931)

An ABAC song in B-flat with straightforward harmony, usually taken at a medium tempo. Louis Armstrong’s 1932 recording reached No. 1 and made it a jazz tune; critic Ted Gioia calls Billie Holiday’s 1941 version the definitive one. Lennie Tristano’s “Line Up” is built on its chords.

9. “There Will Never Be Another You” (Harry Warren and Mack Gordon, 1942)

Warren and Gordon wrote it for the Twentieth Century Fox musical Iceland. The melody moves in long rising and falling intervals, and the tune suits players and singers who swing lightly. The version to know is Chet Baker’s on Chet Baker Sings (Pacific Jazz), recorded on February 15, 1954, where he both sings and plays trumpet.

10. “On Green Dolphin Street” (Bronisław Kaper, 1947)

Kaper wrote it for the film Green Dolphin Street, with lyrics by Ned Washington. Ted Gioia points to its changes, which alternate eight bars over a pedal point with eight bars of fast harmonic movement. Bands usually play the pedal-point sections as a vamp, often with a Latin feel, and swing the rest. The Miles Davis sextet’s 1958 version on Jazz Track (Columbia) set the template.

11. “How High the Moon” (Morgan Lewis and Nancy Hamilton, 1940)

Introduced in the Broadway revue Two for the Show, it became a bebop vehicle when Charlie Parker and Benny Harris wrote “Ornithology” on its chords (Dial, 1946), and singers who scat on it often quote that line. The recording to hear is Ella Fitzgerald’s on Ella in Berlin (Verve), recorded live on February 13, 1960: nearly seven minutes that move from the melody into a long scat solo.

12. “I Got Rhythm” (George and Ira Gershwin, 1930)

Ethel Merman sang it in Girl Crazy. Its 32-bar AABA chords, known as rhythm changes, are the second form every player needs after the 12-bar blues: I-vi-ii-V patterns in the A sections and a chain of dominant chords in the bridge. Countless tunes use them, including Ellington’s “Cotton Tail,” Gillespie’s “Salt Peanuts,” Monk’s “Rhythm-a-Ning” and Sonny Rollins’s “Oleo.” Learn “Oleo” from the Miles Davis Quintet’s Relaxin’ (Prestige), recorded in 1956.

13. “Cherokee” (Ray Noble, 1938)

The British bandleader wrote it as the first movement of his Indian Suite. It is a 64-bar AABA tune whose bridge runs ii-V-I cadences into B major, A major and G major before returning to B-flat, a passage that discouraged many early soloists. Charlie Parker practiced it in all twelve keys and based “Ko-Ko” (1945) on its changes. Clifford Brown’s solo on Study in Brown (EmArcy, 1955), with Max Roach, is the one to study.

14. “A Night in Tunisia” (Dizzy Gillespie, 1942)

Gillespie wrote it while playing in Benny Carter’s band and called it “Interlude.” The A sections ride a syncopated bass ostinato over a half-step chord shift, and between choruses a 12-bar interlude leads into a four-bar break for the next soloist. Gillespie’s February 22, 1946, recording for RCA Victor is in the Grammy Hall of Fame; Charlie Parker’s for Dial five weeks later, with Miles Davis, contains his famous alto break.

15. “Caravan” (Juan Tizol and Duke Ellington, 1936)

Ellington’s valve trombonist Juan Tizol played the opening idea ad lib, and the band worked out the rest. The A sections hang on one chord for twelve bars before resolving to F minor, usually over a Latin beat. A small group from the Ellington band, recording as Barney Bigard and His Jazzopators, made the first record in December 1936, a No. 4 pop hit in 1937. A big-band chart of it drives the plot of the 2014 film Whiplash.

16. “Satin Doll” (Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, 1953)

Ellington wrote the riff-like melody and Strayhorn harmonized it; Johnny Mercer’s lyric came about five years later. It opens with a chain of ii-V moves, and the bridge makes brief false key changes toward F and G. The Ellington orchestra recorded it at its first Capitol session, on April 6, 1953, with Ellington playing the piano introduction. More on the composer in our list of the best Duke Ellington songs.

17. “Straight, No Chaser” (Thelonious Monk, 1951)

A 12-bar blues built on one short phrase that Monk keeps starting on a different beat of the bar. Learn the displacement exactly; it is the tune. Monk first recorded it for Blue Note on July 23, 1951 (Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 2); the most influential cover is the Miles Davis sextet’s on Milestones (Columbia, 1958), with solos by Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane.

18. “Confirmation” (Charlie Parker, 1945)

Parker was already playing it in 1945. The head barely repeats itself, so it is a long line to memorize over fast-moving changes, and Monk reportedly told piano students to learn it in several keys. Dizzy Gillespie’s band recorded it first, in February 1946, without Parker. Parker’s only studio version, with Al Haig, Percy Heath and Max Roach, was made in 1953 and issued by Clef.

19. “Donna Lee” (credited to Charlie Parker, 1947)

Written in A-flat on the chords of “(Back Home Again in) Indiana,” it is a fast line of four-note groups that starts with a half-bar rest. Parker’s quintet recorded it for Savoy on May 8, 1947, with Miles Davis, Bud Powell, Tommy Potter and Max Roach; Davis later said he wrote it. Jaco Pastorius’s bass-guitar version on his 1976 debut album brought it to electric bassists.

20. “Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise” (Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II, 1928)

Written as a tango for the operetta The New Moon, it is an AABA tune with minor A sections and a major bridge. Jazz versions drop the tango rhythm. Sonny Clark’s trio recorded it in 1957, and John Coltrane’s quartet recorded it on “Live” at the Village Vanguard (Impulse!, 1962).

21. “St. Thomas” (Sonny Rollins, 1956)

Rollins based it on a Virgin Islands nursery song his mother sang to him, which goes back to the Bahamian folk song “Sponger Money.” It is a calypso in C, so the rhythm section has to settle into a different groove from swing. The original is on Saxophone Colossus (Prestige), recorded on June 22, 1956, with Tommy Flanagan, Doug Watkins and Max Roach.

22. “Blue Bossa” (Kenny Dorham, 1963)

Dorham’s tune first appeared on Joe Henderson’s debut album, Page One (Blue Note), recorded on June 3, 1963, with Dorham on trumpet. It is 16 bars in C minor with a four-bar ii-V-I into D-flat major in the middle, which makes it a clear lesson in minor and major ii-V-I progressions. Henderson’s “Recorda Me,” from the same album, became a standard too.

23. “Giant Steps” (John Coltrane, 1959)

Coltrane recorded it in May 1959 for his first Atlantic album, released in 1960, with Tommy Flanagan, Paul Chambers and Art Taylor. In 16 bars the chords move between three key centers a major third apart, B, G and E-flat, at a fast tempo; Flanagan’s halting solo on the original shows how hard that is without preparation.

24. “Footprints” (Wayne Shorter, 1966)

Shorter recorded it first for Adam’s Apple (Blue Note) in February 1966, but the Miles Davis Quintet’s version on Miles Smiles (Columbia) came out earlier, in February 1967. Harmonically it is a 12-bar C-minor blues, disguised by a triple-meter feel and an unusual turnaround; on Miles Smiles, Ron Carter and Tony Williams move between 6/8 and 4/4 under the soloists.

25. “Maiden Voyage” (Herbie Hancock, 1965)

The piece was used in a Yardley commercial, and the master tape listed it as “TV Jingle.” It is a 32-bar AABA tune with two suspended chords per section over a repeated rhythmic figure, so the work is phrasing over static harmony rather than making fast changes. The original is on Maiden Voyage (Blue Note), recorded on March 17, 1965, with Freddie Hubbard, George Coleman, Ron Carter and Tony Williams. Our guide to modal jazz explains the approach behind it.

How to Work Through the List

Start with tunes built on ii-V-I patterns and clear forms: “Autumn Leaves,” “All of Me,” “Satin Doll,” “Blue Bossa” and a blues such as “Straight, No Chaser.” Our list of easy jazz standards for beginners adds more. Then learn rhythm changes through “I Got Rhythm,” followed by songs that change key often, such as “All the Things You Are” and “Body and Soul.” Save “Cherokee” at tempo, “Confirmation,” “Donna Lee” and “Giant Steps” for later; our guide to bebop and its harmonic language explains what they ask of a player, and our guide to learning to improvise covers how to practice any tune.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many jazz standards are there?

There is no fixed number, because no organization decides what counts. JazzStandards.com ranks the 1,000 most-recorded standards and documents the top 300 in detail. This page picks 25 of them, chosen to cover the forms you will be asked to play.

What is the most recorded jazz standard?

Body and Soul tops the JazzStandards.com ranking of the most-recorded standards, followed by All the Things You Are, Summertime and ‘Round Midnight. Summertime alone had 1,161 releases listed in The Jazz Discography by 2005. Among tunes written by jazz musicians, ‘Round Midnight and Caravan are among the most recorded.

What is the Real Book?

The Real Book is a collection of lead sheets, the melody and chord symbols of each tune, compiled by two Berklee College of Music students in the mid-1970s and produced illegally at copy shops. It quickly became a standard reference for musicians. Hal Leonard published legal editions of the Real Book volumes in 2004.