Jazz Standards of a Ballad Character

In order to improvise, jazz musicians use small form themes often taken from musicals and
movies. They are mostly interested in harmonic improvements of the ballads, fitting them into the jazz
language. Due to extraordinary individual recordings, some of these ballads have become known as
‘standards’ with contributions by performers such as Hawkins, Coltrane, Gillespie, Davis and Powell, and
are now commonly performed from memory.