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Enjoy the best jazz songs of all time selected by NPR. Stream this playlist on Spotify and discover 101 classics by legendary artists.
- Take Five. Dave Brubeck.
- So What. Miles Davis.
- Take The A Train. Duke Ellington.
- Round Midnight. Thelonious Monk.
- Honeysuckle Rose – Fats Waller
- Mack The Knife – Ella Fitzgerald
- Cantaloupe Island – Herbie Hancock
- My Favorite Things – John Coltrane
- Take Five – Dave Brubeck
- God Bless The Child – Billie Holiday
- How High The Moon – Ella Fitzgerald
- Stella by Starlight – Miles Davis
- St. Thomas – Sonny Rollins
- Ain’T Misbehavin – Fats Waller
A popular song from the 1930s, ‘Honeysuckle Rose’ was composed by pianist, singer and entertainer Fats Waller, with lyrics by Andy Razaf. The song was published in 1929. Beyond its popularity as a song, many jazz musicians use the beginning of the melody line as a ‘lick’ or component in their improvisations. Waller’s 1934 recording captures his bea...
Written by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill in 1928, Mack The Knifeisn’t the usual story of romance or lost love; it’s based on the story of an 18th Century English thief! The oldest jazz song on this list, it’s made its way to the heart of the jazz songbook, with swinging versions by everyone from Louis Armstrongand Oscar Peterson to Bobby Darin and ...
Recorded and performed by many artists over the years, pianist-composer Herbie Hancock’s version of Cantaloupe Island is the definitive version for many jazz fans. Released on his 1964 album Empyrean Isles, the song is a classic example of the hard-bop style vamps and laid-back groove that Blue Note popularised in the 50s and 60s. Hancock is joined...
Whilst John Coltrane is perhaps more famous for the songs on his groundbreaking Giant Steps album, his performance of the old jazz song My Favorite Things reached widespread popularity on its release in 1961. Originally written in 1959 as a show tune for Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music, its open structure and memorable melody hav...
Pianist Dave Brubeck’s album Time Out, released by Columbia records in 1959, was groundbreaking for its extensive use of unusual time signatures. Becoming the first album to sell over one million copies, its most famous track was the song Take Five in (as you probably guessed) ‘5/4 time.’ Famous for its two chord vamp, (usually Ebm7 and Bbm7) it’s ...
Billie Holiday wrote this classic jazz song with Arthur Herzog Jr., a frequent collaborator. It has strong religious overtones and the title lyric refers to something her mother said to her in the course of an argument. Billie Holidayrecorded it three times, and the 1950 version with orchestra and chorus gives it a spiritual-like quality. This prov...
This song is known to jazz musicians as a swinging Broadway show tune and as its alter-ego ‘Ornithology’, the bebop head that Charlie Parker composedover its chord progression. The earliest version recorded was by Benny Goodman & His Orchestra, but it’s Ella Fitzgerald’s take on it that stands out in jazz history. She often sang How High The moon a...
Composed by Victor Young for the 1944 film ‘The Uninvited’, ‘Stella’ was soon picked up by jazz musicians as a favourite song, as we wrote about here. Charlie Parker, Stan Getz, Chet Baker and Nat King Cole were among the first to record it, but it is perhaps Miles Davis’ deep, 13-minute, dive into it for his album ‘My Funny Valentine‘ which stands...
This joyful, calypso-inspired piece is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser and notable in this list as one of the few latin-influenced songs. The tenor sax legend Sonny Rollins is credited as the composer, although its origins are from the Virgin Islands and further back as an English folk song. He first recorded it on ‘Saxophone Colossus’, released in 1956...
One of the most famous early examples of Stride piano, Ain’t Misbehavin’ was written back in 1929 with Andy Razaf contributing lyrics to the music written by Harry Brooks and Fats Waller himself. Whilst many people know the famous Louis Armstrongversions of this song, the original Fats Waller version is well worth discovering. Relatively slow compa...
- “So What”—Miles Davis. Years Active: 1944–1975 and 1980–1991. Great Albums: In a Silent Way, Seven Steps to Heaven. Associated Acts: John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Philly Joe Jones.
- “My Favorite Things”—John Coltrane. Years Active: 1945–1967. Great Albums: Blue Train, Giant Steps. Associated Acts: Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis Quintet, Eric Dolphy.
- “Take Five”—Dave Brubeck. Years Active: 1940s–2012. Great Albums: Dave Brubeck Octet, Jazz at the College of the Pacific. Associated Acts: Paul Desmond, Eugene Wright, Joe Morello, Gerry Mulligan.
- “Acknowledgement”—John Coltrane. Years Active: 1945–1967. Great Albums: Blue Train, Giant Steps. Associated Acts: Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis Quintet, Eric Dolphy.
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