Klarinet Archive - Posting 000635.txt from 1999/10

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] What"s a fake book?
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 23:39:22 -0400

On Wed, 20 Oct 1999, Rien Stein wrote:

> To me the word "fake" always was related to non-realness, and that's
> what all of mydictionaries tell me, too. So what the heck is a "fake
> book" - a book printed on wall paper or something like that?

In old-time jazz slang, to "fake" was to improvise. The not-too-subtle
implication was that the player couldn't read the parts as written, so he
was "faking it." A fake book contains only the melody line plus the chord
symbols (sometimes not very accurate ones) of many songs, which allows a
player to improvise on those melodies.

Ed Lacy
el2@-----.edu

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