Jazz standards are a remarkably rich vein for teaching.
In the space of five minutes today, my students and I made connections between the jazz standard they’re singing to: The Harlem Renaissance, musical theatre history, pronunciation, context clues, great American poets, salsa dancing, and more.
The Great American Songbook – the songs created in and around Broadway in the 1920’s-1940’s and adopted by jazz musicians as standards – are one of the greatest contributions of American musical culture.
Program them. Teach them. And use them to teach so many things.