Five Bucks a Bungalow is a twelve-bar blues composed by guitarist Jonathan Kreisberg. The tune first appeared on his 2005 album New for Now, released on Criss Cross Jazz, performed by a trio with Gary Versace on organ and Mark Ferber on drums. Built on an F7sus blues form with modal exchanges and liberal harmonic alterations, the composition takes the familiar twelve-bar blues structure and infuses it with a contemporary, adventurous harmonic palette. Notable features include key shifts that introduce phrases in distant tonal areas before resolving back to the tonic, adding tension and release within the blues framework. The tune is typically performed as a driving swing at an up-tempo pace, giving it a fiery, propulsive energy well suited to extended improvisation. Kreisberg himself is known for taking lengthy solos over its changes, and the altered blues form rewards harmonically inventive playing from any instrument. The composition reflects Kreisberg's broader aesthetic as a New York-based jazz guitarist who blends influences from the post-bop tradition, progressive rock, and modern jazz into original material with strong soloing potential. Five Bucks a Bungalow has attracted attention among jazz guitar enthusiasts and has been covered by other groups, though it has not entered the mainstream jazz standard repertoire.
