The Ultimate Jazz Fake Book (Fake Books) C Edition [Plastic Comb]

Hal Leonard Corp. (Creator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1988

This must-own collection includes 635 songs spanning all jazz styles from more than 9 decades - from traditional to swing to modern jazz, carefully chosen chords with common practice chord substitutions, lyrics to accomodate vocalists, easy-to-read music, and composer and performer indexes. Songs include: Maple Leaf Rag * Basin Street Blues * A Night in Tunisia * Lullaby of Birdland * The Girl from Ipanema * Bag's Groove * I Can't Get Started * All the Things You Are * and many more!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Founded in 1947, Hal Leonard Corporation has become the worlds largest print music publisher, representing some of the greatest songwriters and artists of all time. We are proud to publish titles of interest to all musicians as well as music lovers, from songbooks and instructional titles to artist biographies and instrument price guides to books about the music industry and all the performing arts.

Product Details

Sample Music Notation [29kb PDF]

• Plastic Comb: 448 pages
• Publisher: Hal Leonard (October 1, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0881889792
• ISBN-13: 978-0881889796
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 9.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #327,075 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

98 of 102 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Tunes, but take the changes with a grain of salt !, December 24, 2000

By 

Eddie Landsberg "My 10th year as a reviewer !... (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Ultimate Jazz Fake Book (Fake Books) C Edition (Plastic Comb)

This book has a fantastic selection of tunes. Its almost like THE REAL BOOKS 1 & 2 COMBINED plus THE NEW REAL BOOK only with those annoying commercial fake book chord changes. That is my major criticism... Basically what they do is give you chord changes that I guess are meant to help out players who aren't at the level where they can really reharmonize things on the spot, and need something quasi hip to play. The problem with that though is that people shouldn't really buy a fake book like this to LEARN how to play Jazz. You get a book like THE JAZZ THEORY BOOK (by Mark Levine) etc. etc. then apply that knowlege to the fake books. I think using a book like this as "instructional sheet music" (as a reviewer will occasionally imply to have done) actually hurt the aspiring Jazz student because they deprive him or her of the skill gained through instruction or experience of identifying basic Jazz forms (key to building repoitoire and improvisational ability). You just learn how to play specific songs and arrangements note for note - - and never learn how to think of the changes functionally in order to be able to improvise or accompany at a jam session or playing in an ensemble. Its really important for you to be able to look at a tune, tell what type of beast it is, then tackle it from that perspective... Hence, this is my main (and strong) criticism about the book : A good and functional fake book gives the musician the melody, the root of the chord, and its fundamental quality (major, minor, dom, etc.) - - after that, they *should* decide for themselves what type of extensions to or not to use - - - It is the musicians job to decide whether that C7 chord should really be played diminished, dominant, flat nine, raised nine, thirteenth - - But a book such as this will often jump the gun, for example not only won't it say C7 or C7b9, it'll say E diminished or something like that... Technically speaking it might be correct, but it distracts the improviser from the main point. (*and let me also say that in many ways this book is better than some of the others and even some of the non-commercially available professional fake books have these "errors" so these complaints aren't leveled exclusively against this book !)

This problem aside, if you DO know your basic Jazz forms, or are in the process of mastering them, I HIGHLY reccomend this book (and even if you're not, it IS an incredible book to futz around with). ...It offers an enormous wealth of tunes and definitely beats carrying along a brief case of fake books. Just carry a pencil with you. Just to give you a feel.. here are a few of the tunes in it...

Airegin All Blues Along Came Betty Angel Eyes Bag's Groove Be-Bop Bernie's Tune Billie's Bounce Bluesette Body And Soul Boplicity (Be Bop Lives) Caldonia (What Makes Your Big Head So Hard?) The Champ Cherokee Donna Lee Doodlin Jeannine Killer Joe Mercy, Mercy, Mercy Milestones

Minor Swing Nica's Dream A Night In Tunisia Oleo Parker's Mood Saturday Night Fish Fry Scrapple From The Apple Senor Blues Sister Sadie Song For My Father Sugar Twisted Walkin' Work Song

In summary, this is an excellent resource, just have a pencil in hand ! (In regard to the print, there are ways to deal with that problem. I'm glad I can fit it in my case !)

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars what you'd expect, October 28, 1999

By 

John J. Shibley "johnzero" (East Coast, North America) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Ultimate Jazz Fake Book (Fake Books) C Edition (Plastic Comb)

both the reviews above are accurate. there are some troublesome formatting issues with this book which lead it to be more useful for study and practice than for performance. and there are some tunes that, shall we say, stretch the idea of jazz (shake, rattle and roll?) . but that seems par for the course for a fake book to me. i liked the breadth of the collection, and have spent too many pleasant nights just browsing and playing things. if you're just starting to do jazz, it's a nice place to begin. also - guitarists - if you're looking to expand your chordal vocabulary, this book can be a fun way to do it.

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Will give the musician a headache-more ways than one, July 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Ultimate Jazz Fake Book (Fake Books) C Edition (Plastic Comb)

This book has plenty of tunes,but presents them very poorly. The small print of the tunes and the placement of two on a page makes reading very testing for a musician. Also the chord changes on some tunes,the bebop tunes in particular,are wrong. This book is good for the casual player,but one who is looking for decent representation of the music should look into other sources.