Fakebooks/New Real Book Questions

[surf_slave]

Hi,

I'm looking into starting to learn/work out basslines to some jazz classics, and I'm thinking of buying one of the New Real Book series from Sher Music. Maybe Volume III because I really like some of the Herbie Hancock tunes on it... Which one would you get?

Innocent Questions: Do they have the bass lines written out separately or do you just follow the left hand of the piano? And what key would you get the books in and why? I noticed one had "Bass Clef". What's that about?

Note: I've used fake books before when I was studying piano and jazz theory, but I'm wondering about specifics for playing bass, which I've just started recently.

Thanks all for the help.

Slave.

[Phil Smith]

I would get book III since it's available in bass clef, which means the melodies are written in bass clef so that you can get a lot of use out of it. The baselines are written out only for a hand full of the tunes.

[Bruce Lindfield]

I can see the logic, but I must say that I have found Book 1 to be the most useful for playing Jazz with other people - it has the most standards that people (horn players mostly) actually want to play in a "Jamming" situation.

Having said that, I would say that if the original poster doesn't know how to construct a walking bassline from a chord chart then, it would probably be better to buy a book on this first.

As Phil says, there are very few tunes in the Jazz repertoire with written-out bass lines and more than 90% of the time it's going to be constructing your own walking lines from the chords.

[Bruce Lindfield]

One of the other threads reminded me that the "Latin Real Book" is also worth considering - this has a lot more written bass lines, if this is what you're after. A lot of Latin "standards" get played by Jazz groups as well.

[JimK]

My vote's for Volume I(C Clef)...
There's some tunes that have the bass charted out; MOST may only give a sketch of what the bassist was doin'(e.g. "Nutville" has the basic 2-bar figure, then it's up to YOU. "Senor Blues", I think has the entire line written out...pretty cut & dried tune).
Personally, I don't wanna follow the pianist's LEFT-hand(if, indeed, he's playin' a bass figure).

FWIW-
Volume III has a lotta POP tunes(Motown, Al Jarreau, Michael Jackson?!).
What Volume has "Actual Proof" in it?
Now that's some bad Herbie!

[surf_slave]

Thanks folks.

Bruce, Cruise, and Jim, I was wanting to work on my bassline construction, so I'm happy enough if it's just the melody and chords. I play piano ok and can hash them out on the keyboard. Then start thinking up basslines. Fun fun.

So for key choice? C is fine by me, any reason to prefer the flat keys, like for horns I guess?
I suppose they'll end up transposed anyway? Why aren't they in the original key?

Again, thanks for the replies. I'll have to start thinking about which book to get. Bruce, you're right that book 1 looks best for standards. Maybe I'll start convincing my guitarist friend to get one of the others for the few songs I want. Or maybe I'll get to tone up my transcription skillz.

[Bruce Lindfield]

Originally posted by surf_slave


So for key choice? C is fine by me, any reason to prefer the flat keys, like for horns I guess?
I suppose they'll end up transposed anyway? Why aren't they in the original key?

Simply because Saxophones,clarinets etc. are "transposing" instruments and the players read and play in that key and it comes out right! I have the C version of most books.

Another thing you might want to think about are the Aebersold books - they have the tune in all keys and chord charts (so you can photocopy the charts for the whole band!) and if you are interested in particular artists - say Herbie Hancock - you can get books devoted to their tunes. So like yesterday I was practising Freddie Hubbard tunes from the Aebersold no 60 I think.

[surf_slave]

Bruce,

Wow, I just checked out the Aebersold stuff: click here

Looks really good. And it won't hurt me at all to have Rufus Reid or John Patitucci working out some of the changes for me when I want to listen to the left channel.

Thanks a lot for the recommendation. I'll tell you what happens when they arrive.

[David Kaczorowski]

IMO, the "Standards" edition is the most indispensible. It has hundreds of tunes that are actually called on gigs or that are the basis of other jazz tunes that were written on the same changes (contrafacts).

[Aaron]

What are some good fakebooks?

[melvin]

Ive never owned one or even looked in one but when I was picking up a book at Barnes & Nobles they had a few copies of this book called "The Ultimate Jazz Fakebook" or something like that. On the back it did have some pretty rad songs and it said you could use it for all C instruments.

[Oysterman]

Pardon my ignorance, but what exactly is the definition of a "fakebook"?

[Aaron]

Originally posted by melvin
On the back it did have some pretty rad songs and it said you could use it for all C instruments.

That is extremely common.

I've read through a few, and they'll always have different songs. For an example. I've seen one that had PortraitofTracy in it, but it didn't have teen town, birdland, Port of Entry, etc. Then i've seen some that has had birdland and teen town, but nothing else by weather report. That is just my example. I'm looking for something that has a lot more than just fusion. So i guess i'm looking for one that has the widest selection.

[Aaron]

Originally posted by Oysterman
Pardon my ignorance, but what exactly is the definition of a "fakebook"?

For bass players, all you need to know is that they are 100s of charts of jazz tunes crammed into a book the size of a dictionary.

[reedo35]

Originally posted by PortraitofTracy
What are some good fakebooks?

The Best ones, IMO, are from Chuck Sher publishing
and include The New Real Book Vol. 1,2,3 and The Latin Real book. Many of the songs include seperately written Bass Lines.There are also the illegal ones from berklee called the real book.

[Aaron]

jazz utopia only has Volume III for bass clef instruments, but it has the other 2 for C intsruments. That one seems like the best series because there are no doubles. It is pretty sad i don't have a fake book. I don't have any jazz theory books either, .

[melvin]

Originally posted by PortraitofTracy
I don't have any jazz theory books either, .

For jazz theory books get "The Jazz Theory Book" by Mark Levine, great stuff.

[Angus]

Do you have a teacher?

[Aaron]

Originally posted by Angus
Do you have a teacher?

I can't really afford one. I'm pretty much self-taught, which is also pretty sad. At lease, i practice a lot.

[Lance Jaegan]

I'd have to recommend "More Than Just a Fakebook". It's a fake book of Mingus tunes, with notes and so forth about Mingus and by Mingus. Mingus wrote some great tunes, and this book provides easy access to all of them. As a bass player, how can you resist a song called "Weird Nightmare" that has chromatic changes? Honestly? Horn players can get mad sometimes though, so watch out.