Are the newer versions of the real book...well,real?

[kindablue]

I had a copy that i bought about 15 years ago which is now lost.someone told me the newer versions are not as good due to copyright constaints....any truth to that?i guess i'm asking is the quality of the versions out now comparable to the ones from the 80's and 90's?

[Bruce Lindfield]

Originally Posted by kindablue

I had a copy that i bought about 15 years ago which is now lost.someone told me the newer versions are not as good due to copyright constaints....any truth to that?i guess i'm asking is the quality of the versions out now comparable to the ones from the 80's and 90's?

My experience is the exact opposite - so the old fake books were known to be riddled with mistakes, whereas Sher have worked with Jazz artists and the tune's composers as far as possible to get them right.

So where I have been able to compare old illegal fake books with the Sher ones, it's been apparent that the Sher ones have less mistakes, as compared with recordings than the illegal ones.

An example, I remember is that I suggested playing a Freddie Hubbard tune I knew from the original recording and a Sax player showed me his illegal Fake Book and it was clearly in the wrong key.

[Richard Lindsey]

If you're referring to the series published by Sher, I agree with Bruce. I think in about every aspect I can imagine, they're better than the old "illegal" Real Books--better-looking, more easily readable, more accurate, hipper, more complete, or any or all of the above.

[Phil Smith]

When you're dealing with different arrangements of tunes by different artists live or in studio nothing is right or wrong, they're just different. A group can choose to play the song in a different key or the transcriber or preparer of the chart put in a specific key. That doesn't make it the wrong key, it's just a different key that you can transpose if you you're skilled enough while you're playing it. If you show up somewhere with the correct changes and the rest of the group are playing the "wrong" changes, guess who's going to sound "wrong".