Modern replacement for Aebersold?

[Tnavis]

I've done some digging in the archives and found a couple of things, but I'm curious if anybody has found a more "modern" replacement for the tried and true Aebersold books and CD's. In my early jazz days (mid 90's), i spent hours working with the Aebersold books, and while I'm glad they still exist, it seems there really should be a pre-packaged software version of the tunes.

 

[mambo4]

iReal pro sounds like what you want.

 

[GastonD]

iReal pro sounds like what you want.

Indeed... You can either input the changer yourself or use one of the may files offered by members of the forum on their website.
I still like Aebersold, though...

 

[BassChuck]

The iReal Pro app comes with an 'exercise' playlist that has a lot of the basic Aebersold progression in it.

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

I still like Aebersold, though...

The difference between what Jamey has done with his play alongs and something like iRealPro is that the Aebersold recordings were all made with great jazz musicians playing every instrument, while iRealpro is basically a soulless musical algorithm.

Just off the top of my head, on the Aebersold recordings, some of the bass players featured include:
Ron Carter
Christian McBride
Rufus Reid
Lynn Seaton
Todd Coolman
Tyrone Wheeler
John Goldsby....

(Disclaimer - I live right across the river from Jamey and have been teaching at his summer Jazz Workshops for the past 23 years)

 

[GastonD]

You hit it on the head, Chris, my feeling is that Aebersold stuff is good to listen to on its own, it isn't just some sort of basic backdrop to shed against.

 

[adudenamedruby]

I agree with Chris here, partly: when it comes to quality, the Aebersold stuff is a goldmine.

However, flexibility is nice. While iRealPro is good enough for a few things here and there, I'd highly recommend Band-in-a-Box. It's expensive as heck if you get a lot of styles, but it's worth every penny, especially as a beginning musician.

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

The big limitation of the Aebersold recordings is the tempos. I’ve found it’s possible to get a little flexibility with them by loading tracks into the Amazing Slow Downer app. For whatever reason, it has a really clean slowdown engine, and can get you a lot more range from any play along. Plus, the ability to loop those 4 or 8 bars or whatever in each tune where we struggle is worth the price of admission and more.

 

[remcult]

I love iReal Pro, but one thing I love about the Aebersold books (especially the primer books at the beginning of the series) are the notes he put together on chord and scale construction with tips on how to approach them. They were and are really useful to me

 

[IamGroot]

2nd vote for Band on a Box

 

[John Goldsby]

Peter Erskine has some great play-along apps. Some are obviously tailored towards drums, but the "Jazz Essentials," "Afro-Cuban," "Mintzer Big Band Play-along" and "Brazil Quartet" are worth checking out. You have a mixer to adjust each instrument, you can record yourself with the tracks, PDFs included, etc. Highly recommended!

 

[drumsnbass]

The big limitation of the Aebersold recordings is the tempos. I’ve found it’s possible to get a little flexibility with them by loading tracks into the Amazing Slow Downer app. For whatever reason, it has a really clean slowdown engine, and can get you a lot more range from any play along. Plus, the ability to loop those 4 or 8 bars or whatever in each tune where we struggle is worth the price of admission and more.

I use one of those CD players that cuts the tempo.