Product Description
Jazz has been associated with crime and immorality since early forms of the music were heard in the brothels of New Orleans and the gangster-owned clubs of the 1920s. This association encouraged the use of jazz in film noir, a genre preoccupied with tales of anxiety and urban decay, which flourished in American cinema during the postwar period. Yet, although the extent and nature of this "collaboration" has often been alluded to, it has rarely been examined in detail. Making significant use of archival sources and documentation, Jazz Noir seeks to correct this oversight, placing the films discussed in their proper historical context and utilizing an interdisciplinary approach that gives equal weight to the films--including such notables as Phantom Lady, I Want to Live!, and Taxi Driver--and to the indelible music that accompanied them. ... Read more

Product Description
"Up from the Cradle of Jazz" is an intimate history of New Orleans music during the last 45 years. It describes the piano playing of Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, James Booker, Huey "Piano" Smith and Dr John; the singing of Irma Thomas, Little Richard, Aaron Neville and Lee Dorsey; the compositions and performances of Allen Toussaint, Guitar Slim, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, The Meters and The Neville Brothers. From smoky bars and nightclubs to the open air revelry of Mardi Gras, this work aims to be the definitive story of the music of contemporary New Orleans. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A terrific read for anyone interested in New Orleans R&B
If you are interested in the development of R&B in New Orleans, then this is the book to buy. All the essential contributors are there. What I really liked was the space given to the Mardi Gras Indians. ... Read more

Product Description
Anyone who knows R. Crumb’s work as an illustrator knows of his passion for music. And all those who collect his work prize the Heroes of the Blues, Early Jazz Greats, and Pioneers of Country Music trading card sets he created in the early to- mid-1980s. Now they are packaged together for the first time in book form, along with an exclusive 21-track CD of music selected and compiled by Crumb himself (featuring original recordings by Charley Patton, “Dock” Boggs, “Jelly Roll” Morton, and others). A bio of each musician is provided, along with a full-color original illustration by the cartoonist. A characteristically idiosyncratic tribute by an underground icon to the musical innovators who helped inspire him, R. Crumb’s Heroes of Blues, Jazz & Country is a must-have collection for Crumb aficionados, comics fans, and music lovers alike. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (30)

Amazing music from the 1920s
I love the book and pictures of these famous blues, jazz & country performers from over 80 years ago however it's the CD that really captures these images into reality.

The opening track from Memphis Jug Band - On The Road Again is a real spellbinding track with the jug sound really sounding like something from out of this world, an extraordinary performance.

There are many great tracks and all have a little story in the book.

Great book, great CD and really worth getting.

CD NOT PLAYABLE on COMPUTER
If all you want is the book go ahead and buy this, if you expect to play the CD on your computer you probably do not want to purchase this item.The CD that came with my book will play only on non-computer CD drives (home CD player and boom box worked for me) - this cd WILL NOT play on either of two Mac Books, an IBM NetVista, an IBM T30, an IBM T61.With the exception of old copy protected CDs I have never had a problem playing CDs on any of the previously mentioned computers.I'm an R. Crumb fan and a Blues fan but I recommend not purchasing what appears to be a copy protected offering.I have all my non copy protected CDs on a central server and will not knowingly purchase a CD that prevents reading by computer CD drives.

Great Gift
Not for all markets though the guys I got this for loved both the art and the music.

great book.
I love this book!! I need to order more of Crumbs work. I bought this for a gift but would like one for myself

Good Stuff Cheap
Lots of fun. I just pick it up and read a few randomly. I wish the Bio's were a bit more in depth but their length is understandable seeing as they derived from the original Tobacco Card Format.The info lead me to explore the artitists I hadn't been familier with in other formats. See youtube videos on Wingy Mannone, the one armed trumpet player for example.The book itself was worth the cost never mind an additional CD.I bought it with a few others to get free shipping.

One caveat, this is a small bookabout the size of a Daytimer Journal, so don't expect coffee table size. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

Great book!!
This is very well done, and has some interesting stuff that I haven't seen in other books about Django.I especially like all the pictures and additional work that went into it to make it more visually appealing and interesting to read!!

The lively text entertains as thoroughly as it enlightens
Gorgeously illustrated with black-and-white and color photographs and poster representations on almost every page, Django Reinhardt and the Illustrated History of Gypsy Jazz is the true story of a legendary figure in Gypsy Jazz, a music style that arose in the Jazz Age of the 1920's by blending the Romany violin and flamenco guitar with the trumpet and other jazz instruments. Django Reinhardt and the Illustrated History of Gypsy Jazz traces the style's evolution and the career of the man who embodied it through the horrors of World War II, when the Nazis severely persecuted the Gypsies in Europe, and onward to Gypsy Jazz's rhythm-and-blues legacy for the modern day. The lively text entertains as thoroughly as it enlightens, in this enthusiastically recommended volume for casual readers and music history buffs. ... Read more

Product Description
This book teaches the student how to construct, embellish and notate chords that will enable him/her to create chord voicings and harmonize melodies applicable to jazz and commercial music. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Good Business
After the order, I received the item in good time.It arrived in excellent condition and was packed very securely.I would purchase from this seller again.

Excellent Book
I am a mediocre piano player with some knowledge of chords, majors, minors, diminished, 10ths, 7ths, 9ths, etc..., but lack a real understanding of how to properly structure and use the chords when I play.I often struggle with creating the right harmony of notes.

I just started reading and practicing the first chapter and analyzing how Jimmy Amadie's instruction fits my style of creating chords.So far I can say Jimmy's chord structure rules are excellent.Over the next year or two I hope to work through each page of the book and practice at my leisure using his guidance to fully enhance my sound.

I am very pleased and look forward to what I will learn in each chapter right through to the very last page.

Making the complex simple, so your playing can be as complex as you want.
Jimmy Amadie is one of the most brilliant people living.He is in that little group of people who figured out that you could communicate by talking, that clothing keeps you warm, and that the explosion of igniting gasoline can be controlled and used to propel automobiles.He is a Ray Kurzweil of music theory education.When Amadie came to music education he found insane chord notations, and statements showing little understanding, like "you can play a C chord over a D minor chord", and jazz education that produced dead comping, repeating the same voicings over and over and over.After much thought and 20 years of honing his educational strategy, Amadie came up with a blindingly simple conception of harmony and chord voicings, and then went on to develop an amazingly effective method of conveying the conception so that players were infinitely inventive and comping becomes as creative as a lead solo.

Here are some of the core concepts: There are only four chords: major, minor, minor 7th, and 7th (dominant).All chords that you might create turn out to be harmonically in one group or another.If you want, you can freak out about your favorite notation, but often you're not freaking about the notes, the harmony, or the voicing.Often, you're just stuck in what you call the chord.

Every voicing can be acheived with two notes in the left hand and three in the right.This system makes Amadie's approach work extremely well for players of other instruments who want to explore harmony on the piano or would like to be able to provide a little support on the piano.This is not a system that depends on piano chops.

All the wild and weird notes that you can add are . . . wait for the suspense . . . embellishments.That's it.Nothing fancier and nothing less.

As you work with the book, expect it to take you about a year or two.You can sit down and read all the words in a day, but you won't have followed Amadie's assignments and you won't have integrated the harmony and voicings into your playing.And, if you read it all in one day, the book may not make a lot of sense.You probably won't get it.You have to work your way through it.

Along the way, you will find that your ear has changed.You will hear 6ths, 7ths, diminished 9ths, and so on.And you will find your improvising changes.This is not a book about improvising, but it necessarily changes what each note of a chord's mode means to you, and that will give you more power to create what you're aiming for in your solos.

Every system produces a type of sound.Some systems, like Baroque and surfer, are very limitting, and everyone following the system sounds a lot alike.Once you have mastered Amadie's system, you may alter it to create a sound that is outside what Amadie sets the foundation for.But even if you stay inside his system, you can cover a range of music from Swing, through Bebop, Cool, Smooth, Modal, Fusion, to Free.Trad (Dixieland) requires that you hold back on the embellishments more than Amadie recommends, as does most of the pop tradition, including Rock and Roll.

I studied this book in 1981.25 years later, I am still overwhelmingly grateful to Mr. Amadie for the gift he provided by discovering this conception of harmony and this way to master the concept.

Extremely learner friendly yet instructive and effective
Of all the how-to-play jazz books I've gone over, this one stands out for being just "plain English". About the most exotic musical terms you will find here are "Augmented 11th". But Amadie manages with only this to show you his unique method to construct chord voicings that are simple, straightforward, yet surprisingly varied and creative.

I appreciate the plain and deliberate pace of the text instructions, like someone is talking to you, but still precise and definitely not sloppy like some other books.

There are many different paths to building the foundation for jazz playing, and this is one of the most accessible. It is my favorite (contrast this with, e.g., Modern Jazz Piano by Brian Waite). Even if you are already an accomplished player, you might be pleasantly surprised by Amadie's method (he calls it the Amadiean Creed).

What you will learn:
1. How to quickly and flexibly voice a variety of chords (major, minor, m7, dom7, dim) with various embellishments (6, 7, 9, 10, ...), all using the same technique.
2. How to harmonize these with a melody.

What you will NOT learn:
1. How to improvise. It's simply not covered. That's in the title: Harmonic Foundation (only).

Essential Learning Resource for the Aspiring Jazz Pianist !
Philadelphia had (until his recent passing) beenhome to the quintesential Jazz Sensei/Guru, Dennis Sandole. Yet, in the shadows of Dennis'sstudio down town, this here city has another great sensei to offer the world...

It is impossible to play Jazz without learninghow to use your tones... You need them to makechords, you need them to form solos, and until you have mastered them, entire world's of ideas will be beyond your reach. The irony of it allis, over any chord, there really aren't but 7tones you can use.

This incredible book will take you step by stepthrough that process of finding and putting themtogether. I have used it with myself,I use it with my students.Work through thisbook and never again will any voicing or chord seem too challenging to make, play or even solo over on the spot.It will improve your ability to use fake books, to make chord notations, and ultimately your hearing.

Jimmy Amadia may have re-invented the wheel, but he's done so brilliantly... and in a manner that leads toa brilliant economy of style, both in terms of learning and performance. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Sinified Jazz
In Yellow Music, Andrew Jones blends post-colonial discourse with theory drawn from culture studies and other fields to tackle the complex subject of the rise of modern Chinese popular music.In the process, he lands a well-placed jab in the jaw of the dinosaur known as area studies.Jones makes an ambitious effort to historicize his study of modern Chinese music through a detailed account of its rise as an industry within a global context of technological and cultural change.His analysis of major figures in the modern Chinese musical world makes a substantial contribution to a neglected field of cultural enterprise in the study of modern China, while his focus on the music industry and musical culture of Shanghai, including records, cinema, cabarets, revues, and popular magazines and journals, sheds additional light to the growing field of Shanghai cultural history.
Jones places the history of modern Chinese music within the frameworks of global capitalism, Euro-American colonialism, and the American "culture industry" that came to influence so many different parts of the world during the twentieth century.Even so, Yellow Music reminds us that China's own film industry, beginning with the first cinematic exhibition in a Shanghai teahouse in 1896, kept pace with Hollywood and eventually began to exert a significant ideological power of its own upon the Chinese movie-going and record-playing public, especially during the 1930s when the ideologies of nationalism became imbricated in the film music and content of Shanghai`s leftist film studios.The advent of songwriter Nie Er--whose film song "March of the Volunteers" eventually became China's national anthem under the P.R.C.--on the Chinesestage and screen thus marks an important turning point in the history of modern China.
Jones is at his best when describing the careers of musicians Li Jinhui and Nie Er, both of whom worked in Shanghai's burgeoning musical scene during the late 1920s and early 1930s.Li Jinhui established a blend of Chinese folk and Western jazz music to create the sounds of modern Chinese pop.He commercialized his music through song-and-dance troupes, one of which included his daughter Li Minghui.Although his efforts to nationalize his music through the use of Mandarin was a valid contribution to the project of modern Chinese nationalism, the contents of his music and dance programs were deemed prurient or "yellow" by both conservative and leftist Chinese nationalists.
Nie Er began his career as a songwriter working under Li Jinhui.Following the attack by Japan on the Zhabei district of Shanghai in 1932, and in the context of heightened Chinese nationalism that followed Japanese aggression during the 1930s, Nie Er turned away from the "yellow" music of sinified jazz and began writing "revolutionary" music for leftist films.His efforts to infuse a sense of heroic Chinese nationalism into his music through strident marches and patriotic lyrics earned him fame among leftists and communists.Today, a statue of Nie Er in a small park on the corner of Fuxing and Huaihai Roads attests to his status as a revolutionary hero in the communist pantheon.
That Nie Er's "March of the Volunteers" became the anthem of a totalitarian regime is an irony that is apparently lost on Jones, as are the hegemonic tendencies of Han Chinese nationalists, who even during the height of European colonialist endeavors were bent on disciplining, subjugating, and suppressing other ethnicities within the Chinese geopolitical sphere, not to mention their own people.Jones`s attempt to explain the fascist tendencies of Chiang Kai-shek and his Blue Shirts as naïve strikes one as unnecessarily apologetic. Nor does Jones fully explore the implications of the imposition of a national language via music and film on the ethnic and regional identities of hundreds of millions of people in China who did not speak Mandarin as their native tongue.
One is also skeptical at times about the quality of the research that went into this slim volume.For instance, Jones begins his study with an anecdote about the African American jazz musician Buck Clayton, who traveled to Shanghai in the 1930s to play in the city's nightclubs.Jones uses anecdotes drawn from Clayton's autobiography to illustrate "truths" about the complex racial hierarchy that characterized the polyglot city of Shanghai.The story of Clayton's dismissal from the Canidrome Ballroom, told briefly from the point of view of Clayton himself, is actually far more complicated than Jones makes it out to be.In fact, it was not Caucasian American managers and Marines who engineered his dismissal, but rather the club's Chinese managers, who themselves were under the influence of the notorious mob boss Du Yuesheng.The man who attacked Clayton was not a Marine but rather an American mobster named Jack Riley who was probably paid by the Chinese management to start the fight.The real objective was to fire the band for causing a disturbance, since the band had become too expensive to maintain and since there was no other way to legally sever their contract.This is just one of many topics in the book whose nuances could have been explored more fully.
For a study of an academic topic as serious and complex as the rise of modern Chinese music, Jones's book is refreshingly short.Moreover, despite numerous references to cultural and critical theory and the liberal peppering of his text with theoretical jargon, the book remains highly readable, engaging, and stimulating throughout.For these reasons, Yellow Music may serve well as an addition to any college course on modern China, colonialism, music history, or globalization. ... Read more

Product Description
Melodies based on triads and melodic extensions sound more natural and musical than ones developed exclusively from scales. Triads - the fundamental building blocks of harmony - are a simple and effective remedy for scale dependency in improvisation. In Jazz Improvisation for Guitar: A Melodic Approach, explore the potential of triads and their melodic extensions and learn to connect them using guide tones. You'll learn to create solo phrases in the style of some of the world's finest jazz guitarists like Wes Montgomery, George Benson, Grant Green, Kenny Burrell, and Pat Martino. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Lets be totally honest here!
Everyone I know has always avoided arpeggios, lets face it learning them can be a tedious boring experience and many feel they are just too predictable. Then along comes this book and all of a sudden it all starts making sense! Ever heard a melodic flash of brilliance from say a George Benson track and wondered "What the hell"? Then wonder no more! Its all in this book! Whats more, getting those beautiful lush jazz phrases is actually a lot easier than some may imagine! The material in this book is totally addictive. You will find yourself smiling as you work through the exercises. And above all the tempo's are very manageable for most people! Another great Jazz resource. Highly recommend it!

Well written, excellent building blocks and source of ideas.
This is a well written and organized book providing a wealth of ideas to fuel your study and practice for years to come. It covers a good deal of ground and opens doors to even more paths for you to explore. It is not a " complete guide for beginners" (not does it claim to be). It assumes a certain level of knowledge and provides the tools for you to continue with what is taught here for you to apply your own knowledge, skills and musical personality to it. It is NOT about just learning the phrases used as examples within; it is about learning how to go about creating your own lines and phrases based from the harmony of any tune you might be playing, using a myriad of 3 note "building blocks" to create you own solo, approach, style, etc. There are some excellent, brief examples of a few big name players provided. Again, the idea not being to just copy them, but Mr. Fewell shows you clearly just how those giants used these simple little 3 note ideas strung together in their own unique way to create their own "voice". I highly recommend this book to any guitarist who's already learned the basics and is looking for a way to build/find their own voice in jazz. Also strongly recommended is Garrison's cd "Red Door #11", itis sublime music making; a new "Kind of Blue" to cherish!

A GIT student's comment on this book
I try to keep it short .

This is a lick book. It cna't really teach you the principles to play jazz improvisation.

I would recommend Musician's institute's " Introduction to Jazz guitar Improvisation " by Joe elliott if you are totally a novice to jazz improv.., which shows you how all the arpeggios and scales work and the theory behind them
. But the book itself doesn't contain much actually playing. But you are sure to horn all the necessary logics behind jazz improv.


And then after that, this Berklee book would become useful since it fillsthe gap of that MI book.

I am attending GIT now and expanding to Jazz playing lately.

Thanks.

must have
I, like so many jazz students have a hundred books on jazz guitar (and videos also).If I burn them all and keep just one book I would keep this book (and the list I give at the bottom of page).

Mr. Fewell has the finest jazz guitar sound I have ever heard, please just my just my opinon! He has the sound I want to strive for.

This book has the smoothest jazz licks and shows you the importance of articulating your lines(slides, pull offs etc..) to get diffrent sounds, comping with guide tones, 3 note voicings for comping, and guide tone resolution. It's the most complete no nonsense jazz course I have seen in one book.

It is mainly based on playing from triad shapes,and their extensions, and if you have a solid foundation in the caged system you will know how to fit it into the whole thing.

Of course no jazz book or couse could ever cover half the topics of jazz guitar, for that you will need to dedicate your life to finding the best material, and what is the right sound for you.

Buy it you won't be disapointed!

Other books:
caged system
essential jazz lines in style of charlie parker-by corey christiensen
Jazz Improvisation for Guitar by less wise

Jazz Improv
I am just getting into it but it looks really good so far. I know I will be helped. ... Read more

Product Description
77 of the best jazz hits of all time, including: All the Things You Are * Bewitched * Call Me Irresponsible * Georgia on My Mind * Lover Man * Misty * My Romance * The Nearness of You * Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars (Corcorvado) * The Very Thought of You * When Sunny Gets Blue * more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Buy it for the intros
This collection has a decent selection and pretty good written arrangements. A few chord errors, as is usual for a book of this type. The best thing about this book is that many charts contain the vocal introductions, which are sometimes hard to come by. Makes a nice addition to the Real Book for this reason.

Great for good pianists wanting to play Jazz
I play bass in a Jazz trio with a piano player who was Classically trained. Her sightreeading chops are outstanding, but her Jazz instincts are non-existence. These arrangements give her the ability to play Jazz with us, all the while giving her experience in playing Jazz. Already her improv skills are improving and her swing feel is strong.Good book.

A decent Jazz compilation for the Intermediate Jazz pianist
Some of the more popular tunes in this compilation are A night in Tunisia, Satin Doll, Sophisticated Lady and All the things you are. Missing out on classics like Take the A-train in lieu of several rather obscure tunes that aren't exactly Jazz standards, by my measure, is the book's greatest flaw. For the beginning to intermediate jazz student, its a nice book to own. All the songs are full arrangements and not too difficult to play. Advanced pianists will probably be happier with a nice, solid fakebook.

The Best Jazz Standards Ever
This is a good collection of some famous Jazz tunes, it does also have some less well known songs. This means you can play/sing your favourites and still enlarge your repetoire. Guitar chords are provided as well as thepiano part and the vocal line with lyrics. There are some songs that I feelaren't strictly Jazz, though this can be taken that one can adapt more thanthe obvious songs. ... Read more

Product Description

Explore the essence of jazz from its early roots, to the years of swing and Satchmo, to ragtime and beyond. In Jazz: An Introduction to the History and Legends Behind America's Music, renowned jazz writer Bob Blumenthal offers a perfect introduction to understanding jazz, whether you are approaching the music for the first time or seeking to deepen your knowledge. Inside you will find the people who made the music, history, listening suggestions, jazz trivia, and more. Can you dig it?

Customer Reviews (3)

Introduction to the history and legend behind American music
Great book veryinformative my my son who is studying jazz used it to write one of his reports

Concise Jazz History
As owner of JazzeOne Production we provide a lot of information about the Jazz genre.Bob's collection is one of the most concise books about the Jazz movement.While it does not tell you everything, it does tell you enough to perk your interest in this style of music.Whether you are an enthusiast, Jazz-o-phile or curious beginner, you will enjoy what you learn from reading this book! ~the JazzeOne

An Essential Guide for Both Jazz Lovers and Those New to the Genre
Back in 1960, my friend Steve Thomas and I shared a dog-eared paperback edition of "The Story of Jazz," by Marshall Stearns [Oxford University Press, New York, 1956], passing it back and forth between our freshman high school classes. We spent Saturday afternoons at Sol Kessler's record store, listening to LPs (and sometimes buying them), riding city buses to and from home, quoting Stearns and comparing the tone of Goodman's clarinet with Shaw's, Herman's, and Giuffre's.
While our classmates were twisting to Chubby Checker or singing along to the Argyles' "Alley-Oop," we two, young, Central Pennsylvania music nerds were dissecting Brubeck's "Jazz Impressions Of Eurasia." Absorbing the music was the central feature of our jazz education, but Stearns' history was our indispensable textbook. Perspectives developed in those impressionable times - ones that have dramatically affected our subsequent lives - were fed by both the jazz and the words.
I was flooded with such memories as I read Bob Blumenthal's brilliant new book, "Jazz: An Introduction to the History and Legends Behind America's Music" [Smithsonian, 2007, 192 pgs]. Jazzier than Stearns' classic text, Blumenthal's is a genre prologue suited to our times: rich in photos, links, references, and lists of essential music, organized by era. Smartly written by a Grammy Award winning author of album notes, the narrative is positively infectious. It drills deeply enough to interest long-time fans while providing newcomers with everything essential to start their journey.
My own fascination with this incredible music remains intense nearly 50 years after first carving up Stearns' jazz bible with my friend (who is now a composer and performer). I suspect that there are thousands of young people today who will find Blumenthal's "Jazz ... Introduction" just as vital to their own musical educations as we did that old 1950s paperback.
I would encourage parents of teenagers to think about seeding such a process by giving this exceptional Smithsonian guide as a gift. (And, while you're at it, buy a copy for yourself. It's really that good.) ... Read more

Product Description
Expand your playing and your imagination with these revolutionary intervallic lines by jazz great Joe Diorio! Topics include: designs of tonality, designs of diatonic harmonies, designs for the diminished scales, designs for dominant and altered dominant chords, designs for the chromatic scales, designs of varied harmonic applications, designs of the perfect fifth interval, designs for freestyle improvisation, and more. Includes tab. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Opens Doors
As you would expect from a master improviser, this book was written in such a way that there is not an obvious route to take to "get" the exercises-- they are presented, it is fairly obvious what they are and where the come from, and from them on, it's completely up to you to take them as far as possible.You would never want to simply cut and paste these phrases into a solo-- the point here is that your ears and fingers find new sounds and develop different relationships to intervals and interval patterns, and then use those new sounds to improvise!
A couple of techniques I've found useful:
1) Take a chord progression (especially a cadence progression used over a vamp!) and wind as much of a phrase through it as possible.You wind up creating harmonic progressions with very unusual motion, and it sounds great.
2) Space out the lines-- break up the phrases into smaller pieces and instead of a 4-bar phrase, you have an 8 or 16 bar phrase.This also helps in hearing the melodic motion of the lines and the interval combinations
3) Metronome.... make rhythm exercises out of the lines.Since different patterns have different numbers of notes, you can have endless fun experimenting with polyrhythms, repeated patterns, etc...

...and so forth.Definitely check this book out!!!

Definitely worth working through, but not all that "ultramodern"
First off, Joe Diorio is a major, major talent and this book, like all his others, has loads to transmit. I was at a place in my playing where I knew I needed a new approach to soloing; I intuitively felt it'd be a help to start thinking more "intervallically," so when I found this book I thought Perfect! It definitely opened new approaches for me and certainly broadened my understanding of what it means to think in intervals rather than scales, scales, scales. I do think, though, that the sound of these lines aren't at all "ultramodern"; many of them, if used in a jamming situation actually come across sounding like exercises. The idea with this book is to absorb the core concepts and then apply the approach to what you're already using in your soloing. It broadens horizons, but shouldn't be looked upon as a book of soloing ideas as such.

Free Jazz
The thing about this book that got to me is there's no stinkin metronome, and no stinkin chords, just 99 or so awesome licks. If you've ever wondered how guys like Eric Johnson got as good as they did, you don't have to look too much further than this book. If you can get these lines into your hands, you will improve your lead playing ability regardless of musical bent. It's a visceral book from a guy who's grown beyond convention. Suggested harmonies for the designs are given but the lines are powerful unto themselves. At the end Joe does two takes on a free form blues improvisation in B flat. This dude can play !

GET THIS ONE !
This one of the most unique guitar books EVER ...
Whatever style you play this book will teach you something ! it starts with very simple pentatonic intervalic designs and then gradually stretches to the outer limits ! it has a cool section which explains (via examples) how outside sounds are obtained over common chords, rather that just play the licks you'll finally understand how the "outside" sound is produced, with this book you'll also see where frank gambale, scott henderson, jennifer batten and even paul gilbert got a lot of their stuff :) I don't even play jazz but this book has REALLY helped me in many ways, Joe Diorio is a master player and the lines here will also help your technique, they're HARD !

Very, very good
This book tries to break the average guitar player out of just playing scales and more towards playing intervals. It shows you how to take something like a minor pentatonic and play it intervallically, which really helps open up your ears to ideas you would never get from just practicing scales up and down.Very good to widen your vocabulary of lines. A++. ... Read more

Product Description
17 Latin jazz classics, including: Adios (Perez Prado, Astor Piazzolla) * Brazil (Xavier Cugat, Django Reinhardt) * A Day in the Life of a Fool (Stan Getz, Paul Desmond) * Desafinado (Stan Getz, Antonio Carlos Jobim) * Mambo #5 (Perez Prado, Xavier Cugat) * Manteca (Dizzy Gillespie, Cal Tjader) * Mas Que Nada (Dizzy Gillespie) * Perfidia (Perez Prado, Nat King Cole) * Samba De Orfeu (Paul Desmond, Vince Guaraldi) * Triste (Antonio Carlos Jobim, Cal Tjader) * and more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Nothing else like it
Somehow they managed to simplify the arrangements so that they still sound professional, but not so tricky that onlya gifted few can play them. I have many sheet music transcriptions of Bill Evan, Chick Corea, Mehegan jazz studies, etc that I purchased over the years, but most are so technically challenging that you can forget about getting in a relaxed groove, so I ended up just playing some playable classical sheet music from time to time to keep in practice. But this jazz piano series of Hal Leonard has really filled a need, in my opinion.

Amazingly Flexible and Attention-Drawing
This book is absolutely wonderful! I am an 18-year-old piano student and I have been classically trained for 10 years. These arrangements were perfect for me because I needed a large amount of quality jazz songs to play in a hotel lobby just before most people went to bed. These pieces are fabulous because they dont require all the attention from everyone in the room (many people like to read while listening), yet if someone wants to just sit and actively listen to what I'm playing, they have a lot of interesting melodies and chords that keep their attention locked and invested in the music. Often times, people will walk in the lobby and just stand and listen to the beautiful melodies these arrangements create before actually going to the desk and checking in. It's very rewarding for me to play this music because they speak to a huge audience, and I find that my listening audience will grow every time I pull the book out and start playing.
But Beyond the fact that the original melodies are wonderful, it's even amazing to me the great flexibility that the arranging allows. They are superb when plays them simply as they are and just marvels in what is written on the page, but if you like to changearound things and play them your own way, you have the freedom to move things around and put your own "feel" to the music. Even the different styles of songs in this book are very flexible and broad,too. Songs range from slightly melancholy, to pensive, to light and upbeat, all the way to a couple that are loud and boisterous. I can only find two songs in the entire book that written in a similar style and mood.
I dont want to lead you on that these pieces are just the sort that simply find a good groove and then uphold the same simple thing the whole time, either. These are good, melodious SONGS that anyone could make up lyrics to and singly along with if they wanted to.
But anyway, I just wanted to let it known how thankful I am to Hal Leonard and the arranger, Brent Edstrom, for putting together this book. I am SURE that anyone of medium to advanced piano skills will find this book creeping its way into their everyday, multipurpose repertoir for use at any gig, and that they will probably end up considering buying all the rest of the books in this series, as I'm doing too. ... Read more

Product Description
The Guitar in America offers a history of the instrument from America's late Victorian period to the jazz age. The opening chapter traces the guitar's use in this country from the Colonial era up to the 1880s. The narrative continues with America's BMG (banjo, mandolin, and guitar) community, a late nineteenth-century musical and commercial movement dedicated to introducing these instruments into America's elite musical establishments.

Using surviving BMG magazines, the author details an almost unknown history of the guitar during the movement's heyday, tracing the guitar's transformation from a refined parlor instrument to a mainstay in jazz and popular music. In the process, he not only introduces musicians (including numerous women guitarists) who led the movement, but also examines new techniques and instruments. Chapters consider the BMG movement's impact on jazz and popular music, the use of the guitar to promote attitudes towards women and minorities, and the challenges foreign guitarists such as Miguel Llobet and Andres Segovia presented to America's musicians.

This volume opens a new chapter on the guitar in America, considering its cultivated past and documenting how banjoists and mandolinists aligned their instruments to it in an effort to raise social and cultural standing. At the same time, the book considers the BMG community within America's larger musical scene, examining its efforts as manifestations of this country's uneasy coupling of musical art and commerce. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Important Book Plows New Ground in Guitar History
I've been reading books and magazines about the guitar for over 40 years.At this stage I thought I knew it all.NOT TRUE!Doctor Jeffrey Noonan's new book 'The Guitar in America:Victorian Era to Jazz Age' plows lots of new ground.Noonan analyzed Banjo Mandolin and Guitar magazines from the 19th century up to the 1930's.Dr. Noonan not only reveals great musicians I have never heard of, but how the American Guitar and guitar technique developed.A chapter on William Foden and Vahdah Olcott-Bickford are included.Noonan makes the reader understand how Sor, Mertz and others were played in America long before Segovia made his 1928 debut.This book is a must read for any serious student of the history of Guitar, Banjo, Mandolin, or American music in General.The pictures in the book are way-cool!I recommend this book without reservation or qualification.5 stars out of 5! ... Read more

Product Description
This handsome, insightful hardcover volume delves deep into the music of 88 visionaries who have made an indelible mark on the world of jazz through their mastery of the pianoÕs 88 keys. This engaging collection describes the intriguing personality and performance characteristics of each pianist. Seven major figures are covered in depth: Jelly Roll Morton, Earl Hines, Art Tatum, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Keith Jarrett and Cecil Taylor. Other featured artists include: James P. Johnson, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Nat "King" Cole, Oscar Peterson, Les McCann, Herbie Hancock, Dave Brubeck, Billy Taylor, McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea and 70 others, in styles ranging from stride to swing, bebop to post-bop, funk to avant garde, and more. Includes a bonus CD with 11 great jazz tracks, 100 photos, and a foreword by Keith Jarrett.

"Like great solos, these essays have grace, wit, and a sense of personal involvement ... Immensely valuable stuff!"

- Dick Hyman ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Jazz Piano
This book provides a synopsis of the styles and beginnings of 88 famous jazz pianists. Words do not do justice to the wealth of information this book provides in a entertaining manner which is easy to read. The CD which is included is worth the price of the book.

Thank You Robert L Doerschuk!
I've been playing the piano for most of my life, though only in the past 3 or 4 years have I really started listening to jazz.This book is a revelation for anybody wanting to get an overview of the great players in jazz history, beyond a just a few paragraphs about when and where they were born, a discography etc.
The author is a jazz pianist himself and understands the genre well.He is insightful, and refreshingly candid about the performances turned in by the artists, and points out their flaws along with their strengths and unique contributions.
For the most part, it made made me appreciate even more all these giant talents that I already held in high regard.

88Masters of Jazz Piano
With a chapter each and running to 324 pages, this is one of the best books you can buy on Jazz Piano. The author Robert L Doerschuk is a Jazz pianist himself and writes with authority on his subjects.

Starting with Jelly Roll Morton, though stride (James P Johnson, Fats Waller), Mainstream (Errol Garner Oscar Peterson) and finishing with contemporary artists such as Brad Mehldau and Geoff Keezer all the artists are given a fair analysis. All the main players are covered: Tatum, Powell, Monk, Evans, Brubeck, Tristano, Hancock, Tyner, Jarrett etc.

What I like about this book is that its not all praise. Yes he likes these guys as musicians, but its an honest appraisal, so when he listens to a recording and hears flaws we're told.

For example when writing about Monty Alexander:
"then stumbles moments later with an awkard figuration that disrupts the momentum". Now in fairness to Monty Alexander most of this appraisal was as compared to Oscar Peterson at the height of his powers. But at least its honest and not just blind hero worshipping.

If you're buying this book it'll certainly help if you're a musician, but its not essential, and there is plenty of interesting material here for non-musicians as well. Most noteably a CD with 11 tracks including pianists such as Mary Lou Williams, Teddy Wilson, Earl Hines and Adam Makowicz.

A veritable encyclopedia of jazz piano
Raised in a Communist country, listening or playing jazz was forbidden. It was considered decadent. Yet, we craved it. So we would listen on short wave radio and hear with whatever Radio Free Europe or Voice of America would regale us. I tried to copy the great piano players the best I could, but not having the talent to emulate them, I rejoiced at listening to them. So, I have heard the music of Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum, Bill Evans, George Shearing, Erroll Garner, Dave Brubeck, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, etc., but until I read this book I never heard of James P. Johnson, Mary Lou Williams, Sir Roland Hanna, Roger Kellaway, or Lennie Tristano. Clearly my loss. Of the 88 masters (one for each of the piano keys) I knew of no more than half, at best. The writing is erudite without being pompous and certainly very informative. Mr. Doerschuk is a pianist himself and it shows, as he gives us the unique insights of someone who is not only a music journalist, but also "tickles the ivories." As a result of reading this book, I have started listening to jazz piano music in both historical and social contexts. I am also learning to associate styles with groups of artists in ways that I could not, before reading this book. I like Mr. Doerschuk's organization and his titles for the various chapters such as "Deep in the Mainstream," "Back to the Fountain," "Improvisation as Revelation," since they provide yet another means for organizing jazz piano in one's mind. One can use this book as a permanent reference or just for the pleasure of reading it. I, for one, don't even bother putting in back on the shelf since it feels at home right in my hands as I am discovering "new" and old masters of jazz piano. This book is timeless, just like the marvelous musicians to whom it clearly pays homage.

Positively absorbing
A bonus 11-track cd comes with this portrait of eighty-eight pioneers and players of jazz piano, from Jelly Roll Morton to Benny Green. Here are insights on lives, techniques, and changing perspectives on jazz piano styles and artistry, enhanced by the author's personal experience as a jazz pianist and his original interviews with many of the players. Avid fans of the genre will find The Giants Of Jazz Piano positively absorbing. ... Read more

Product Description
The new standard in jazz fake books since 1988. Endorsed by McCoy Tyner, Ron Carter, Dave Liebman, and many more. Evenly divided between standards, jazz classics and pop-fusion hits, this is the all-purpose book for jazz gigs, weddings, jam sessions, etc. Like all Sher Music fake books, it features composer-approved transcriptions, easy-to-read calligraphy, and many extras (sample bass lines, chord voicings, drum appendix, etc.) not found in conventional fake books. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Jazz Fake Book - with many standards included
Discovering this book was a happy accident. I was looking for a general fake book and found a jazz/blues book that taught me a lot about playing this type music. There is a good section explaining chords and shorthand methods used in the book. Unlike the usual fake book, there are alternate treatments given. The price is right, also.

Great purchase, great sale.
Great book and I got it for a deal. It is not full of lyrics, so if you are a vocalist and looking for that, it is only half.

Must have for Jazz players
This is a great and accurate book that any serious Jazz player and student needs to have.

OUTSTANDING music book NEW REAL BOOK
My son had to prepare a series of audition pieces in order to audition for Temple University. Their suggestion was a specific jazz piece, with which neither he nor I were familiar.They suggested he buy this book, but from the publisher themselves.We went to their website, got to the right edition, and the stupid site wouldn't let us check out!!! In frustration, we turned to Amazon.com. What a relief!Not only was it in stock and available, it was SO MUCH less expensive!It arrived in 3 days with no shipping fee and was in perfect condition!Now, if only the audition goes so smoothly....

One of the best available Real Books today.
This Real Book is great; It's much cleaner than the Hal Leonard Real Book, and has a lot of details that are left out of the HL version as well. For example, the classic tune Airegin by Sonny Rollins actually has the intro included in the transcription. Codas are actually explained, and common forms taken for solos are also explained. One flaw is that many of the tunes in this book are not completely common with the first Real Book (No Giant Steps!!!!), which is why I purchased The New Real Book, Volume 2 as well. I haven't purchased three as I don't have a huge interest in modern pop-fusion, but this is one of the cleanest looking Real Books out there, and has quite a few more songs than the Hal Leonard version. I'm a guitarist / occasional keyboardist, but the drum patterns for many of the Mike Stern and other complicated tunes in the back of the book are really great for drummers (and getting rhythmic ideas for solos too!) ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Insightful glimpses into great minds
For jazz pianists this is a valuable resource. Lyons, a classically-trained pianist, asks somewhat consistent questions to each of the pianists presented but is also a skilled interviewer and knows how to go off on a tangent when appropriate. He also manages, for the most part, to avoid the (to me anyways) boring questions about the artists' current touring schedules, newest records, etc.
I wouldn't classify all of the pianists in this book as being representative of the "greats"; Billy Taylor and Marion McPartland, while certainly brilliant and important in their own ways, would probably not make the short list of great pianists for most pianists and jazz fans. Also, since this book's publication, many great pianists have emerged on the jazz landscape that are arguably equally deserving of the title "great". However, most of the list is truly stellar, including Herbie, Chick, Keith, McCoy, Bill, Oscar, Horace Silver, Teddy Wilson, and many other extremely influential pianists.
The interviews with Mary Lou Williams and Cecil Taylor are particularly entertaining to read because they are extremely opinionated. In fact, many of the great pianists, you will notice, are very opinionated, and perhaps this is part of what makes them great. ... Read more

Product Description

“The Jazz Ear will be a permanent part of learning how to listen inside the musicians playing.”—Nat Hentoff, Jazz Times

Jazz is conducted almost wordlessly: John Coltrane rarely told his quartet what to do, and Miles Davis famously gave his group only the barest instructions before recording his masterpiece Kind of Blue. Musicians often avoid discussing their craft for fear of destroying its improvisational essence, rendering jazz among the most ephemeral and least transparent of the performing arts.

In The Jazz Ear, acclaimed music critic Ben Ratliff discusses with jazz greats the recordings that most influenced them and skillfully coaxes out a profound understanding of the men and women themselves, the context of their work, and how jazz—from horn blare to drum riff—is conceptualized. Ratliff speaks with Sonny Rollins, Ornette Coleman, Branford Marsalis, Dianne Reeves, Wayne Shorter, Joshua Redman, and others about the subtle variations in generation and attitude that define their music.

Playful and keenly insightful, The Jazz Ear is a revelatory exploration of a unique way of making and hearing music.

Customer Reviews (6)

very fast delivery!
it took only 2 days to get this book and it was almost like new.. so, very nice work!

rpm
If we were to know about the musicians in the book through interviews, it could be boring. The conversations style is very informal and if you listen to the music which the author heard to along with the musician, then you recreate that time for yourself. You will enjoy this book more, if you are still in the beginning stages of recognising music by the way of familiarity. There are some numbers like 4/4 which will require musical literacy.

Arrangement

Fascinating insights into the minds of jazz players
Normally when we think about musicians and "their music", we think about the music that they write, perform, and record. But author Ben Ratliff (jazz critic for the New York Times) decided to ask a different question. What do these musicians listen to and find influential? What are they thinking and hearing as they listen to the music? So Ratliff met with a dozen or so noted jazz musicians, asked them what tracks they'd like to listen to, and then relates to us the experience and conversations of listening to the music with the musicians. The result is The Jazz Ear: Conversations Over Music. It turns out to be fascinating stuff.

Though I am a musician and fancy myself a fan (though not a hardcore aficionado) of jazz, it quickly became clear to me that the plane these guys think on is just incredibly high. It is fascinating in its own way, though, listening to serious jazz players talk about how they think about jazz. My favorite part of the book, though, was the reference list at the back, where Ratliff lists each recording that he listened to with each of the musicians. It has been a great input for my personal playlist... so much to explore.

If you're a musician, like jazz, or just want to explore the minds of some great musicians, I'd recommend picking up The Jazz Ear. It's a short read, but quite worth it.

Jazz Is a Spacious House
Since I'm going to voice concerns about jazz writing in general, let me start by saying that I like this booka lot. I read it in one sitting and I underlined numerous passages to copy. Having said that....

Jazz is my favorite and longest held music, but unlike classical music, it suffers from a dearth of serious, sustained popular critical writing.There are exceptions to this statement, most notably Gunther Schuller's studies of early swing and Ellington. Some jazz musicians, principally composers and arrangers, have written at length on how to construct a jazz piece and do a solo. But most books on jazz today for a lay audience are either biographical or reminiscent in nature (John Szwed on Sun Ra and Miles, Andy Hamilton on Lee Konitz, Laurence Bergreen on Louis Armstrong, Bill Crow's hilarious and fascinating anecdotes about the jazz life) or journals and reviews (Whitney Balliett's Collected Works: A Journal of Jazz 1951-2000, Gene Lees's and Balliett's essays on various pop and jazz singers, countless collections of interviews). Even Gary Giddins's Visions of Jazz: The First Century, a book I like a great deal,is basically a collection of occasional essays, relieved by a few record reviews (e.g., of Hank Jones and Charlie Haden's Steal Away).

Ben Ratliff has been jazz critic at the New York Times since 1996. He knows the jazz scene, he knows his music and he writes sympathetically and perceptively about this elusive American music. This is a good book. I read it in one sitting. I had read it all it four hours after I picked it up and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Nonetheless, I was frustrated that it didn't do more than it does.

The hook in this highly readable collection of essays is that Ratliff asked a number of prominent jazz musicians to pick recordings, a maximum of six, to listen to and talk about with him. They didn't have to be jazz recordings. Several weren't: Wayne Shorter wanted to listen to Vaughan Williams, Pat Metheny to Bach and Ornette Coleman to a Jewish cantor recorded in 1916; Maria Schneider chose Martha Argerich's recording of the Ravel piano concerto in G major and Branford Marsalis selected Stravinsky and Wagner). One rule applied: they couldn't select a recording on which they themselves played. One musician, Ornette Coleman, refused to comply with that rule but then, Coleman has seldom followed other people's rules. Ratliff's idea was that in talking about others' music, his artists would reveal much about their own musical history, preferences and ideas. He was right. They did. The result is a set of fascinating interviews with some of the most important and representative artists in jazz today. In addition to the artists mentioned above, they include such luminaries as Bob Brookmeyer, Hank Jones, Dianne Reeves, Branford Marsalis Joshua Redman, Roy Haynes, Paul Motian, and Andrew Hill.

It's not a fault of this book to say that I wish he had included some other musicians. I would love to have heard from more musicians who live on the fringes of success -Roscoe Mitchell or Muhal Richard Abrams, for instance, from the AACM; soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom, who seems to owe allegiance to no one except herself and has been woefully neglected b y listeners; David Murray, my personal favorite among modernists; Billy Bang; William Parker. And I hope someday someone writes about the European modernists, from Peter Brotzman and Evan Parker and Hann Bennink and Derek Bailey to Enrico Rava, Tomasz Stanko, Gianluigi Trovesi and Stefano Bollano.

Jazz is a spacious house. It's not to Ratliff's discredit that he hasn't spread his net wider, but I hope he keeps writing this series. And I hope that someday he combines his insights into this fragile, evanescent, glorious music and produces a capacious study of the music's sources, strengths and techniques.

For all music lovers
What a novel concept to take the world's best living jazz artists and ask them to bring five or six pieces with them to discuss.Then have a conversation about music and what is important to them in the pieces they have chosen.This will appeal to all music lovers, not just jazz afficionados, as the first conversation with Wayne Shorter describing why he likes Ralph Vaughan Williams's symphonies can attest.A great selection of living jazz legends - Shorter, Metheny, Rollins, Coleman, Redman, Marsalis, et al.Highly recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an indispensable guide for both jazz aficionados and those seeking entree into New York's big band, bebop, fusion, and funk scenes. Profiled venues include fabled haunts of Harlem; elegant Midtown supper clubs; hip downtown hangouts; a subterranean Bowery alcove where the spirit of Mingus rumbles on; an intimate uptown spot that inspired a famous screenplay; and a celebrity-owned club in the heart of Times Square. There are dozens of photos and each listing offers directions, hours, subway stops, and maps, while sidebars describe festivals, famous addresses, and jazz history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Right On!
A great resource for the conoisseur as well as the jazz illiterate (like me!). This book is a terrific guide to some fabulous joints, and is fun to read, too.Well done!

THIS BOOK SWINGS!!!
If you're planning to check out some jazz in NYC, my advice is simple: get this book. Dollar knows his stuff, and the book is so smartly written that it's worth a read even if you don't know the difference betweeen Bill Evans and Gil Evans. And if you're into cutting-edge jazz, you'll find some destinations here that will send you to postbop heaven.

Very Good
As a jazz fan, drummer and bandleader who's listened around Manhattan for 28 years and played around Manhattan for 16 years, I'm very impressed with this book. It's extremely well researched, the production quality is high, and the quality of the writing is so good that it makes an interesting read apart from its functionality as a guidebook. My only reservation is that it leaves out a couple of obvious jazz clubs and includes some non-jazz clubs. But that aside, I'm astonished at how much the author knows about his subject, and how much I was able to learn that I didn't already know. Very highly recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
"The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings" is firmly established as the world's leading guide to recorded jazz, a mine of fascinating information and a source of insightful - often wittily trenchant - criticism. This is something rather different: Brian Morton (who taught American history at UEA) has picked out the 1000 best recordings that all jazz fans should have and shows how they tell the history of the music and with it the history of the twentieth century. He has completely revised his and Richard Cook's entries and reassessed each artist's entry for this book. The result is an endlessly browsable companion that will prove required reading for aficionados and jazz novices alike. 'It's the kind of book that you'll yank off the shelf to look up a quick fact and still be reading two hours later' - "Fortune". 'Part jazz history, part jazz Karma Sutra with Cook and Morton as the knowledgeable, urbane, wise and witty guides ...This is one of the great books of recorded jazz; the other guides don't come close' - "Irish Times". ... Read more

Product Description
The only book specifically designed to help jazz players organize their woodshed time so that practicing becomes fun and productive. This is done by showing the reader how to take big problems and break them down into manageable tasks, each one of which is easy to accomplish. Covers basic theory, soloing, comping, ear training, rhythm practice, tune analysis and much more! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A systematic approach to improving your jazz improvisation
How well do you practise?My practising is often a bit aimless and I got this book to help me develop a more structured approach. Berkman certainly has some good ideas on how to improve your jazz improvisation skills.

There are a many great points that he makes throughout the book on how to approach practising.Here are some that I found particularly helpful:
1. You should not practise what is not fun (This one takes some get used to - practising is meant to be hard and tedious isn't it? No!)
2. Don't practise too far beyond what comes easily to you (or it won't be fun and you will eventually give up!)
3. Break hard problems into easier problems and work on the easier ones first
4. Try to find many different ways of approaching the same problem
5. Look for natural tendancies or strengths in your playing (perhaps you play a lot of triplet patterns), first try to exploit them by exaggerating them even more than usual and also try to learn to play without using them.
6. Learn to honestly assess what you are good and bad at
7. Don't wait to be spoon fed!

The style of the book is often light hearted and humorous, and peppered with loads of interesting anecdotes from the author's own playing and teaching experiences.This often gives fascinating insights into the way other jazz musicians manage to work their way through the problems we all face in mastering this great art form.

Berkman says that the book is 85% for all musicians, and 15% for pianists.I am a trumpet and guitar player.I agree with the author that even non-piano players benefit from some keyboard skills so the 15% did not disturb me.Besides there is still plenty of interesting material in the remaining 85%.

While I think the real benefit of the book is helping readers understand how to practise, the bulk of the book is still in providing various ideas on what to practise. At the start of the book he mentions the areas he believes that most jazz students need to work on.

The author says that we should approach the book as a series of master classes on various topics and it does come across this way.It does not really try to design a specific practise program (that would be spoon feeding!), but is instead a comilation of ideas and approaches which you are encouraged to explore and find what works best for you.Clearly he can't tell us individually what we need to work on or what approach will best help us solve our problems - everyone is different and we each need to discover these answers for ourselves.It's definitely not a book of patterns and licks.

He begins with a brief chapter on theory - which is probably useful as a review, though I'm not sure if it would be sufficient if this was your first exposure to this material.He then talks about approaches to practise playing over changes including scale and arpeggio based ideas as well as a great section on the use of chromatic approach notes and guide tones.

There is a chapter each on how to approach the songs "Body and Soul", "Giant Steps" and "Rhythm Changes".These songs each have their own particular challenges, whether it be the interpretation of a ballad, playing over rapid changes, or knowing which of a possible multitude of reharmonisations to use.

He also has a useful chapter on rhythm and odd meters which I found particularly valuable.

I recommend the book highly to jazz musicians who need some guidance on how to practise jazz improvisation.

a must have!
This is a great book. It does not force-feed you tons of licks or voicings. Instead, it shows you how to practice better, by reducing problems to a manageable size. Berkman is a funny writer, very knowledgeable, full of anecdotes and insights, and full of ideas on how to practice and become a better, truer jazz musician. This is THE book to have if you want to find your own licks, your own voicings, your own voice, regardless of your instrument. There is enough stuff in there to last me for years!

Comprehensive practice guide
Left-hand voicings were brilliantly covered by John Mehegan many years ago and are still current and available at very little cost.Right-hand techniques are less well covered but this volume is remarkable for its comprehensiveness and accessibility.Although useful for all instruments it is very much a book for keyboardists written by a keyboard player.Much as I admire Aebersold he is very much primarily a sax player although his volumes of transcribed comping are invaluable.We need to buy them all and practice! ... Read more