Some of the coolest titles I’ve seen are in the jazz lexicon. Whether you listen to an amateur or professional swing band practice its craft, there’s no shortage of original charts or arrangements with names that have been mashed together, rhymed, substituted, or otherwise cleverly manipulated to inspire your imagination before you even hear the piece.
Photo by Jens Thekkeveettil on Unsplash
Opus What?
There aren’t any limitations on naming conventions in Rock, R&B, Pop, Country, or any other music style, except for Classical, where most of the time it seems you need a head for numbers to remember which piece is which:
- Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Opus 67 (Beethoven)
- Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068 (Bach)
- Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Opus 23 (Tchaikovsky)
Don’t get me wrong – I’ve played and loved many classical pieces, but trying to remember symphony names only using a few generic descriptors and a number doesn’t do it for me. Unless the composer gave the symphony an alternate name (e.g. “The Jupiter”), I have a hard time keeping up.
(Happily, some pieces are so well known that they’ve found their way into our collective consciousness. Even if you’re not a numbers person, you know at least a little bit of the Beethoven #5 listed above: “Da-da-da-duuuum!”)
Pithy Weirdness
Outside of songs written specifically for comedy, some mainstream artists will take pains to choose obtuse titles, perhaps because they feel the story behind the song demands it – or maybe they just want to mess with us.
- MMMBop (Hanson)
- Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen)
- This Song Has No Title (Elton John)
- Our Lawyer Made Us Change the Name of This Song So We Wouldn’t Get Sued (Fall Out Boy)
The Changelings
Okay, now back to jazz.
The amazing simplicity of tweaking a phrase, word, letter, or even a sound is how some jazz composers come up with the titles of their charts. Sometimes I can almost tell what they were thinking when they wrote it, other times I have look up the story behind the tune to get even an inkling of what might’ve been going through their head.
Check out the two groups of jazz titles below, written and arranged by a handful of brilliant musicians. One group features words or phrases that we all know and love – some untouched, some altered. The other group features original titles.
Well-known Phrases
- Backrow Politics – Gordon Goodwin (“Backrow” refers to the back row of the band – this tune features the trumpets.)
- Dat Dere – Bobby Timmons / arr. Erik Morales
- Dis Here – Bobby Timmons / arr. Erik Morales (Apparently Mr. Morales likes to cover both ends of a spectrum.)
- Free Food? – Rick Hirsch
- Giddyup! – Rick Hirsch
- Hunting Wabbits – Gordon Goodwin (I can hear Elmer now…)
- Hunting Wabbits 2 (A Bad Hare Day) – Gordon Goodwin
- Hunting Wabbits 3 (Get Off My Lawn) – Gordon Goodwin
- In The Doghouse – Erik Morales
- Out of the Doghouse – Erik Morales
Word/Letter Substitutions
- Bread and Watrous – Hank Levy (“Watrous” refers to legendary trombonist Bill Watrous.)
- Chili Today, Hot Tamale – Rick Hirsch (Latin music holds a hefty portion of many swing band libraries, and is not immune to the intentional malapropisms in jazz titles.)
- Cot in the Act – Gordon Goodwin
- Rumble Bee – Victor Lopez
- Sweet Georgia Bright – Charles Lloyd / arr. Mike Kamuf
- Sweet Georgia Schwartz – Hank Levy
Originals
- Cantaloupe Island – Herbie Hancock / arr. Mike Kamuf
- Crunchy Frog – Gordon Goodwin
- Little Big Gumbo – Victor Lopez (“Gumbo” alludes to New Orleans Cajun music – an excellent piece given the swing band treatment by Mr. Lopez!)
- Message from Westlake – Mike Kamuf
- Nebula – Rick Hirsch
- Pegasus – Hank Levy
- The Weatherman’s Dilemma – Rick Hirsch
Alliteration/Rhyme
- Drama for Your Mama – Victor Lopez
- Tengo Tango – Julian & Nat Adderly / arr. Mike Kamuf
- Wizard Wheezes – Nicholas Hooper / arr. Victor Lopez (Sounds like Harry Potter caught a cold.)
Mashups/Phonetics
- Absoludicrous – Gordon Goodwin
- Howdiz Songo? – Gordon Goodwin (“Songo” is a music style that could be described as a contemporary rumba. I love how Mr. Goodwin turned this into a basic question!)
- Latintensity – Hank Levy (I was fortunate to have played in one of Hank’s bands in college. Learned tons about odd-metered music.)
- Venzuwailin – Hank Levy
Creating pun-filled, alliterative, or just plain kooky titles seems to be rampant in the jazz world, and I love it. But deep down, I know the music itself must be well-written. It should carry the load and speak to the listener, or the tune is nothing.
What swing band titles would you add to this list? Comment below!