Vanilla Book
I found another great resource for learning jazz tunes. Ralph Patt's Vanilla Book shows simplified changes for hundreds of standards. There are no melodies, just a text file of basic 7th chords for each tune. Only essential extensions (the occasional 7b9 chord) are included. The book's name comes from "just playing the vanilla changes."
The collection is great for breaking down the harmony to its basic elements. This is how I usually visualize and navigate through new or challenging changes, and it's helpful to have Ralph's second opinion. It's also handy whenever I have internet but no fake books and I need to look up some chord changes.
Equally impressive and helpful is Ralph's Tonal Centers page, in which he documents 163 different short chord progressions with examples of tunes containing each one. He has put a ton of work into assembling all the info on his site.
Steven Strauss (11 Jul 2012 at 6:55am)
In accompanying singers I've encountered changes the composers would be baffled by. Ralph Patt's Vanilla Book is the sanest counterweight I've found. Almost every jazz musician who prepares a chart adds ii chords to take up half of the time of any dominant chord. This is just wrong, like putting lipstick on every singer in the chorus, whatever the age or gender.
Joe (11 Jul 2012 at 5:50pm)
Ha, nice analogy. Luckily, the bass player is in complete control of whether it's heard as a ii-V or just a V, or some gnarly substitution.
Steven Strauss (26 Jul 2012 at 7:07am)
Are you trying to make me miss being a bass player? Because it is not going to work, clever one.