November 2024 Guitar Newsletter: The New Jazz Standards—80’s Pop Hits

Thanks to growing up with my sisters’ vinyl record collection, early on I became a fan of 80’s pop music, and even a generic best of 80’s playlist still has me snapping fingers.  At the same time, I love jazz standards performed by all the various acoustic ensembles and their freedom to arrange a melody in countless ways.  Why not take hits of the 80’s and do the same thing?  Currently, I am playing with a flute player and violinist, and I have been thinking about reimagining 80’s chartbusters as instrumentals in a jazz trio style.

Along with creating original material the art of covering somebody else’s compositions is without a doubt at the heart of jazz.  Jazz music is an amazing genre, in part, because it is undergoing constant reinterpretation and evolution.  To me, this is what artistic growth is, reimagining the old in a new fashion, over and over again.  We don’t have to discard it or completely change what’s already there, but let’s allow ourselves to try something new.  

Boiling down a full rock/pop band to an acoustic guitar, violin and flute trio is a curious undertaking because it requires the ability to hear the song in a different way.  Deciding what parts are essential to the song and divvying them up 3 ways is critical.  What instrument will play the melody that would normally be sung?  The vocal melody has to be recognizable and assigned to the forefront, but that doesn’t mean the same instrument has to play it at all times.  Most song structures include verses, choruses and, possibly, a bridge or guitar solo.  These sections offer opportunities to pass the melody around.  Are there other important instrumental parts of the song that need to be duplicated?  That catchy guitar riff or prominent synthesizer part, the melodic bass line that makes you want to move might be necessary for the audience to recognize the song. Not having drums in the group makes this undertaking seem counter intuitive and quite a stretch of the imagination.  Without the steady snare drum hits on beats 2 and 4 these compositions would not have gone to the bank.  However, if you can hear a reinterpretation in your head it’s a sign that it’s possible. 

The electric guitar was certainly in the forefront of a lot of 80’s tunes.  However, so much of it’s sound in that era was heavily laden with effects, whammy bars, overdubs and buckets of reverb.  An acoustic swinging jazz trio, lacking a traditional rhythm section (bass and drums) means that any typical 80’s guitar pyrotechnics will have to go out the window, and I will have to hold down the fort instead.  That means providing a solid foundation for the other members.  Duplicating the recorded guitar melodies, riffs, lead fills, or solos as they appear on the recordings would not serve the group.  All the more reason to try something different and let the fiddle or flute take over the guitar riff or even that blistering guitar solo.  I’ll imitate the funky bass line or strum jazzier chords resembling the rhythmic harmonies of the song.  As soon as these variable elements find themselves in a jazz genre, the doors to reinvention are swung wide open.  As long as the essence of the song survives and is recognizable, I will be content.  Let’s not forget that the spirit of 80’s pop was in part to bring positive energy and dancing into the room.  When musicians tap into what resonates and makes them happy, it will rub off on the audience.

I am not sure if this project will work out, but I am intrigued by the idea of taking songs from a different genre and dressing them up in an older fashion.  The creative arts are not about being bound to norms or limited to presenting cookie cutter products.  There are conventional ways of doing things, and they are there to show us what worked for other people.  However, there is no reason not to attempt something different, especially if one’s creative spirit might be delighted by the challenge.