Jazz Books

[Spudman]

Can any of you jazz players recommend any good jazz books? Specifically something the has chord diagrams along with the songs. A theory book or chord charts is not what I'm after. I'd like to find books that have recognizable songs with more jazz oriented chord voicings.

 

[SuperSwede]

I have the Real Book (old edition) which is quite nice. Lots of jazz standards and good arrangements.

 

[Justaguyin_nc]

I noticed Hal Leonard Publishing now makes the real book 6th edition for legal sale http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0634060384/103-5887543-8316620?v=glance&n=283155, but for educational experience of comparison... is the 5th editon available for download any place? was just wondering.. read someplace it's in PDF format... Amazing...for years you could walk into a music store and buy this thing.. who would have thunk it... and I wonder why Hal Leonard Publishing couldn't get all the songs into the 6th edition even for a price.. would have made it a great buy...

 

[jpfeifer]

Hi Spudman,

I found an excellent book recently, kind of by accident. One of my students was getting ready to audition for his high school Jazz Band and we made a goal of getting him ready for the audition through our weekly lessons. One of the things that I forced him to do was to get his chord voicings together and start developing a good set of standard voicings that he could use for his rhythm playing.

I used the following book from Hal Leonard "Jazz Guitar":
http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/book.asp?ppn=bkhl695359
I had taken lessons from a Jazz guitarist when I was in High School. Much of the material that was taught to me is covered in this book. It has a great section covering lots of various rhythm playing concepts in Jazz with some excellent examples of when to use various kinds of voicings. It also covers some great tips for playing over fast changes, or what voicings to use when you're playing more of the Count Baise style of comping for big band stuff. This is a fantastic book and well worth the money. I wish that I would've had this book when I was learning this stuff.

-- Jim

 

[SuperSwede]

Justa, I have seen it on a few b**torrent sites, but you can find the real paper version real cheap these days.

 

[blogan]

Jazz Standards

Not exactly what you're looking for, but Jazzstandards.com is a great site with tons of information.

 

[Justaguyin_nc]

Also not exactly what your looking for.. http://jimmybruno.com/ has a nice site with fingerings and tips on improvising.. I seem to like the softer sound of jazz and here lately been trying to figure some out... I got his 'no nonsense jazz dvd' and fingering book.. long way from learning any of it.. but I enjoy his approach and teaching.. now to see if it can go anywhere for me..