Louis Electric  November issue is here!  Make Those Standards
Your Own  I have a pretty decent record collection. It includes
a lot of singers doing their takes on standard jazz material and
songs from the American Songbook. Flipping through the LP covers
reveals Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Tony
Bennett, Betty Carter, the Mills Brothers, Eddie Jefferson,
Blossom Dearie, Anita O’Day, and Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross.
That’s how I learned songs by Cole Porter, George Gershwin,
Rodgers and Hart, Duke Ellington, and Johnny Mercer. When it
came time to play these songs on my guitar, I already had a
clear memory of the melody, the harmony, the form, and the
lyrics. Whether comping for a singer, another instrument playing
the melody, or stating the melody myself, I could easily follow
the unfolding song, having done the listening for years in
advance. The catch is, if I had only heard, say, Betty Carter’s
version of "Something Wonderful" by Rogers and Hammerstein, or
Sarah Vaughan’s rendition of