Best jazz covers of rock songs

Brad Mehldau does a pretty nice cover of Nick Drake's "Things Behind the Sun". Not rock, exactly, but...

Well, assuming you include jazz singers, I really like Holly Cole's version of Johnny Nash's "I can see clearly now" on her "Don't Smoke in Bed" Lp.

(I might even like it better than the original.)

My two cents worth anyway.

Check out "You Inspire Me" by Curtis Stigers. The cd is outstanding and he covers songs from Dylan to The Kinks and John Sebaston to John Lennon.

Arranger Gil Evans' 1974 "Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix" is a very neat album and should be a sure-fire conversation starter...

The remake of Zeplin's "The Crunge" by Joshua Redman on his "Momentum" CD is pretty cool.

My other favorite (although it took a few listens) is the Jacqui Naylor cover of "Miss You" by the Stones on her "Shelter" CD.

jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd does many pop songs fwiw

Stanley Jordan- Stairway to Heaven from Stolen Moments. He has an amazing guitar technique.

George Benson did a lot of great stuff before he went over to the dark side. "The Other Side of Abbey Road," which is a cover of the entire Beatles album, and "White Rabbit," which includes the Jefferson Airplane tune along with "California Dreamin'" by The Mamas and Papas are some of my favorites.

Petra Haden & Bill Frisell improve on Coldplay's "Yellow." James Carter & Cyrus Chestnut do justice to the Pavement song book at full CD length on "Gold Sounds." In jazz/classical it's The String Quartet Tribute to Radiohead "Strung Out on OK Computer."

Miles doing Cindy Lauper's "True Colors"
Stacey Kent doing "Landslide"

Patricia Barber interpreting the Doors' "Light My Fire" on Modern Cool

the rippingtons doing jimi hendrix

David Lahm - "On Joni Mitchell." I'm not a jazz enthusiast but I enjoy this one.

The Bad Plus playing Black Sabbath's Iron Man!

charles lloyd-she's a woman(lennon-mccartney)/rare columbia 45.......larry coryell-all my love's laughter(jimmy webb)/on the album, the real great escape

Cassandra Wilson - Last Train to Clarkesville

Charlie Hunter doing Nirvana's "Come as You Are"

Miles: Time after Time

rhasaan roland kirk did lots of great covers...

Medeski, Martin, & Wood, "Hey Joe"

Cassandra Wilson, "Time after Time" (Also done well by Erin Bode)

ivan "boogaloo" joe jones covering Donovan's Jennifer Juniper is always worth a listen.

Try Christy Baron -- Steppin'. It is available as a CD or Hybrid SACD (Chesky).

Three tracks that I like and may meet your criteria:

"Thieves in the Temple"
"She's Not There"
"Spooky"

Be aware this disk is "spotty". A couple of the other tracks are real throw aways. Of all the songs in the world I do not know why they were chosen. Also on the hybrid SACD I find the CD layer to be low output. Otherwise this is a very clean recording and has a couple of fun tracks.

I have a request for future posters. This thread becomes much more useful if the title of the album/CD is also listed.

Thank you.

Stanley Jordan - "Eleanor Rigby" and "Angel" (Hendrix) from his Magic Touch LP

George Benson - as mentioned above . . .

Sarah K - "Whiter Shade of Pale" from her What Matters CD (though some may argue this isn't pure jazz)

Bob Belden's version of "1999" by Prince is quite good.

Is there anything better than The Bad Plus' version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit"?

Miles - human nature
Brad Mehldau does some nice radiohead covers

One of most unique covers I've listened to is Brian Bromberg's interpretation of "Come Together" by the Beatles on solo stand up bass.

Robertd good call Miles Human Nature! He also did Time after Time.

I saw him do both in concert in the late 80s - I called at the last minute and got 7th row center after someone cancelled! Really good show.

Grimace, I'm with you.
Martykl, if you were to see the Bad Plus in concert doing Iron Man, you'd see a GREAT jazz cover of a rock song. That said, I don't really like the Bad Plus covers of Abba (then again, I'm not an Abba fan).

Thanks all for the continued good ideas.

T-bone,

Thanks for the Bad Plus tip, but I might prefer the Abba covers, for me they are a guilty - maybe very guilty - pleasure. Actually, I'd love to see the band live. OTOH, their recordings don't really move me. Not sure why, but I suspect I'd enjoy the show more.

Marty