A Free Jazz Vocal Archive

Come Out
Swinging!

Welcome to my vocal archive — a collection of songs from the Great American Songbook.

This archive is a labor of love. It grew out of a series of workshops at the Jazzschool in Berkeley, each devoted to a single composer. It was such a joy exploring these tunes that one workshop led to another, and eventually I'd curated 13 composer series and eleven more under the banner "Unsung Gems."

What drew me in was simple. Walk into almost any jazz gathering and you'll hear the same handful of tunes again and again — and I'll admit it drove me a little crazy. The Great American Songbook holds hundreds of equally gorgeous songs that rarely get sung. They deserve to be heard — and to be sung.

I hope you'll spend many happy hours here, discovering new singers and new songs, and making these wonderful songs your own.

Maye Cavallaro — Jazz Singer and Educator

A curated resource for the modern jazz singer

What You'll Find Here

Three Pillars of the Archive

Pillar I

The Library — All Songs

Lead sheets and lyric sheets in multiple keys — PDF, print-ready, organized by composer, style, and key. Plus links to MP3 practice tracks.

Browse the Library →
Pillar II

The Composers

Thirteen composer deep-dives — Arlen, Berlin, Gershwin, Porter, and more. Workshop materials including charts and backing tracks in 2 keys.

Explore the Composers →
Pillar III

The Unsung Gems

Lesser-known songs that deserve a place in every singer's book — beautiful, singable, and waiting to be discovered. Expand your repertoire beyond the standards everyone already knows.

Explore Unsung Gems →
About the Archive

From Maye's Studio
to Your Practice Room

I've included a chart for each tune in 2 keys. I call them men and women's key but usually I just took the Ella Fitzgerald key for women and Frank Sinatra or Tony Bennett for men. I included 2 backing tracks, a track with the melody and one without.

A cornerstone of my teaching method is to learn the melody first, before you begin singing the words. That allows you to hear the repeats and the form of the tune before you go on your merry happy interpreting. You know what I mean. You may find it difficult at first but I promise after learning tunes this way you'll never go back. It gives you a much better musical grounding. Please download these worksheets at the beginning of your exploration.

How to Learn a Song ↓

The backing tracks were made in Band in a Box. Some of the tracks are years old and rather clunky, but enough for a listen.

— Maye

Meet Maye at mayecavallaro.com ↗

Many More Study Materials

"You've got to find some way of saying it without saying it."

— Duke Ellington