Customer Reviews

The Swing Era - 1936-1947 (Jazz Bible Fake Books)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was impressed with the content and selections. As a student beginning to study the Swing genre of Jazz, I found the format easy to use and to follow. Many of the songs have the introductions and turn-arounds spelled out, which really add to the pleasure of learning these classics.

Here's the secret: Anywhere you would have played the dominant major first, third and fifth back when you were square before you played from this book, you will now play the major seventh. And I do mean anywhere. I'm not sure this approach is always correct, but it is interesting and dead right on in the case of a whole group of standards that never sounded right the way I had always seen them written. This harmonic devise spawns an interesting, different set of chord progessions. Now, when I play from other fake books (and I have played from a bunch) the music sounds bland.

I lead a dance band and was looking for a good, complete swing book for some charts. While this book doesn't have all the tunes I was looking for, it has an impressive selection of numbers that were recorded between 1936 and 1947. It has standards like In The Mood, All The Things You Are, Caravan, God Bless The Child, Heart and Soul, My Funny Valentine, Sentimental Journey, String Of Pearls, Take The 'A' Train, and Tuxedo Junction. It's not a complete book for a dance job but it's a vaulable reference for a working musician.

Mr. DuBoff did a great job of translating these classics into leadsheets that sound up to date while at the same time honor the original character of the song. It's so refreshing to learn songs from a book that is easy to use and accurate.

How come I can't give this 10 stars,that's what it deserves.At least for an old guy who loves the old standards.It is a good beginner to intermediate fake book,easy read,very little page turning to continue playing and not too hard chords.

If you're looking for a quick way to go from your long forgotten childhood piano to a reasonable facsimile of the Nordstrom's piano guy, this is definitely the book for you. I'm no musician but somehow this book lets me play one on TV, so to speak. I recommend "The Night we called it a Day."

Large print makes this Book especially easy to read, and the songs are really representative of the era. Bios on the Composers are included, and good indices by both Song Title and Composer are provided. A good Foreword by DuBoff explains how the Book is made "user friendly", and has turned this into something you will take pleasure in playing instead of learning just the "original notes". Good Book! If you like Jazz from 1936-1947 you will really like this set. 1 Star off for non-Spiral Binding: that's the only reason.

Mr. Duboff demonstrates a superior understanding of the mechanics of jazz. His ability to effectively transcribe standards accurately is a blessing for the world of jazz education. This book is a vital tool for the library of every aspiring student of jazz.

As a professional musician, I use fake books a lot. I have many other fake books that represent the jazz/standards era. However, this is definitely the best - the Jazz Bible Series. Here's why: they print only 1 song per page, the type is larger than most, and whenever possible they print only 4 bars per line - makes it easier to read than most. They also don't clutter up the song with too many alternate chords (only a few when they represent a famous performer's changes). I highly recommend this and the Jazz Bible - Jazz of the 50's and the Jazz Bible - Early Jazz and Ragtime. (Don't be put off by the title indicating ragtime - there are a lot of great standards in that volume too).

but I'm convinced that they don't ALL end on a major seventh chord. Of course, since this is jazz and what is on the page is more suggestion than law, I can live with it.