These pop stars are dipping into the American songbook, not jazz

The July 26 Sunday Arts&Style article "Why do pop singers keep releasing jazz standards? The results are mixed" confused the repertoire now generally known as the American songbook with jazz. They are not the same, but the article treated them as if they were. The American songbook contains the classic songs of George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Vernon Duke and their peers. One hundred years into usage, the term "jazz" is well defined and understood as an improvisational genre based ...