Review: The All-Jazz Real Book

The All-Jazz Real Book by Chuck Sher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The All-Jazz Real Book is a sturdy, well-constructed volume. The strong plastic, large-diameter spiral binding allows the book to set open and legible on any page whether on the music stand or piano. The durability of the binding guarantees a long life for even the most referenced copy. The charts in this C-version use chord notation from Standard Chord Symbol Notation (Brandt and Roemer). These large-print symbols are easy to read off the page. Lyrics are provided for songs that have them.

This is a hip jazz book that goes beyond the expected. Do not look for "Caravan" or "Embraceable You" here. Instead, the carefully selected tunes fall into three genres: classic jazz (Miles Davis, Bill Evans, John Coltrane, etc.), international forms (Jobim, Eddie Palmieri, Orlando "Maraca" Valle, etc.), and contemporary jazz. Some examples of contemporary jazz, which fills half the book, are Astral Project, Kurt Elling, and John Scofield. Indexing is by title. Additionally, an appendix lists the source albums or sheets.

This book has the distinction of being the first such volume to include a CD. Both an excellent practice aid and good listening, the disc has 37 tracks performed by an electric or acoustic combo as appropriate. Chuck Sher points out that the songs on the CD are mostly those "people might be hesitant to try to play upon first glance." This is definitely the jazz fake book for the jazz student looking to expand his or her horizons.
Randy Halberstadt
Metaphors for the Musician: Perspectives from a Jazz Pianist
Sher Music

With a quarter-century of experience teaching jazz piano, Randy Halberstadt approaches the subject of learning music (music in general, not merely jazz piano) sagely and philosophically. While the book's kernels of wisdom can be of benefit to any music student, there does remain a focus that makes Metaphors primarily a useful adjunct to the study of jazz piano.
Halberstadt's personal remembrances, framed to showcase lessons learned, invite the reader to benefit from his experience. Through colorful, imaginary examples, Halberstadt seeks to jumpstart the brain into degrees of freedom required for a successful jazz state of mind. Along the way of fun and prose come well thought-out examples. Embedded in these sophisticated studies is the knowledge of years that makes practice more productive. Halberstadt's method moves away from rote rehearsing simple building blocks into shorter steps of logical progression that add variety to the learning process. To bring it all together, the volume includes sheet music for several tunes, among them "Embraceable You", "How Long Has This Been Going On?" and "My Foolish Heart." From fast fingerings to proper professionalism, Metaphors is a cornucopia of talent catalysts.



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