Real Book

The Real Book can refer to any of a number of popular jazz fake books, but is generally taken to refer to Volume 1 of a series transcribed and collated by students at Berklee College of Music during the 1970s.

Related Topics:
Jazz - Fake book - Berklee College of Music - 1970s

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bassist Steve Swallow and pianist Paul Bley were additionally responsible for producing lead sheets for the book. This might explain why compositions by Swallow, Bley and others of their musical circle make up a large part of The Real Book, alongside standard songs and classic jazz compositions. Three editions of the Real Book were produced (where Vols. 1 and 2 are printed in characteristically 'rough' handwriting and transcription, the third one is typeset on a computer).

Related Topics:
Steve Swallow - Paul Bley - Lead sheets - Standard songs

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Real Book has become the indispensable resource for all aspiring jazz musicians. Professional musicians, too, find it convenient to work from "the book", because it is available in different editions to suit Bb, Eb and concert-pitch instruments: a band leader can literally call out (page) numbers; experienced players can sightread any tunes they don't know.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The transcriptions in The Real Book are unlicensed - no royalties are paid to the artists whose songs appear in the book. As such the book is illegal; the copies of it used to be hard to find (this situation has been significantly ameliorated with the advent of the Internet). The New Real Book, also in 3 volumes, published by Sher Music, is a legal and somewhat more readily available modern alternative. The collection of tunes in it diverges from the original Real Book, but this edition offers some of the same songs, in new transcriptions and significantly better polygraphy.

Related Topics:
Royalties - Internet - Polygraphy

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Some other music publishers also apply the term "Real Book" to their own publications - for example, the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music publishes The AB Real Book.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 2005, the world's largest print music publisher, the Hal Leonard Corporation, obtained the rights to the Real Book tunes and published the first legal edition of the old classic, calling it the Real Book Sixth Edition in acknowledgment of the five previous illegal versions. The cover and spiral-binding are identical to the old ones, and the books even employ a font which is remarkably similar to the handwritten style of the originals. The other main improvements are that most of the numerous editing mistakes have been corrected, and, of course, everything is legal and the composers get paid. (In a very shrewd move, the books are priced at $25.00--ten dollars cheaper than the illegal ones--with the intention of driving the underground distributors out of business.)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~