5 comments about The Jazz Bass Book: Book/CD Pack (Bass Player Musician's Library).

1. I found this book to be a great resource from a historical and musical standpoint. It's a good reference material for bassists of the past and has some great practice routines, music written out in the style of many different players and lists some essential albums. This book is not intended for beginning bassists(because it doesn't just stick to 1st position) but could be beneficial to both beginning and advanced players alike . This is NOT a method book but could be considered a great resource for any bassist.



2. OK, if your're like me (HighSierraBassPlayer), you're desparately seeking books, DVD's and cd's with tons of blues and jazz progressions. The material out there is really pretty thin (or maybe I'm just never satisfied like my chronic case of G.A.S. (gear acquisition syndrome). John Goldby's Jazz Bass Handbook is the best source for jazz theory and an excellent resource for the history of jazz as well. After all, most of the songs we practice and perform on today have their beginnings in jazz and blues from the founding fathers. I have gained so much respect and awe for these pioneers of jazz and the blues, and this book is by far the best jazz compendium on the musical market today. I hope someone produces a blues compendium as concise and full of examples as this book does. The CD is also excellent, although I wish it carried all the examples in the book. But that make me work even harder to, as one of the forefathers of jazz offers in the book, "to imitate, assimilate, and innovate." That pretty much describes how bass players like me strive to be better, and this text works perfect. A higest must have from HighSierraBassPlayer!



3. I'll make this short and sweet... if you want a well-lead, chronological walk through the history of jazz bassists, complete with tons of musical examples, phenomenal sound clips, and enough recording references to keep you busy listening and copying grooves until rapture, this is the book for you. Buy it!



4. This is a GREAT book. John Goldsby should be thanked and complimented for his research and his understanding of the role of the bass polayer in jazz. I now have all my students buy this book and anyone interested in the history of jazz should have this nook in their library. At the end of the book, Mr. Goldsby has a sectioon titled "Concepts". Every musician, young and old, should read this part of the book. This section reminded me of why I became a bass player/musician in the first place.



5. Having been a electric bass player for 25+ years I recently purchased an NS double bass. I bought this book to learn some jazz licks but also get a look into why various jazz double bass players use certain progressions and transitions. This book provided all of that and more. Not in tab, so it keeps my up on my sight reading. If your looking to just learn some songs, this may not be for you. But if your wanting to get into the theory of jazz bass playing this is well worth the money. The CD doesn't cover all of the licks, but provides enough to get an idea of the rhythm and progressions.

1 comments about Mel Bay's The Changes Guide Tones for Jazz Chords, Line & Comping for Guitar.

1. As an aspiring jazz guitarist, I've bought a lot of books over the years, classics and others, and without exaggeration this single slim volume is the most useful, practical guide I've ever found to playing jazz, solo and in a group.
   
   The beauty of this approach is that you don't have to be technically or theoretically advanced to learn this stuff. Less is more! While there is plenty for the advanced player to chew on, I've given this book as a gift to friends who were just learning to play- I think it's the best introduction to actually playing jazz (and not just on the guitar either!)
   
   What it is not is a manual of music theory- sure, there are some chord diagrams for the examples, and the book does touch on basic chord progressions and scales. But that's not the main point here- and for good reason.
   
   Don't get me wrong- studying chords and scales and progressions is invaluable for understanding jazz and how it works. But if all you do is study chords and scales and progressions, when you sit down to play, what you get may not be very good jazz. How well I recall studying scales and arpeggios, and when I played, everything sounded like an exercise, not jazz! The problem becomes even more evident when you go to play with other musicians. If you play full six-note 'cowboy chords' all the time, it doesn't sound like jazz. If there's a bass player, it doesn't sound good to be playing the root all the time. The larger the group, the more important it is to be able to play more with less. The great masters did it. But how?
   
   The answer is the use of 'guide tones', which are the 3rd and 7th of each chord, and how they move through chord progressions. This is the subject of this book, and it is an amazingly powerful key to playing well. Sid didn't make up this principle, it's a classic jazz element all the great masters know and use. Somehow it never gets talked much about- it usually only comes up in private instruction but in most books only in passing.
   
   Sid does a fantastic job of teaching it- and no surprise, because this guy is not just a great musician, but a great teacher, he's the one who set up the jazz program at Musician's Institute of Technology, and as a teacher he's no doubt seen firsthand what material makes the most difference in helping aspiring musicians play better.
   
   Sid takes you through the basics, explaining the power of guide tones to guide our ears through chord changes without even needing to hear the root. Then, through a series of elaborations and developments how this becomes a basis for both comping and improvisation. There are examples to play, to memorize, and to give your fingers new vocabulary that deepens your harmonic richness.
   
   With this book under your belt, you'll find new ways of adding harmonic depth to your solos so they do more than cover the scale. You'll learn ways of covering chord progressions with only a few notes- which is vital to chord-melody solo playing because there's not much room between the melody and the bass line. And when you go to playing in a group (even blues and pop music) you'll know where to find those few notes that say it all as far as covering the chords.
   
   Am I gushing? Yep, and this is one book that deserves it. Sid does such a good job of teaching and this concept is such an important one to playing well. The CD is good too!
   
   If you love jazz and you're looking at reviews for good books, look no further. This one is a true classic, it deserves to be remembered up there with Ted Greene's wonderful books. Thanks Sid for writing it! Keep up the good work!

5 comments about Lost Chords: White Musicians and their Contribution to Jazz, 1915-1945.

1. Not a mere antidote to political correctness in jazz criticism; Lost Chords is a prewar cultural history, a lesson in music structure, a history of woodwind instruments, a guide to innovations in guitar tuning, AND MORE. It shows the musicians as human beings with all their failings, humor, drives, hard work, and talent. I especially loved the account of the bass sax --- an instrument that looks like it could double as a moonshine still --- and its usefulness in the early days of sound recording. Sudhalter admonishes us to listen to the music and to make up your own mind. Exactly right. A good place to start is Robert Parker's Bix Beiderbecke Great Original Performances 1924-1930 (available on Amazon) If you have ever heard an early 78 rpm record, you will be astonished at Parker's sound restoration.



2. While a brilliant documentary, Burns' "Jazz" also reinforced the notion that jazz is exclusively an African-American artform. Fortunately, "Lost Chords" does much to blow away that misperception. While never belittling or downplaying the role of those African-American giants in jazz, this book does an outstanding job of profiling all of the individuals and bands who received short shrift from Burns: Steve Brown, who pretty much invented jazz bass playing; the Jean Goldkette Orchestra; Miff Mole; Frank Trumbauer; and may more. And he does so in a way that is both interesting to the casual fan (with anecdotes and such) and the hardened muso (excerpts of scores abound). A scholarly tome, this is a worthy addition for any jazz fan's library. I look forward to Volume II.



3. First of all, Dick Sudhalter is a gifted writer. He crafts his narratives like a well constructed solo or composition. Second, this book tells us about early white jazz musicians and correctly describes the interplay between vital African American innovations and the contributions of Caucasian jazzmen. Sudhalter in no way diminishes the seminal contributions of African American jazzmen. He simply talks about the contributions of other artists, and does a masterful job of helping us to see the interplay between musicians who have given us this wonderfully entertaining music. I thought I knew a fair amount about the history of jazz. After reading this book, I know more. Nothing is more American than Jazz music (just my opinion), and the more you understand it, the more you know about the USA in the 20's and 30's. I keep re-reading parts of this book because there's so much here.



4. This is the finest book about jazz that I have ever read. I own many of the records that the author dissects, as well as having seen several of these great jazz artists perform, and I find his judgment perceptive and unerring. But this is far more than just a book about jazz music. What makes these musicians tick, how did they happen to assemble together for a recording session, how did the record business impact their selection of pieces to perform? The author draws on a variety of academic disciplinces, including art, psychology, economics, and social history, to put his subjects in perspective. Most important, he is a fine storyteller who empathizes with the people he writes about. While many reviews focus on his overall thesis about race in jazz, this is but one theme he articulates, and it serves more as an organizing structure for the book than as its sole message.



5. This book makes fascinating reading. It helped me to appreciate more the musicians I was already familiar with, such as Jack Teagarden, and opened my eyes to a lot of people I knew little or nothing about. Be sure to pick up the companion CD, too.

5 comments about Beneath the Underdog: His World as Composed by Mingus.

1. To start, this book is not bad enough to turn a reader away from the whole genre. That statement is ridiculous. Charles Mingus is not a writer, the mission of this autobiography is to let the reader know what jazz's roots were. Parts of this biography are on the disturbing side.
   
   In a postive side, the book has a meaning. It stands for all the great jazz players who were brought down by drugs and prostitution. It shows how even Charles Mingus, possible the greatest jazz bass player to ever play, was victim to this. Racism stood in the way of his success. Jazz listeners assume that because a player is currently a hero or jazz giant today, they did not have a wealthy life. Because of this, they set out to earn money on the streets through drugs and sex.
   
   This book is not superbly written, but it allows people to realize what jazz has been through.



2. Genius genius genius, with thriving spellbound ingeniousness, billowed with an ego that would knock the head of anyone who was within eighthundred of his forehead. If you are going to read this book please be prepared to pull your pants off and get wet like a tigress inexorably, repeatedly, being stabbed in the belly by a machette. genius genius genius.......



3. I was looking for a book on his music. This book belongs in Fantasy. It is a play by play of Mr. Mingus' sex life. I have no desire to research him any further.



4. Those looking for anything like a conventional musical bio should go to "Mingus, a Critical Biography" by Brian Priestley; "Underdog" isn't that at all; it's an artifact of Mingus' peculiar world-view at a particularly hard time in his life.
   
   
   Was he mentally ill? Well, Mingus, long noted for fits of depression (after finding his first substantial success in the music industry, he nevertheless worked for the post office for a while) and a volcanic temper, channeled it for art: he was probably the first musician ever to release an album with liner notes from his psychoanalyst, and in "Underdog", he recounts checking himself into Bellvue Hospital, in an ill-considered search for "some rest". That, too, yielded him a song, "Hellview of Bellvue/Lock 'em Up", an offer of a lobotomy, and raised the interesting question: if a half-black jazz musician in 1960's America believed that people were out to steal from him and oppress him, was he acutely paranoid, just observant, or both?
   
   Sexually escapist, and scatological? Well, yes, but before feminism, or politcal correctness, and not without pay-back: the man who bragged of trying to bury his misery in [...] and dope never finds them to be a satisfactory release, and after all the orgies, writes a tune called "Half-Mast Inhibition". . .
   
   So, listen to the music first. See the short b&w documentary. If you want bio information or critical analysis, go to the Priestly book. Then put on "Black Saint", "Mingus Am Uh", or "Blues and Roots", and read this.



5. The first page tells it: if you like that, read on.
   He sets the stage by describing 3 parts of his psyche: the one who wants to love and be loved; the one who rages over mistreatment; and the detached, cool observer. These 3 interplay in the most vibrant revelation of a musician's inner life I've seen, and I've made a living with a guitar. Passionate, vulnerable alternating with macho, and confused alternating with crystal clarity, Mingus puts out his experience like an abstract painter might. it reminded me a bit of the biography of Malcom X and "Manchild in the Promised Land." This is nothing like the simple factual account by Miles Davis in his autobio. Beautiful, ugly, utterly personal, it put me both inside of Mingus and outside of society. It's one of the most touching books ever for this reader.

5 comments about But Beautiful: A Book about Jazz.

1. This book captures the essence of jazz. Every nuance from languid to livid, sad to sublime is etched out by Dyer's poetic and harmonious flow of prose. If you are familiar with these artists, his stories encourage you to say, put on your favorite album by Monk while you read about him -- or after you read about him, so you can reflect on how the writer has connected with the soul of the music. If you aren't familiar with the artists, this work will definitely urge you to acquire some of their music. This book is simply an extended poem, traced so delicately that it allows the experienced and the novice alike, the opportunity to peer through a window and into the soul of Jazz.



2. If you ever loved a jazz tune, you will love these pages. Not for anything else but for beauty in the art itself. Sobering, BUT BEAUTIFUL.



3. Geoff Dyer's But Beautiful: A Book about Jazz is much more than an extended critical essay on a still-evolving, vital musical genre and a great deal more than fictional portrayals of Jazz legends. Here, Dyer focuses his considerable talents on creating a kind of Jazz-in-print, seeking to emulate the frenzied riffing, explosive spontaneity and creative interplay, which has given Jazz music so much more vitality than many other genres' created in the 20th century. Without question, one would have to agree that he has succeeded, totally to the readers' enrichment.

   But Beautiful hits the reader on several levels; we are taken on a series of journeys into the lives, thoughts, conversations and seminal events of eight Jazz musicians. Between each chapter is inserted a fictional, road-tripping almost ghostly presence of Duke Ellington, a father figure of modern Jazz who may well have known, recorded and very likely influenced all eight men whom Dyer chose to write/riff about. What's real about the eight musicians are the bare-bones facts known to many Jazz fans; Lester Young court-martialed by the Army because of an inability to cope with a racist Drill Sergeant, Chet Baker's teeth knocked out by an angry drug dealer in a seedy, San Francisco diner, Art Pepper sentenced to five years in prison on a Heroin possession conviction and so on. What's possible, and perhaps no less real to the reader are the details of their lives, their anguish and the self-destructive passions which attend the day to day living of so many creative people. Dyer draws these details in part through listening to the music and inspiration gained by looking at photographs of some of the musicians. 'Not as they were but as they appear to me....' Dyer asks the reader to see the musicians as he sees them, to believe in the memory of what these photos inspired. The men and their lives are portrayed, much like Jazz itself, with a kind of heart-stopping intensity and a poignant, empathetic acknowledgement of lives spent creating and being swallowed whole by the gift that makes creation possible. On Thelonious Monk; "Whatever it was inside him was very delicate, he had to keep it very still, slow himself right down so that nothing affected it." On Ben Webster; "He carried his loneliness around with him like an instrument case. It never left his side."

   Very little, insightful criticism or critical essays have been produced regarding Jazz and the people who play it and live it. Dyer has done more than write mere history or criticism in But Beautiful, he has written (and played) a genre-exploding, lyrical meditation on Jazz and on the terrifying, exhilarating possibilities of the music itself and what ought to be recognized as a new form of fictional riffing.




4. Picture this: "Onstage at Birdland, eyes shut, one arm hanging at his side....trumpet raised to his lips like a brandy bottle--not playing the horn but swigging from it, sipping it."

   Geoff Dyer's employs his exquisite imagery as a starting point for his "imaginative criticism" of the celebrated and tragic lives of several iconic jazz musicians (including figures such as Chet Baker, Lester Young, Thelonious Monk, Ben Webster, Charles Mingus, and Bud Powell). While photographs are the inspiration, Dyer's writing is so precise and sensual that he need only describe the photographs (the book has only one small photo). And this is just right for a book about music, his writing is so lyrical that we almost hear the sounds while reading. (In fact. the least effective aspect of the book is the Duke Ellington "road trip" that introduces each chapter, perhaps because the narrative is not connected to any particular Ellington sound.)

   Many of the scenes and dialogue (especially the inner dialogue) are necessarily fictions, "assume that what's here has been invented or altered rather than quoted." But Dyer's explains that while his version may veer from the truth, "it keeps faith with the improvisational prerogatives of the form." He mixes truth and fiction into portraits that illuminate what strictly factual history cannot always convey. (Think of Robert Graves' in his WWI memoir/fiction "Goodbye to All That."). Dyer explains that while a photo depicts only a "split second," its "felt duration" may include the unseen moments before and after that split second. "But Beautiful" invites us to improvise (as Dyer does) into that unseen time, and discover our own subjective relationship to the music.

   Listen to this: "Chet put nothing of himself into his music and that's what lent his playing its pathos...Every time he played a note he waved it goodbye. Sometimes he didn't even wave."

   The evocative word pictures are unusually perceptive and sensitive. Although personal and often imagined, it's really like an improvised solo that either feels "right" or not. I think "But Beautiful" hits the right notes and rhythms: his words evoke the music, and, after reading it, the music will evoke the words. Not without its flaws, it is still an astonishing feat.




5. This work, along with James Baldwin's short story, "Sonny's Blues," is as good as any I've read about the jazz life, its creators and innovators, and the high cost of such terrible beauty. I had the advantage of being present while Lester was lost on stage in an alcoholic stupor; Monk was dancing around the piano, knocking over cymbals, rather than playing the instrument; Chet Baker, unable to stand, was expending his last breaths on "The Thrill Is Gone"; and Duke was waiting for Harry Carney to swing by with the car to chauffeur him through the wintry night from Kenosha, Wisconsin to Kansas City. But how a young writer like Dyer managed to capture these moments before his time, freezing them unforgettably in a literary living moment, I can't imagine.

   Dyer knows that the foremost responsibility of a music critic is not to critique but to verbalize his non-verbal subject, bringing it to life for the reader. He does so admirably, creating believable, recognizable, fascinating portraits in unlabored, unpretentious prose.

   His portraits of the artist ring completely true to the ears of this fellow observer--penetrating glimpses of the creative child trapped in a man's body now reduced to fighting a losing battle against physical and mental entropy. Yet his faith in the living tradition of jazz is refreshing, as is his characterization of the jazz musician's struggle as a valiant contest with the precursor, not unlike that of the strong poet's.

   Though there's an elegaic tone throughout the book, it's never ponderous or depressing. In fact, its human portraits are more likely to interest newcomers than the many text books that catalog styles and names.

   This is not to say the book is without shortcomings. The author is much better at capturing the musicians for us than their music. And his appreciation and understanding of Duke Ellington's music seems somewhat limited. Too bad he didn't give at least as much attention to the colorful cast of characters on the band bus as to the private conveyance preferred by Duke.

   Yet any listener who has the slightest interest in jazz and its makers simply cannot afford to pass this one up. And it goes a long way toward fleshing out some of the caricatures served up on the Ken Burns' television series.

5 comments about Ella Fitzgerald: The Tale of a Vocal Virtuosa.

1. "You may think I look like any other cat. But baby, I'm in a class all by myself. Scat Cat's my name. Scat Cat Monroe. A name I've earned. Got my name from knowin' Ella. Ella Fitzgerald. The Queen of Scat. What's scat? you ask. Scat's the sound that don't hold back. Ella's sound-that was scat. Singing so supreme. Music's velvet-ribbon dream..." Narrated by this cool, zoot suited feline, Scat Cat Monroe introduces the incomparable, Ella Fitzgerald, to a whole new generation of fans. From her humble beginnings in Yonkers, New York, to her contest winning debut at Harlem's Apollo Theater at seventeen, to her meteoric rise, singing with the big bands and jazz artists of the 1930s and '40s, Scat Cat was there, stompin' at the Savoy with the Chick Webb Orchestra and jammin' to cloud nine and back with Dizzy Gillespie. "Now, when Ella performed, she let her lyrics go. She took her singing out to play." Andrea Davis Pinkney's engaging, lyrical text swings with imagery, magic, and rhythm. Brian Pinkney's bold, bright, and inventive illustrations dazzle, as they swirl around the pages to the music of the words. Together, word and art create an inspiring and captivating introductory biography starring the First Lady of Song. With an Author's Note at the end to complete the story, Ella Fitzgerald is an energetic, fun-filled tribute, that's perfect for music lovers 8-12, and also works well as a read-aloud for younger children.



2. I found a children's book about her, even better. It was a great book to jive with. Beautiful pictures, and a nice history lesson on this wonderful woman!



3. The Pinkney couple's biography on Ella Fitzgerald is a delightful read for young children who want to learn more about the talented jazz artist. The use of narrator Scat Cat Monroe as a device to engage children is successful especially due to his use of language. The rhymes and rhythms the authors adopt to tell the story echo the snazziness of the music at the time. Young readers will thoroughly enjoy getting to know more about the artist Fitzgerald through this story.



4. Ella Fitzgerald: The Tale Of A Vocal Viruosa by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Scat Cat Monroe is the amazing true-life picture book story of the First Lady of Song, also known as the Queen of Scat, Ella Fitzgerald. This amazingly gifted African-American singer, and her illustrious achievements are presented with free-wheeling, full-color illustrations by Brian Pinkney and a jivin' prose. A great story to share with young people about the joy of music and reaching for one's dreams, this Weston Woods school library packaging edition is enhanced with the inclusion of a CD of the story with page-turn signals.



5. You open this book and the endpapers swirl and glow like black painted silk. They're the first indication you receive that this book is something special. Something different. Something apart from the rest. Using the narrating character of one Scat Cat Monroe, an actual well-dressed feline, the story follows Ella from child to lady of the stage. As we watch, Ella moves to Harlem thinking she's gonna make it big through dancing. Once there, however, she switches her focus and unleashes her fabulous voice. She pairs up with the Chick Webb Orchestra and Al Feldman. She then bebops with Dizzy Gillespie and earns herself the name "The Queen of Scat". It's a fabulous upbeat tale that takes the spirit of Ella Fitzgerald and lets her shine. The best possible tribute to her name.

   The text of the story is especially amusing. Sometimes a book will attempt to speak in a jiving slangy sort of way and simply come off as annoying. Other times, the author sounds as if he/she is trying too hard. Fortunately, Andrea Davis Pinkney has everything under control so that when the book says something like, "She won the contest straight up, kicked her dance dreams to the curb, and pinned all her hopes on being a singer", you know it's true. There's a poetry to this book's speech that never crosses the line from authentic to agonizing. Instead, it's got a rhythm all its own.

   Accompanying Andrea's text are Brian Pinkney's illustrations. At first I was a little put off by the amount of magical realism evident in its pages. Then I read Brian's inspirations (William H. Johnson, Aaron Douglas, the Art Deco movement, etc.) and it all made sense. And there's no arguing that the pictures here are fan-freakin'-tastic. Brian Pinkey has used scratchboard to make these images as bright and free flowing as they are. The result looks like nothing so much as woodcuts on acid. There's breath and movement to these pictures, and Ella herself has been granted the power of appearing larger than life.

   If I've any objections to this book, maybe it comes with the choice of creating Scat Cat Monroe. Do we really need an anthropomorphic cat to lure children into this story? But it's a small complaint. Andrea Pinkney is kind enough to supply a biography, bibliography, videography, and selected discography at the end of the book for future reference. Always a nice touch. The Pinkney duo have truly created one of the best picture books encompassing the jazz, scat, and bebop movements of the past. This is the book to read.

5 comments about Jazz Guitar Single Note Soloing, Volume 2.

1. I studied with Ted Greene in the early 70's at the age of eighteen. At the time I was also taking lessons with George Van Eps and shared my lesson materials with Ted while he worked on Chord Chemistry, the first of his books which was originally published in the 70's and revised later. Any electric guitarist should have all of his books period! These are not fancy riffs or solos but the most creative and best organized series of works on jazz guitar ever written. Most think of Ted as a finger style jazz player. However, when I jammed with him there was no one faster or smoother with a single note flat pick. He simply didn't go in for flash. Also, he could outplay anyone in any style, rock, folk, country, and yes classical music. In fact, when I knew him he always carried a copy of the Bach Chorales around which he studied to perfect his chord voicing system. If you are serious about the guitar and play at the intermediate or better level you have to learn this material.



2. Ted Greene's marvelous books have become staples in guitar instruction, starting with the famous "Chord Chemistry" (Ted frequently referred to the book as "Chord Catastrophe").
   
   "Single Note Soloing, Volume 1" is the perfect book for those that are interested in jazz and have experience playing the guitar, but want to learn the ins and outs of jazz phrasing. The musical examples in this book (all in notation, no TAB here) are great and Ted's comments include a wealth of information about left and right hand tips, phrasing ideas, and how to use the examples. A pleasant "side effect" of going through this book is your sight-reading will noticably improve, especially in the higher positions (such as the 7th, 8th, and 9th). And for those who might already know the theory involved, it makes a for a great warmup and provides a refresher course in important fundamentals. Even though I knew most of the theory in the book when I first went through it, it was a great learning experience because it filled up the holes in my knowledge, some that I didn't even know were there. That is part of the greatness of Ted Greene. Never does the book have a pretentious or snobby air to it, and his thoughts are always encouraging and inspiring when you read them. Many guitar books create more holes than fill them, because the authors themselves do not have the needed grasp of the fundamentals. There's no need to worry about that here, as Ted was a master at learning (and therefore, teaching) things the right way.
   
   Overall this has to be one of the best books on the subject that I've gone through, especially for a book that is guitar-specific. If you could only choose one book on jazz scales for guitar, choose this one.



3. There are several scales patterns per chord pattern or chord strummed. Actually, you only need to learn one scale pattern. Ted Greene provides you with at least one scale per chord to solo over. What's interesting is learning how to combine four or five scale patterns so you can play up and down the neck (over one chord). This book will provide you with all the elements needed to solo over most chords. I already had an idea of what to play, but I didn't have information on the many arpeggios you could play over each chord. Ted gives you sample arpeggios to play over each chord through several scale patterns. What I like about this book is knowing you can link four patterns together (over one chord) and play up and down the neck. If you're having problems with your solos, buy this book.



4. This is one of four published guitar books by Ted Greene. Ted was one of the Great guitarists and a superior teacher. This volume is extremely good. Anything by Ted Greene is required reading.



5. For some reason it'n not immediately apparent on Amazon, but this has been re-released. See:Jazz Guitar Single Note Soloing, Volume 2

4 comments about Mel Bay Studio: Jazz Drum Cookbook.

1. An easy to follow progression of fundamentals leading to solos, this is a great book for staring your jazz studies. It does follow the one primary basic ride sound, but by the end I would think one would be able to improvise fairly well around that pattern.



2. I recently received this book and I've been working on it for more than a week. It's somehow surprising that this book is not widely known in the drumming community (at least here in Italy).
   I find this book excellent. It contains many coordination exercises on 1, 2 and 3 voices (all combinations of snare drum, bass drum and hi-hat), both on swung eighths and triplets, against the jazz ride pattern. The exercises are of gradually increasing difficulty so the book would be perfect both for the beginner or the advanced jazz drummer. The review solos at the end of each chapter are musically pleasant.



3. I absolutely love this book, it's a fantastic resource if you're looking to get into jazz drumming. Every percussion instructor I've ever had has recommended this book to me, and for good reason.
   One of my friends actually learned jazz drumming over the summer just by spending hours and hours with this book.



4. I really like this book.
   It broke down jazz drumming so perfectly by the time anyone finishes they'll be havin' jazz drummin' fever.
   Seriously.
   No Joke.
   It was also recommended by my drum teacher Larz.
   So that's how you know it's good.

5 comments about Arranging for Large Jazz Ensemble.

1. This book provides a wealth of priceless knowledge. The techniques revealed by the Berklee faculty have greatly improved my ability as an arranger. Although the focus is on jazz, I have found many of the techniques to be useful when arranging in other musical genres. I found the accompanying CD extremely helpful, as it provided demos of a number of famous arrangers and composers. I find myself referring back to the book time and time again and finding new techniques to use each time. I highly recommed it to anyone interested in becoming an arranger or composer.



2. Arranging Jazz for Large Ensemble gives the readers the necessary skills to write for big bands. Although it is an advance subject in the Arranging area, the book starts with writing for unison and octaves. There are also great chapters about background writing with riff and guide tone lines. The Shout Chorus chapter provides beginners writers to fully understand the arrangement "big picture". All levels of arrangers can benefit from these chapters and their musical examples. They will help you memorize sound texture and effects as well as the writing techniques. As you go over the other chapters, you can easily assimilate their content and apply them successfully. It's unique and well written book, one of the best of its kind.



3. Arranging Jazz for Large Ensemble gives the readers the necessary skills to write for big bands. Although it is an advance subject in the Arranging area, the book starts with writing for unison and octaves. There are also great chapters about background writing with riff and guide tone lines. The Shout Chorus chapter provides beginners writers to fully understand the arrangement "big picture". All levels of arrangers can benefit from these chapters and their musical examples. They will help you memorize sound texture and effects as well as the writing techniques. As you go over the other chapters, you can easily assimilate their content and apply them successfully. It's unique and well written book, one of the best of its kind.



4. This is the first time I found how to learn about jazz arranging and how to improve my last music knowledge.
   It is a wonderful book.



5. Oh amazon! I was here about to buy this just yesterday at around $26 and left it for a few hours...came back and it jumped to $40!! Goodness, sounds like the house prices in Australia! You blink for a second and it shoots up instantly.
   
   Well I am definitely giving this 5 stars as I am familiar with the copy from another source...and dont want the authors to have a low star review just coz the price jumped- it isn't their fault. And so, I will give a proper review in part two, when amazon gets competive with the price again!

5 comments about Jazz Composition: Theory and Practice.

1. This is a great book. My daughter found it very easy to read.



2. This excellent book realy help me to teach modern jazz theory and composition on Jezek Conservatory Prague.I recommend this book to all my students.



3. It starts with melody, and what is cool has exercises throughout, so you can really learn on the way... if you are interesting with jazz theory, I suggest this book, and also "modern jazz voicings" compliments it very well.



4. This is a great book for those who know a respectable amount of jazz theory and want to understand the practice and art of jazz composition. Throughout the book, you are given exercises and opportunities to write your own pieces and comes with a CD. Although this book teaches you modal harmony, chromatic harmony, blues writing, ect., there is no substitute for a jazz composition professional teacher who would be valuable to check your work and offer criticism and suggestions.
   
   Writing pieces on your own is basically made easier in terms of form and structure.



5. This book is an excellent guide for the beginning to intermediate jazz composer. This book assumes some basic knowledge of jazz style and notation. The resorces are are excellent for jazz harmonization and melodic composition both tonal and modal. This book does not, however, go into much depth in regards to part writing for an ensemble. I think this book is good preparation for Sammy Nestico's "The Complete Arranger" book.