Customer Reviews

The Real Book - Volume II: Bass Clef Edition

5 star:		(2)
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I love this book. There are a lot of good tunes with great jazz melodies.

The book is thinner than Volume 1, but it also has some more modern tunes in it, like Havona by Weather Report, Farmer's Trust by Pat Metheny, Locomotion, Just the Way You Are (Billy Joel), Morning Dance (Spyro Gyra), Phase Dance (Metheny), Prisoner of Love, and Song for Bilbao (Metheny). I was thrilled to find a tune that the Manhattan Transfer recorded on their Mecca for Moderns CD called Until I Met You. I remember hunting for it years ago and couldn't find it.

I also compared the songs in the Real Book Volume 2 to "The New York Ninety", a list of tunes compiled by a gigging New York jazz musician. The New York Ninety represents the 90 tunes you need to know if you want to be ready for just about anything at a jazz gig in New York.

Most of the songs on the New York Ninety are from the Real Book, Volume 1, and the Chuck Sher The New Real Book series. However, the Real Book Volume 2 has three songs from the New York Ninety in it.

But in its defense, The Real Book Volume 2 also has a lot of songs I've seen in the Jamey Aebersold jazz instruction books. It also has a lot of songs I've heard played live a lot, such as Doxy, Mr. Magic, Morning Dance, Route 66, This Masquerade, Until I Met You, Yardbird Suite, Affirmation and Comin' Home Baby.

I also found that by simply reading through some of the tunes I don't know, I found some really interesting songs that I could see myself recommending to my band eventually.

So, there's enough here to justify the price of this book. I recommend it very highly to anyone who wants to play standards, sight-read some interesting tunes, and get a small but significant smattering of more contemporary music.

Beyond useful! It's great to have so many more songs, further to the excellent Volume 1. Even for non-jazzers, these volumes are more than worth their cost just for the bass-clef sight-reading practice that they provide.