Jamey Aebersold Jazz, Volume 107: Singers!: It Had to Be You: Vocal Book & 2 CDs

This collection solves a real pedagogical challenge: finding standards in keys that suit female voices while maintaining the musical integrity and professional rhythm section sound that makes practice rewarding. Steve Allee's piano playing, Tyrone Wheeler's intuitive bass lines, and Jonathan Higgins's responsive drumming set a standard for what accompaniment should sound like. The stereo separation feature is a practical touch that lets pianists among your singers stay connected to the whole band instead of fighting with themselves.

Intimate and sophisticated. These are songs written for the human voice, and the rhythm section's sensitivity honors that. There's elegance in simplicity here, no overwrought arrangements, just clear melody, smart harmonies, and a band that listens.

Vocal jazz students, community choirs exploring the American songbook, and female singers developing their jazz repertoire. High school jazz programs will find this especially valuable for singers who want standard literature without wrestling with transpositions.

• Start with the recorded versions during rehearsal to establish the groove and feel of each tune; singers unfamiliar with jazz standards often need to hear how the melody sits against the rhythm section's phrasing.
• Take advantage of the included intros on the recordings, they orient singers to the first note and establish the key. Have students listen to these several times before learning the melody.
• Experiment with removing the piano track for singers who also play keyboards; this opens up opportunities for students to accompany themselves while building comping skills alongside their vocal work.
• Use the chord changes printed over the lyrics to encourage singers to understand harmonic function rather than just memorizing a line.

Program several of these as features in a jazz concert, pairing soloists or small groups of singers with instrumental ensembles for contrast and variety. For year-round work, rotate through the collection during rehearsals to build students' standard vocabulary and sight-reading fluency. A spring recital built around this repertoire gives singers who've been working through the book a natural performance outlet.

• Singing jazz phrasing and interpreting syncopation against a steady rhythm section
• Reading melody with chord symbols and understanding harmonic function
• Intonation within jazz contexts, especially hearing vocal lines against walking bass
• Improvisation and scatting with chord changes (singers can move beyond written melody)
• Comping skills for pianists among your singers, recognizing when to lay out versus when to support the soloist