Favorite Real Book tune

[darial]

For those with copy of the real book or equivilent, what's your favorite standard for comping or imrovising?

Just looking for a few jems in amongst all that stuff.

[feloniuspunk]

My favorites:

Moment's Notice
Night in Tunisia
Foggy Day
A Child Is Born
Simone

[darial]

My favorites:

Moment's Notice
Night in Tunisia
Foggy Day
A Child Is Born
Simone
I'm not sure I've ever played foggy day. I'll have to give that one a try. Thanks.

[kingsleyd]

a few randomly chosen favorites of mine...

Stella By Starlight
Out of Nowhere
I'll Remember April
All The Things You Are
Well You Needn't

[Jo]

I've just started delving through the Real Books.

So far I like playing
Road Song (current fav)
Blue Bossa
Autumn Leaves and
All of Me
Plenty more classics to come in time though.

[kingsleyd]

I'm not sure I've ever played foggy day. I'll have to give that one a try. Thanks.
That was the tune my first (and only) jazz guitar teacher laid on me at my first lesson. Nice tune! Although nowadays I can't play it without thinking about this singer we call "Frank The Belter" who used to sing it -- VERY LOUDLY -- at the Tuesday Night Jazz Jam that I attend each week.

FTB's trademark was to finish EVERY tune on a heavily vibratoed (and very loud) #11. Ugh.

[kingsleyd]

Jo, one of these days (maybe in June, actually, as I'm performing at my old school in Middletown DE on 6/5) I'll come visit with my HB so we can jam on "Autumn Leaves"!

[DanHund]

Enlightenment, please?

[kingsleyd]

Enlightenment, please?
Enlightment as to what, Dan?

[Jo]

Oh "Real Books"
Here check this link (http://sheetmusicplus.com/store/smp_detail.html?sku=HL.240221&cart=3315917144155845&searchtitle=Sheet%20Music), that'll give you an idea. I don't know how many there are, I have I, II and III on cd.

Jo, one of these days (maybe in June, actually, as I'm performing at my old school in Middletown DE on 6/5) I'll come visit with my HB so we can jam on "Autumn Leaves"!Only if I get to sing it in French like Edith Piaf. (I'm a closet Edith Piaf fan too, right next to Donna Summer ;) )

[kingsleyd]

Oh "Real Books"
Here check this link (http://sheetmusicplus.com/store/smp_detail.html?sku=HL.240221&cart=3315917144155845&searchtitle=Sheet%20Music), that'll give you an idea. I don't know how many there are, I have I, II and III on cd.

Only if I get to sing it in French like Edith Piaf. (I'm a closet Edith Piaf fan too, right next to Donna Summer ;) )
Jo, you're so smart! Trivial sidebar: Tom, my co-worker, jazz guitar duet partner, bassist in the company rock band which I lead, and all around good friend, has a sister whose ex-husband wrote the original edition of the Real Book.

As for singing like Edith Piaf, I can handle that. Another denizen of the Tue Night Jazz Jam is a rather, um, innaresting woman named Darby who can and does sing in French, Italian, Portugese... (English too!) So bring it on!

[DanHund]

Thanks Jo.

That's what I kinda figured. A fake book of Jazz standards. Looks interesting.

[iwishihaveaprs]

was told by JO to paste this link...

http://forums.birdsandmoons.com/forum/showthread.php?p=123454#post123454

Check this out guys...loads of online fake books..

[Jo]

was told by JO to paste this link...

http://forums.birdsandmoons.com/forum/showthread.php?p=123454#post123454

Check this out guys...loads of online fake books..It's so nice when people are obdient. :D ..... I think that's a great link, thanks for posting it here (I didn't want to take away from your credit when you posted it in the other thread ;) ). There you go Dan, now you can download your own copy of the Real Books if you're interested.

[skijamma]

Don't really have a favorite to play yet. I'm kind of a newbie to playing jazz standards.

My jazz/improv teacher, Charlie Banacos, picks the tunes for me to learn.

SO far I've doen Autumn Leaves, Shadow of Your Smile and ALice in Wonderland.

[tone4days]

i like:


equinox,
footprints,
all blues,
goodbye porkpie hat,
alone together,
softly as in a summer sunrise

[Michael Rooney]

My favorites:

Moment's Notice
Night in Tunisia
Foggy Day
A Child Is Born
Simone
Moment's Notice is such a great song!! The Blue Train recording is one of my favorite songs of all times. Made a big Lee Morgan fan outta me.

[Tom Gross]

It's so nice when people are obdient. :D ..... I think that's a great link, thanks for posting it here (I didn't want to take away from your credit when you posted it in the other thread ;) ). There you go Dan, now you can download your own copy of the Real Books if you're interested.
Great link, Jo. Thanks (and thanks to your obedient servant as well).

I have a downloaded copy of the old illegal one, with each song a seperate file. Real handy for printing out just what you want.
Also has all the errors so you play the same changes as the old guys!

[Jo]

I have a downloaded copy of the old illegal one, with each song a seperate file. Real handy for printing out just what you want.
Also has all the errors so you play the same changes as the old guys!
I've got that one too, all jpg files of each individual song. Now Tom, what do you mean by 'all the errors'. If all the old guys were playing them wrong back then, does that really make it that they were playing them right, hence if they've been changed (updated) means we're really playing them wrong now? :)

[Tom Gross]

I've got that one too, all jpg files of each individual song. Now Tom, what do you mean by 'all the errors'. If all the old guys were playing them wrong back then, does that really make it that they were playing them right, hence if they've been changed (updated) means we're really playing them wrong now? :)
Deep philosophical question here.

If a guitarist plays a Bbm7b5 in a forest and noone's there to hear it, is it a mistake?

But semi-seriously, I've always wondered about that. The story is that a lot of younger cats get frowns at gigs when they play the "corrected" changes to a standard, while the old timers play it as in the old Real Book.

[Jo]

So what really are the corrections? Are they just chord changes so they are now correct theory, instead of what was originally played or .. what?

[Tom Gross]

So what really are the corrections? Are they just chord changes so they are now correct theory, instead of what was originally played or .. what?
The illegal Real Books had mistakes in them - chords in the changes that either sounded odd or were not what was heard on the original Bird, Duke, etc. recordings.
Since these common books were used by so many jazz musicians to learn songs, the changes in them became standard - that's how most folks play them.

The Sher versions were corrected, not for theory ("a D7b5#9 SHOULD go here!"), but for what were seen as true mistakes - the changes don't fit, every recording prior to the Real Book sounds like a different chord, etc. My understanding is that they did a good job.
It is considered desirable tho if one desires to be a working jazz musician to have available an old illegal Real book, however, because many of the songs are not in the Sher version and to be aware of some of the differences.

Discussion here:

http://forums.allaboutjazz.com/showthread.php?t=1373


BTW - I have hard copies of two different real old illegal Fake Books from the 50s (predate the Real Book). My Dad was way into jazz early, and he made copies of his for my sister and myself.

[Jo]

Thanks for the info Tom. It's always a pleasure to read your posts! :)