Customer Reviews

Bebop Jazz: Jazz Piano Solos Series

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Here are some fully realized piano solos of some bebop classics. They are generally intermediate in difficulty. Most of the tunes are arranged as: the tune (head), a chorus of written out improvisation and the tune again. The style is boppish, good arrangements, somewhat in the style of the recordings and for written music they really do sound like jazz.

However, a disappointment is that the chord symbols are not included. Yea, you should be able easily figure them out if you have any jazz background, but they are handy if you want to improvise on your own, memorize etc. I guess they want to sell you a fake book. The arrangements for the most part follow the standard chord changes, however, it's nice to know quickly where the arranger takes some liberty or what he did on tunes which have multiple changes; such as "Well You Needn't" where there is a Miles and Monk version. So, one star off.

So, if you have no jazz background or want ready-made arrangements for ideas etc. this is a great book. It also helps a lot to listen to a recording of the tunes to get a feel for the music. If you really want to play jazz though, get a fake book, learn chords, listen, transcribe, use play-alongs, play in a group, get a good teacher... In the meantime, this is a nice shortcut to playing these tunes.

The complete list of tunes is: Anthropology, Au Privave, Billie's Bounce (Bill's Bounce), Birk's Works, Doxy, Four, Godchild,Half Nelson, In Walked Bud, Lady Bird, Lemon Drop, Manteca, Oleo, Ruby My Dear, Shawnuff, Tempus Fugit, Well You Needn't (It's Over Now) Woodyn' You.