It's important to note that jazz musicians tend to think as much in terms of relative harmonic and melodic movement as absolute pitch. I have a decent repertoir

It's important to note that jazz musicians tend to think as much in terms of relative harmonic and melodic movement as absolute pitch. I have a decent repertoire of standards, but I honestly couldn't tell you what key any of those tunes were written in. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_numeral_analysis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_numeral_analysis You're possibly being a bit harsh, but only a bit - being able to transpose on the fly is a fundamental skill in jazz, akin to sight-reading in classical music. I can't sight-read particularly well and would embarrass myself in a classical rehearsal, but I can instantly transpose a lead sheet into any key and I would expect the same of anyone who expects to be called a jazz musician rather than a jazz student.