Customer Reviews

The Real Book: Sixth Edition

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Take note, this book contains no lyrics, thankfully.

Like many musicians I have owned a copy of the, "Real Book 5th Edition" for a long time. I use it at rehearsals, I take it to gigs, and over years of use it has received a lot a wear and tear. As you may know the, "Real Book 5th Edition" is a home made publication, it is not available to the general public it is sold by musicians to musicians. Consequently finding a copy is very difficult, and replacing a worn out copy is just as difficult. Despite its limited availability it is used by musicians all over the world and has become a standard piece of equipment any jazz gig.

Hal-Leonard's "Real Book 6th Edition", at first glance, appears to a fully licensed duplicate of the, "Real Book 5th Edition" however, it is NOT.

The cover is the same, the type set is the same, many of the songs are the same, and most of the keys match the, "Real Book 5th Edition." Unfortunately, many important songs are missing including: "Gentle Rain", "Pennsativa", "Green Dolphin St.", "Days of Wine & Roses", "Spain", "A Foggy Day", and all frank Zappa songs. Some great songs have been added including: "Whispering", "Nuage", "Topsy", "That's Amore", "Easter Parade", "When You Wish Upon a Star", and many more. A few songs appear in a different key than the, "5th Edition" including: "Windows" and "Here's That Rainy Day." There are also some corrections including: "Blue Train" changed from Cm blues to Eb blues; "Equinox" changed from Cm to C#m; the chords to "Four" have been 'corrected'; the bass lines of "So What" and "Maiden" have also been corrected.

The result of Hal-Leonard's efforts gives us a great fake book which is easy to read and easy to buy. The song selection is great, but it is different form the, "5th Edition" this will present a problem when someone on a gig calls, "Conference of the Birds" or any other song not in this book.

What made the, "Real Book 5th Edition" a standard for so many years was the fact that it was one of a kind. Each song had it's own page, the type set was large and clear, the chords were simple and to the point, the songs listed were ones that musicians played, and the arrangements were streamlined (but accurate), for years this was the only book that used this style.

Today, however, many fake books published by Warner Brother, Sher Music, and Hal-Leonard use this style. Consequently great music and quality arrangements are easily accessible to all musicians. There is no longer a need for the, "Real Book 5th Edition" it has been replaced by fully legal and more accurate publications. Hal-Leonard's, "Real Book 6th Edition" is another one of the new generation fake books.

I hope all the songs missing from the, "Sixth Edition" appear in books 2 or 3 which are due out soon.

This "sixth edition" is a welcome sight. At this price it's more affordable to musicians, and you don't need to feel like you're buying some pot from the music store by asking for it in hushed tones.

The differences between this and the bootleg fifth edition Real Book are substantial - many tunes are incompatable between the two, so you cannot mix the books as you could with older editions of the Real Book. But as this new one contains the correct changes and forms (including those notorious missing 4 bars in Desafinado, the correct changes for Dolphin Dance, and the omission of the mystery "turnaround" we've long ignored in the 4th bar of the bridge of Satin Doll) it's really a better book for new players, and will be enlightening to say the least for veteran players who've been playing these songs wrong all these years.

Not all the songs are here: some, like the Zappa and Sun Ra tunes, obviously were not cleared by the copyright owners; others which never are really played are omitted as well, like "Perfect Love". What replaces them are tunes which are far more useful to the gigging player, classic standards and others which were never in the Real Book but should have been. An internet search will easily turn up the tune list - if you absolutely need the tunes not in there anymore, you're out of luck unless you keep your old copy too.

I don't think the transposed versions are available at this writing. Of course, if you can transpose that's no bother at all. Hopefully they will be out soon. Once they are, this can truly replace the illegal book at about half the cost and with more useful tunes for the player.

It's about time someone attempted to publish a 'legal' version of the 'illegal' Real Book, the standard text that virtually all jazz musicians use to enable them to play together. But it's unfortunate that Hal Leonard was the company to do it, because they still have not gotten it right. For those that don't know, rumour has it that the original Real Book (editions 1 thru 5) were originally created by music students at the legendary Berklee School Of Music, who began transcribing the heads (melodies)and chord progressions of the jazz standards that they most often played and binding them into a book that they xeroxed and shared amongst each other. The only problem is that they never got permission from the composers/publishers of the music and consequently never paid any royalties to said composers/publishers.

When comparing the 'illegal' 5th edition of the Real Book to the new 'legal' 6th edition, the first thing you notice is that several songs are missing from Hal Leonard's 6th edition. I assume that's because Leonard & Co. was not able to get the rights for some songs, or couldn't get them at a rate that would still allow them to achieve the profit margin they were shooting for. Though disappointing, that's perfectly understandable.

However, what I can't understand is why they decided to publish several songs in different keys than they were originally presented in the 5th edition. Yes, John Coltrane originally recorded "Equinox" in the key of concert C#, but for years it's been played by what what must be millions of jazz players the world over in the key of C, as it appeared in the original Real Book. Instead of following what the 5th edition did, Leonard chose to publish it in C# in the new 6th edition. Though I'm sure more and more people will eventually buy this new 'legal' version, it doesn't change the fact that millions of people still own the old book and therefore countless numbers of people will continue to want to play it in the 5th edition key, either by reading or from memory. So why change the key, making the legal and illegal books incompatible? Or, if your sense of order compels you to publish the originally recorded C# key, why not include a second version in the 5th edition key of C, so that everyone has a choice and can be on the same page?

One of the things that people have always complained about regarding the illegal 5th edition (and those that preceeded it) is that the sheets are full of notation errors. Some have been corrected through the years, but the number of errors still abound. The musicians usually hand correct them themselves as they come across them, or just remember where the errors are and adjust accordingly. One of the exciting things about Leonard's legal version it that it advertised that it was completely accurate, correcting all the prior errors. Nothing could be further from the truth! I'm sure there are corrections that have been made, but the Hal Leonard version is still full of errors, and it's both appalling and completely unacceptable for a company as large and sophisticated as Hal Leonoard Publishing to have released such shoddy work. They didn't even insure that all the songs are correctly arranged alphabetically in the book!

Having said all that, there are three things that Hal Leonard's new 6th edition has going for it:
1 - It's cheaper than the illegal version, which usually run about $35.00 each. Amazon sells the concert key version for less than $20.00.
2 - The type is clearer and just a bit easier to read.
3 - Last but most importantly, the composers of these great tunes are actually getting paid, as they should be.

It can be argued that reason 3 (paying the composers) is more than enough reason to buy this version over the illegal version, and I have to agree with that, but be that as it may, it's still quite saddening that, after waiting all this time for a company to publish a legal version of this legendary text, they still couldn't do a competent job.

For years, this underground fake book was THE book you had to have to survive on any professional straight Jazz bandstand... and it was tough to find, not to mention expensive. So underground you had to whisper for it at the counter of only the hippest music shops in town and if no one was looking for thirty bucks or so they'd get you a copy... (I'm not joking !) Then it began floating around the net, and for some reason each time the sites would get shut down... and now finally, a "legit" copy is available. Though perhaps we'll never know the full story of just who exactly wrote it and where he/she/they lived... the fact is that the book (atleast for the time being) is now available... ironically by HAL LEONARD, the publishing company that tended to publish all those other FAKE BOOKS for years that made the REAL BOOK so appreciated (LEONARD's books tend to have great tune selections, but some of the worst changes in the world... in contrast, the REAL BOOK's sheets, though not perfect are usually a safe call when you're called up to blow, also unlike Scher's commercially available THE NEW REAL BOOK they're a lot more practical (i.e. you take one glimpse at the sheet and the form is staring right back at'cha !) - - One more funny ironic point, even if the anonymous author/authors were involved in this project its funny because I guess they'll now be pursuing people who BOOTLEG their books... outlaws joining the system... that's progress for ya !

All in all, books 1 and 2 are essential purchases (I pray 3 will become available too.) I actually tend to play more tunes from Book 2 which includes JEANINE, INDIANA, BYE BYE BLACKBIRD, NEARNESS OF YOU, however REAL BOOK I set the standard of what tunes we should play at our sessions. If there's any fault its the overdependence of musicians on it, to the point that many musicians simply don't learn equally important tunes found outside it (even though it does not include EVERY essential standard, it definitely gives you more than enough to survive...) but the fact is, its must have material... if you don't have it, go out and get it... unless you have a perfect ear and most the tunes already learned and memorized, you can't really call yourself a pro without it and will find yourselves embaressed at most sessions everytime a tune (9 times out of 10 at some sessions) is called from this book !

The old illegal Real Book was fantastic, except, of course, for the fact that it was illegal. Many young jazz musicians (and probably some not-so-young) learned how to play the jazz classics from this book. . . and the book itself probably played a role in which tunes became classics in the first place.

I have generally not been a fan of Hal Leonard's fake books, but I must say I was very pleasantly surprised when I opened up their revision of the Real Book. The notation appears to be computer-printed, but using a nice handwritten-style font, but much of the text and the chord symbols seem to be truly handwritten (perhaps by the same person who wrote them in the illegal book).

This revision is missing some of the tunes from the old Real Book, such as anything written by Dave Holland or Dave Brubeck, and Pat Metheny's exercises from the end of the book. It is also missing pointers to albums where you can hear the tunes, which I always thought was a nice touch in the old Real Book.

Nevertheless, Hal Leonard has done a very good job here, and I fully expect that their new legal Real Book series will largely supplant the old Real Book in many venues, especially jazz education.

I'm learning to play jazz piano and I play out of this series (I, II and III) every day. Here's the song list:

African Flower (Petite Fleur Africaine)
Afro Blue
Afternoon In Paris
Água De Beber (Water To Drink)
Airegin
Alfie
Alice In Wonderland
All Blues
All By Myself
All Of Me
All Of You
All The Things You Are
Alright, Okay, You Win
Always
Ana Maria
Angel Eyes
Anthropology
Apple Honey
April In Paris
April Joy
Arise, Her Eyes
Armageddon
Au Privave
Autumn In New York
Autumn Leaves
Beautiful Love
Beauty And The Beast
Bessie's Blues
Bewitched
Big Nick
Black Coffee
Black Diamond
Black Narcissus
Black Nile
Black Orpheus
Blue Bossa
Blue In Green
Blue Monk
The Blue Room
Blue Train (Blue Trane)
Blues For Alice
Bluesette
Body And Soul
Boplicity (Be Bop Lives)
Bright Size Life
Broad Way Blues
Broadway
But Beautiful
Butterfly
Byrd Like
C'est Si Bon (It's So Good)
Call Me
Call Me Irresponsible
Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man
Captain Marvel
Central Park West
Ceora
Chega De Saudade (No More Blues)
Chelsea Bells
Chelsea Bridge
Cherokee (Indian Love Song)
Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White
A Child Is Born
Chippie
Chitlins Con Carne
Come Sunday
Como En Vietnam
Con Alma
Conception
Confirmation
Contemplation
Coral
Cotton Tail
Could It Be You
Countdown
Crescent
Crystal Silence
D Natural Blues
Daahoud
Dancing On The Ceiling
Darn That Dream
Day Waves
Days And Nights Waiting
Dear Old Stockholm
Dearly Beloved
Dedicated To You
Deluge
Desafinado
Desert Air
Detour Ahead
Dexterity
Dizzy Atmosphere
Django
Doin' The Pig
Dolores
Dolphin Dance
Domino Biscuit
Don't Blame Me
Don't Get Around Much Anymore
Donna Lee
Dream A Little Dream Of Me
Dreamsville
Easter Parade
Easy Living
Easy To Love (You'd Be So Easy To Love)
Ecclusiastics
Eighty One
El Gaucho
Epistrophy
Equinox
Equipoise
E.S.P.
Fall
Falling Grace
Falling In Love With Love
Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum
A Fine Romance
500 Miles High
502 Blues
Follow Your Heart
Footprints
For All We Know
For Heaven's Sake
(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons
Forest Flower
Four
Four On Six
Freddie Freeloader
Freedom Jazz Dance
Full House
Gee Baby, Ain't I Good To You
Gemini
Giant Steps
The Girl From Ipanema (Garota De Ipanema)
Gloria's Step
God Bless' The Child
Golden Lady
Good Evening Mr. And Mrs. America
Grand Central
The Green Mountains
Groovin' High
Grow Your Own
Guilty
Gypsy In My Soul
Half Nelson
Have You Met Miss Jones?
Heaven
Heebie Jeebies
Hello, Young Lovers
Here's That Rainy Day
Hot Toddy
House Of Jade
How High The Moon
How Insensitive (Insensatez)
How My Heart Sings
Hullo Bolinas
I Can't Get Started With You
I Can't Give You Anything But Love
I Could Write A Book
I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good
I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart
I Love Paris
I Love You
I Mean You
I Remember Clifford
I Should Care
I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free
I'll Never Smile Again
I'll Remember April
I'm All Smiles
I'm Beginning To See The Light
I'm Your Pal
Icarus
If You Never Come To Me (Inutil paisagem)
Impressions
In A Mellow Tone
In A Sentimental Mood
In The Mood
In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning
In Your Quiet Place
The Inch Worm
Indian Lady
Inner Urge
Interplay
The Intrepid Fox
Invitation
Iris
Is You Is, Or Is You Ain't (Ma' Baby)
Isn't It Romantic?
Isotope
Israel
It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)
It's Easy To Remember
Jelly Roll
Jordu
Journey To Recife
Joy Spring
Juju
Jump Monk
June In January
Just One More Chance
Kelo
Lady Bird
Lady Sings The Blues
Lament
Las Vegas Tango
Lazy Bird
Lazy River
Like Someone In Love
Limehouse Blues
Lines And Spaces
Litha
Little Boat
Little Waltz
Long Ago (And Far Away)
Lonnie's Lament
Look To The Sky
Love Is The Sweetest Thing
Lucky Southern
Lullaby Of Birdland
Lush Life
The Magician In You
Mahjong
Maiden Voyage
A Man And A Woman (Un Homme Et Une Femme)
Man In The Green Shirt
Meditation (Meditacao)
Memories Of Tomorrow
Michelle
Midnight Mood
Midwestern Nights Dream
Milano
Minority
Miss Ann
Missouri Uncompromised
Mr. P.C.
Misty
Miyako
Moment's Notice
Mood Indigo
Moonchild
The Most Beautiful Girl In The World
My Buddy
My Favorite Things
My Foolish Heart
My Funny Valentine
My One And Only Love
My Romance
My Shining Hour
My Ship
My Way
Mysterious Traveller
Naima (Niema)
Nardis
Nefertiti
Never Will I Marry
Nica's Dream
Night Dreamer
The Night Has A Thousand Eyes
A Night In Tunisia
Night Train
Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out
Nostalgia In Times Square
Nuages
(Old Man From) The Old Country
Oleo
Oliloqui Valley
Once I Loved (Amor Em Paz) (Love In Peace)
Once In Love With Amy
One Finger Snap
One Note Samba (Samba De Uma Nota So)
Only Trust Your Heart
Orbits
Ornithology
Out Of Nowhere
Paper Doll
Passion Dance
Passion Flower
Peace
Peggy's Blue Skylight
Pent Up House
Penthouse Serenade
Peri's Scope
Pfrancing (No Blues)
Pinocchio
Pithecanthropus Erectus
Portsmouth Figurations
Prelude To A Kiss
Prince Of Darkness
P.S. I Love You
Pussy Cat Dues
Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars (Corcovado)
Quiet Now
Recorda-Me
Red Clay
Reflections
Reincarnation Of A Lovebird
Ring Dem Bells
Road Song
'Round Midnight
Ruby, My Dear
Poem For #15 (The Saga Of Harrison Crabfeathers)
Satin Doll
Scotch And Soda
Scrapple From The Apple
Sea Journey
Seven Come Eleven
Seven Steps To Heaven
Sidewinder
Silver Hollow
Sirabhorn
Skating In Central Park
So Nice (Summer Samba)
So What
Solar
Solitude
Some Day My Prince Will Come
Some Other Spring
Some Skunk Funk
Somebody Loves Me
Sometime Ago
Song For My Father
The Song Is You
Sophisticated Lady
The Sorcerer
Speak No Evil
The Sphinx
Standing On The Corner
The Star-Crossed Lovers
Stella By Starlight
Steps
Stolen Moments
Stompin' At The Savoy
Straight No Chaser
A String Of Pearls
Stuff
Sugar
A Sunday Kind Of Love
The Surrey With The Fringe On Top
Swedish Pastry
Sweet Georgia Bright
Sweet Henry
Take Five
Take The 'A' Train
Tame Thy Pen
Tell Me A Bedtime Story
Thanks For The Memory
That's Amoré (That's Love)
There Is No Greater Love
There Will Never Be Another You
There'll Be Some Changes Made
They Didn't Believe Me
Think On Me
Thou Swell
Three Flowers
Time Remembered
Tones For Joan's Bones
Topsy
Tour De Force
Triste
Tune Up
Turn Out The Stars
Twisted Blues
Unchain My Heart
Uniquity Road
Unity Village
Up Jumped Spring
Upper Manhattan Medical Group (UMMG)
Valse Hot
Very Early
Virgo
Wait Till You See Her
Waltz For Debby
Wave
We'll Be Together Again
Well You Needn't (It's Over Now)
West Coast Blues
What Am I Here For?
What Was
When I Fall In Love
When Sunny Gets Blue
When You Wish Upon A Star
Whispering
Wild Flower
Windows
Witch Hunt
Wives And Lovers (Hey, Little Girl)
Woodchopper's Ball
Woodyn' You
The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise
Yes And No
Yesterday
Yesterdays
You Are The Sunshine Of My Life
You Are Too Beautiful
You Brought A New Kind Of Love To Me
You Don't Know What Love Is
You Took Advantage Of Me
You're Nobody 'til Somebody Loves You
Young At Heart

Please read.... I'm glad that Hal Leonard has seen fit to correct many keys and chord changes with this 6th edition. I'm also glad the typeset is consistent and clear. HOWEVER, the reason for such a low score is what HL professes in it's advertising. Here is the quote from Hal Leonard in regard to the consistency of the older editions verses this new "legal" one...

"You won't even notice the difference, other than that all of the notorious errors have been fixed: the covers and typeface look the same, the song list is nearly identical...."

How can the song list be "nearly identical" when in fact 121 songs from the previous edition are GONE? To further make the book confusing to consumers, and presumably in an effort to make the book "look" as full as the previous edition, 86 new, unrelated tunes have been added as padding to the table of contents list.

What makes this an issue of concern is that of the 121 tunes missing are well-known, critical tunes that WILL be called on at gigs. Apparently a few of the copyright owners didn't see fit to jump on board the HL band wagon. I would have been fine with this book if it hadn't been passed off as being the same as the previous edition, but with corrections and the old list in tact.

If you REALLY want the best of both worlds, you'll have to buy the new HL version, and then add the missing tunes from the old one to the HL one (it's plastic comb bound, so that task can easy be done at Kinko's for close to nothing). I suppose the only issue beyond this would be the conflicting of keys and song form for some tunes if others musicians at your gig still operate out of the old edition.

This has been a real mess trying to decode the Real Book bottom line. As much of a multi-million dollar corporation Hal Leonard is, they could have saved us the hassle by disclosing these VERY CRUCIAL discrepancies up front.

As an owner of the print versions of these books, and having scanned pages of my own copies to use them on my iPad on gigs, I'm more than familiar with how a good e-book should work for a musician.

Here's the good news:
- The type and music image is large, clear and easy to read.
- There's a real Table of Contents in the front: you find the tune, click the link and you're there.
- The page turns are fast (especially using the Kindle Reader on the iPad - I wouldn't bother to use these on a Kindle on a gig: not viewable enough for me.

Here's the bad news:Every page is followed by a copyright page. If a tune is 1 page long, it'll consist of the tune page and a copyright page; if it's a 2 page long tune (such as Eiderdown) it'll be 4 pages (2 tune pages, 2 copyright pages).

I suspect that when the first scanned these books for the Kindle, they saw that the tune would be small ('cause the copyright is at the bottom). So rather than shrink the copyright, they adjusted the scanning to push the copyright off to the next page.

This may not bother you - in which case you'll find that the Kindle versions are faithful e-book versions of the print editions. (I'll leave the arguments of comparing the legal 6th Editions of Real Books to their predecessors to others: the errors - or "corrections" - introduced in the 6th edition are well known among Real Book musicians.)

But you should download the samples first and decide if this will be a problem BEFORE buying the books.

PS--found this out 2 days after writing my review: the Copyright notice causes another problem. The Kindle Reader does a really good job breaking a book into two pages when you turn an iPad sideways (landscape mode). That should mean we'd get to see 2-page tunes with both pages displayed at once - not with these Real Books. Instead, the copyright notice fills the 2nd page.

Hal Leonard should be ashamed; and those guys are supposed to be well-respected.

Some reviewers of this and other books in ths "Real Book" series have commented that the contents of the books are not provided. However, if you check the Hal Leonard website, you will find the list of songs included in each volume. (You'll have to do an internet search because the website address can not be posted here.) I found this particularly helpful and I suspect others will, too. These are great volumes and they are LEGAL versions, so the songwriters actually receive royalties on their work, as they should.

This "Real Book 6th" edition is going to be the new standard. "The Real Book 5th edition" is difficult to find and it costs more than the legal version. Even though the song selection is very similar, it is different. The purpose of this is to replace all the 5th edition real books; it is not here to replicate it. The reason I give this four stars is because gigging musicians who need to replace a worn out 5th edition cannot go to this book as a replacement. (Even though most gigging musicians should know someone who sells the 5th edition)