My article about jazz covers of modern pop songs has been published at eMusic

Head on over to eMusic to read my recent article highlighting a list of modern pop rock songs covered by jazz musicians.

I looked at popular tunes from about 1990 to the present, and tried to hit a few different genres.  Obviously, it’s not comprehensive.  Many cool renditions got left off due to space issues, etc, but I thought it would be a neat idea to focus on the establishment of a new songbook reflecting the music tastes and influences of a new generation of jazz artists.

After the lead-in paragraph, follow the link to the article at eMusic.

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Despite popular belief, jazz and pop music aren’t at odds. In the past — and still to this day — jazz musicians have been both contributing to and tackling compositions from the Great American Songbook: Duke Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean a Thing” and “Take the A Train” remain in the realm of pop culture reference and John Coltrane, who is generally associated with an avant-garde approach to jazz, is also remembered for his lovely rendition of The Sound of Music‘s “My Favorite Things.”

That tradition continues to this day, with modern jazz musicians discovering little compositional diamonds in modern pop. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. While honoring the past and communicating in a shared, established language is a defining quality of jazz, so is the tendency to adopt a forward-thinking approach to music, seeking to expand that shared language in ways that are both experimental and innovative… (Read the rest of the article, HERE, at eMusic)

Enjoy!