In the past I have usually tried to have variety in sets by picking a medium swing opener, maybe followed by a bossa nova or latin, then maybe a blues or ballad etc. However, my bassist takes issue with this. He prefers songs within a set are picked by what key they are in.
His thinking is that if the audience is not already familiar with the material, after the statement of the theme, the more lengthy improv parts will end up sounding like the same song, albeit with a different rhythm. We also have some disagreement about when the song is in the same key, or is percieved to be, by the listener. For example, to me, a song in C minor is much different from one in C major, so to have them both in one set is not aurally redundant.
Anyway, I used to list by catagory, blues, bossa, swing, etc, and now I'm not so sure. I'm wondering how the rest of you do it. Of course the obvious answer is to utilize sets with songs in different keys AND stucture, (again Bossa, BLues, Standard, etc), but its surprising how much of the jazz repertoire is written in C, F, G, E flat, B flat, etc.
His thinking is that if the audience is not already familiar with the material, after the statement of the theme, the more lengthy improv parts will end up sounding like the same song, albeit with a different rhythm. We also have some disagreement about when the song is in the same key, or is percieved to be, by the listener. For example, to me, a song in C minor is much different from one in C major, so to have them both in one set is not aurally redundant.
Anyway, I used to list by catagory, blues, bossa, swing, etc, and now I'm not so sure. I'm wondering how the rest of you do it. Of course the obvious answer is to utilize sets with songs in different keys AND stucture, (again Bossa, BLues, Standard, etc), but its surprising how much of the jazz repertoire is written in C, F, G, E flat, B flat, etc.