Our “Core Repertoire” consists of a collection of tunes you can use to prepare for Django Camp. If you don’t learn them, you won’t be alone and you’ll be fine. But if you do it will be that much easier to find people to jam with while you are here. And since the teachers know we’ve recommended these tunes to you they may choose to use them in their classes. So working on these songs well in advance of Django in June is a good investment of time and energy.
Our Core Repertoire is divided into two “tiers” of standard Gypsy Jazz songs:
This year most of our Core Repertoire will be drawn from the recorded repertoire of our European guest artists, The Romain Vuillemin Quartet and Django Symphonique. As it happens, all of it is standard repertoire, which is to say, tunes you want to have under your fingers here, or anywhere. Download the sheet music for this year’s Core Repertoire in the format of your choice right here:
The tunes in those booklets are:
Tier 1
Tier 2
For those who are interested, you’ll find more materials Jack has prepared over the years below. All of these tunes are standards and have been featured at Django in June in past years, so they offer more common ground for jamming.
Download Volume 2 in the format of your choice:
Gypsy Jazz Standards, Vol 2 – Standard and TAB
Gypsy Jazz Standards, Vol 2 – Standard
Gypsy Jazz Standards, Vol 2 – Standard Bb
In 2022, as that booklet was being prepared, Jack and his compadres produced videos giving you introductions and or insights into some of these tunes. You’ll find all those videos here:
Jack’s Gypsy Jazz Standards, Volume 2, in progress
And here’s Volume 1, again, available in a variety of formats. Take your pick:
24 Gypsy Jazz Standards – Notation Only
24 Gypsy Jazz Standards – Bb Edition
24 Gypsy Jazz Standards – Standard and TAB
Swing by this page for reference recordings and play-along rhythm tracks for all the tunes in Volume 1:
Support Materials for 24 Gypsy Jazz Standards
For Rhythm Guitarists: Jack Soref prepared a companion booklet for guitarists with some suggested chord voicings to use on each of the 24 GJ Standards. He has also produced a video with demos of many of these chord voicings and helpful pointers for people learning them for the first time. Here’s the link to the chord-shape companion booklet, and below that you have Jack’s video.