 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Julie
Date: 2005-04-23 02:09
sorry, I know it's not really clarinet related, but...
So, the pianist in my combo takes lessons from the big name player in the city.
Who happens to have a lot of connections.
The music he got for us for our combo are from a book called The Real Book. It looks like a big cheap recipe book. Spiral binding... big yellowish pages. Hand made notations... other things made with a type write... you know.
Anyway, these things are illegal. It's copyright infringement up the ass. This book has nearly ever big jazz song out there, notated with melody, bassline, and chord notations.
He told our alto sax player to go buy one. Apparently, there's a place somewhere on the west side of town. You go there, ask for a certain employee, then tell him that "(My pianist's teacher) sent you."
Then he goes into the back room of the store, pulls it out, you hand him $30 and then you walk away with your Real Book.
And so, our alto player is reading from the Eb Real Book, and now they're telling me to get the Bb one.
: ( Idk if I feel right about it. I need it, and I'm getting it... but Idk if I feel right.
Are they really illegal? Our pianist player is full of s***. I know that, at least. I've seen a Real Book advertised in the wwbw catalogue.
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Author: msloss
Date: 2005-04-23 02:46
Mostly urban legend. There was once a time that versions of different fake books out there were bootlegged. I've played club dates out of them. But, as GBK pointed out, this one is published by Hal Leonard now and they take copyright very seriously, so don't sweat it. The big royalties aren't in the redistribution of the printed music anyway. The illegal part here is if you play a gig for pay, play one of these tunes, and you don't pay the performance royalties on them.
Now go kick your pianist's butt -- he's probably been pocketing the extra 10 bucks from sending rubes to buy a published book out of the trunk of someone's car.
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Author: VermontJM
Date: 2005-04-23 03:30
So funny- can you see it?
You go into a dark alley... There's a man there with shades and a trenchcoat.
You say, "Charlie Parker flies at midnight."
He says, "What you lookin' for?"
"Bb Real Book."
He opens his trench coat and hanging on the lining are Real Books in every key. "Thirty bucks."
You pay the cash, stash it in your bookbag and slink out of the alley, watching for undercover agents that may have followed you in.
Ahhhh... the underground lives of musicians....
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Author: RodRubber
Date: 2005-04-23 03:41
Note...The legally published "sixth edition" is clearly not of the same cult status as the highly coveted "fifth edition" I actually bought my copy in a dark alley somewhere west of morteville.
Be careful if you ever want to play that tune "broadway." The fifth edition has it in the key Dexter plays it. The "sixth edition" is written in Eb. Maybe you could try both at the same time for a bi-tonal experience.
The Real Book tunes are a working repertoire for many gigs, and you should probably familiarize with a lot of them.
Some of the tunes in the book are virtually never played for some reason, they should cut them.
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Author: VermontJM
Date: 2005-04-23 03:45
RodRubber wrote:
"I actually bought my copy in a dark alley somewhere west of morteville."
I kind of wish that just ONCE I could say that I bought something (non-drugs) from a dark alley. Like Cuban reeds. LOL.
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Author: Julie
Date: 2005-04-23 04:05
....what is the difference between "fake book" and "real book"?
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Author: mkybrain
Date: 2005-04-23 05:58
For some reason our jazz band teacher got so pissed off when we asked that question.
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Author: William
Date: 2005-04-23 14:38
If your going to do wedding gigs, etc, you may want to also have a copy of "The Book", popular in the Chicago (USA) area. It features more useful tunes for those special occassions that are referrenced by catagory. Really (as in Real book), how many times is the father of the bride going to request, "Peaches En Regalia" or "Nostaligia in Times Square"? On the other hand, The Book contains only the tunes you really need to have ready--except the current "top ten".
Ultimately, it might be best to compile your own "fake" library of lead sheets and keep updating as your public demands. One of our local band leaders has done that, and every time he gets a request for a tune that is not in his book, he adds it for the next gig. And the combo is seldom "stumped" by the father of the bride (or any other relative, guest or party crasher).
He's even got both versions of "Roll'n Down the River" and "Proud Mary" :>)
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Author: Erdinet
Date: 2005-04-23 15:46
The other thing generally known outside jazz circles is that the Real Book is often incorrect. Those that did the transcribing made many mistakes in melodies and chord progressions. It is my understanding that the legal version by Hal Leonard has corrected many of these mistakes. But, still generations of jazz musicians have learned songs from these books and play them incorrectly to this day. A shame.... But, it shows the perils of not doing your own work by not going to the source to learn these songs. (That is not doing your own transcribing or even finding real life musicians who have either played them with the composer or the actual composers themselves.)
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2005-04-23 21:45
One thing that I have had mentioned to me by my long-time professional vocalist is that many of the tunes in the Hal Leonard version of the book have been put into different keys than are the norm (at least from her long-term views). My equally long time professional pianist (a life 802 member, has been arranging since the 1950's for various groups including Severson's Tonight Show orchestra) retorted that this was done to fit things on the page (i.e., so there are as few ledger lines above or below the staff as possible), so as to better fit each tune on one or two pages.
Sounds odd, but when Al laid the lead sheets out in "her keys" for some of them, each did tend to space out on the page a bit.
One good thing about purchasing the Leonard version is that you can easily get them to cover _all_ eventualities for _all_ players. (With the bought in the alley ones, this is never the case.) In addition to the treble clef C, Bb and Eb (this one is hard to come by for the "unofficial one"), there's also a C book in bass clef. For our combo, I went and bought two of each of the above, thereby having a use set and a backup (when one of them inevitably turns up missing for a spell).
As for removing certain tunes that are "never used", there's always someone out there who wants to hear them eventually. I played in a group that did a New Year's in the same spot for a number of years. Each year, we would have the same woman ask to hear "Green Eyes", and for five years in a row we never had it. Inevitably, when the leader finally bothered to get the tune and have it ready to be played, we learned that the woman had died (and her husband was there with family instead).
For bookings with my group, I have a policy of one free arrangement of any tune for each client, and additional ones at the list price as they desire. All they need give me is a lead sheet and any stylistic suggestions they may have, and we and the arrangers do the rest. I build it into the net price of the job, and that way they can get something "special" that they might not otherwise hear.
Out of the tunes that we have thus acquired, only two or three are ever likely to be played again. But, you never know just what someone will be looking for.
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-04-24 01:16
Hold on there!
This is the story with the "real books".
Yes, there is one out there published by Hal Leonard and that one is pretty lame. The rest of them are illegal but most if not all could care less.
Even one of the heads (and I'm talking top guy here) of one of the (if not the, I'm being nonspecific on purpose) copyright orgs uses the "illegal" real books for his own group
I know that cause my bro-in-law who is also a copyright attorney plays from it - he's in the group.
They don't perform it publically as that would just be stupid and risky, but when I visited their New York Mountain home I saw the blue real book and asked about it knowing that it was illegal and thinking "hmm, he has that??
The illegal real books include:
Bill Evans Fakebook
The Colorado Cookbook
Jazz LTD
The new real book I, II, III
The book - commercial
The Jazz Fakebook
The Real Book I, II, III
Library of Musicians Jazz
Hmm, wonder why I know so much about this?
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Author: Erdinet
Date: 2005-04-24 01:36
And don't forget the little 1/4 size Real Book! Its great in a pinch. Just don't expect to get the correct changes and melodies on the Monk tunes, especially "Well You Needn't". Man, did the butcher that one!
Also, there are much better sources for the Mingus tunes (More Than a Fakebook), which has many excellent Mingus songs with the correct melodies and changes. And the Pat Metheny Song Book, which is a great source for his music. (Incidently, check out his bulletin board, it has lots of great stuff on it and also a separate board for corrections and questions regarding the song book.) I believe there is an official Monk book as well.
The fact of the matter is that these illeagal Real Books are common and a good point of reference, but are legendarily innacurate as well. Use them at your own risk. As I stated before, seek out better sources and you will be rewarded many more times over than just sitting down and going thru one of these books.
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Author: Markael
Date: 2005-04-24 23:35
"But, it shows the perils of not doing your own work by not going to the source to learn these songs. "
This is true, and in an ideal world musicians would not take short cuts to learn music.
But, for anyone to do long gigs, or to do frequent gigs at one venue, it is necessary to learn and play an awful lot of music. Maintaining a diverse repertoire and keeping it fresh is a tremendous feat, in my opinion.
Even for those who have a strong sense of integrity, both ethically and artistically, it is a practical impossibility to buy original recordings or original arrangements of every tune you want to learn.
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The Clarinet Pages
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