There is a local Jazz and Blues festival coming up at the start of June and our school Jazz band are playing at it. Thing is, their repetoire isn't very big yet as they are still quite new, so our music teacher is asking some students to do solo performances to fill up the slot. I have been asked to do one but I have no idea what to play.
Does anyone know of any good jazz pieces I could play and where I could maybe get the music or CD for it?? I play piano and clarinet. I'm doing Grade 7 piano and Grade 5 clarinet so that's the standard I am at.

Thanks

You could try Tennessee Waltz; there's a great jazz version of it, and the chords are really simple.

Try (in C)

C C C F

C C G G7

C C C7 F

C G7 C C


C E7 F C

C C G G7

C C C F

C G7 C C

All you need to do is get the band to play that chord sequence 4 times. Find the melody, play it the first and last times through, and do an improvised solo around those chords the second and third times through.

Voila!

Violinia

Play some Gershwin! We had to play for some teacher's convention, and our jazz group's repetoire ins't very much either, so we all had to do a solo!