I want a new Jazz book.

[CEB]

I’m in a rut. I thought I would pickup a new Jazz piano book. My Jazz book library is Mark Levine’s classic Jazz Piano book, some fake books, A Chord Voicing book and some old Hal Leonard Jazz sub genre books/CD sets.  
 

Anybody have anything good? Book of licks, a good course book,  drills to end a rut etc…. Any thing really. The Amazon reviews don’t helps. Every thing is 4.5 stars and I can’t buy them all.  
 

Thanks. 

[JoJoB3]

Mark Levine's book is more a jazz music theory book though (an excellent one at that).

Get all the Real books, go through them with the help of YouTube Premium (the only stream platform humans should subscribe to, espec artists) call up the original while reading down the chart.

Buy song, version, and solo transcriptions of artists/bands you like and work through em. No such thing as too slow and right.

[Michael Wright]

I have this.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1912292.Jazz_Keyboard_for_Pianists_and_Non_Pianists

other Jerry Coker books.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/158422.Jerry_Coker

 

[Docbop]

I like David Berkman's books  a lot of what he does is a modern look at the Barry Harris concept.   Claire Fisher's book is an oldie but a goodie. 

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1883217792/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Musicians-Guide-Creative-Practicing/dp/1883217482?ref_=ast_author_mpb

 

https://www.amazon.com/Harmonic-Exercises-Piano-Clare-Fischer/dp/B00FPP98UI/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1UR3Q7M86DAB4&keywords=claire+fisher+piano&qid=1701731840&s=books&sprefix=claire+fisher+piano%2Cstripbooks%2C123&sr=1-1

[Mark Schmieder]

If you really want to get academic and authentic, there's the probably-out-of-print Hal Leonard series by genre. I loaned the Stride book to my jazz quintet's keyboardist and he says he has found it extremely helpful and educational as well as inspirational and inspiring. I plan to get rid of mine, but have been holding them in case he wants to borrow more of them. I also loaned him the Swing book. I think there are about two dozen volumes in all. Very deeply researched with lots of exercises and examples.

 

I love Mark Levine's book, but it is more of a theory book. If you're less focused on technique based books than arrangements, you might try some of the alternative Real Book editions, all of which I own, that re-voice the songs significantly.

[16251]

BS&T original member/Professor at Berklee Fred Lipsius takes popular jazz tunes and writes an improvisation with a specific jazz rhythm. The comping is also notated so it has multi learning abilities and comes with a play along CD.

 

https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/en/product/reading-key-jazz-rhythms-piano-20106465.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&d=sem_ggl_{campaign_id}_&gclid=CjwKCAiAjrarBhAWEiwA2qWdCByCOXmrID8_KhijARjauUAXe4-E7TcSTbQ2HZn_Nq-ffcvxZDFBIRoCC8IQAvD_BwE

[ElmerJFudd]

Transcribing solos oneself is a good activity that doesn’t require a purchase (if you’re already paying for a streaming account).  BUT - for time sake there is a lot to wrap one’s head around with the transcribing portion already done.  Consider something from Hal Leonard’s Omni book series.  Even the ones on other instruments - Sax players, Guitar players as well as Pianists.  
 

https://www.halleonard.com/series/OMNIBK?dt=item#products

 

 

[Mark Schmieder]

Fred Lispius is a member of a jazz trio that my friend leads. Great guy and very humble. Good reminder about his book! Of course he uses no music at all at gigs.

[UnderGroundGr]

I have this one

 

https://www.amazon.com/Solo-Jazz-Piano-Linear-Approach/dp/0634007610

[David R]

I got a lot out of Bill Dobbins’ The Contemporary Jazz Pianist Vol. 4. It’s 24 etudes based on “All of Me” in the style of 24 different pianists. They’re great pieces to learn to really get inside the heads of the pianists in question. The Oscar Peterson variation has material straight from “Night Train” and the Keith Jarrett variation could be another movement from The Köln Concert.

[Irena]

Many great suggestions. For some spicy/outside fare, I'd add Dave Liebman's "A Chromatic Approach to Jazz Harmony and Melody"

[Theo Verelst]

I usually get to where I want by listening to the songs, I know my theory already, and find it more interesting to play and improvise. Jazz I think isn't classical where we learn a piece as a concert. It's challenging to go over great songs and performers and get those special elements (apart from production) that make Ellington, George Duke, Peterson, Metheny, Corea, etc but of course that's usually hard, and to my knowledge no books can teach that.

 

T

[Bobadohshe]

Metaphors for the Musician by Randy Halberstadt, if it's still in print.

 

You'll love it.

 

Sounds like a book on philosophy from the title, but it's not that. It's 80% concrete jazz piano brilliance. 

[ProfD]

On 12/5/2023 at 12:35 PM, Theo Verelst said:

I usually get to where I want by listening to the songs, I know my theory already....to my knowledge no books can teach that.

Being able to play by ear is a gift in itself.  Otherwise, books provide a guide in getting to places musically that may be inaccessible by ear.  

 

Some folks use cookbooks to prepare their favorite dishes while others can throw a bunch of ingredients together to create a 5-star meal.

 

BTW, most folks learn their theory from books too. 😉😎

[timwat]

For whatever it's worth, the meaningful stuff I learned from face-to-face with great players. Lessons, pieces of advice, this is why this sounds like this on this tune, try thinking about what you're playing this way, here let me show you this. Here's how this idea in theory works on this body of work, this is why this tune you love sounds unique. 

 

I have the Levine books, and the Mehegan books before them. And several chord and harmony books, and etc. I just didn't find them all that useful in the largest sense of moving forward as a player and as a working musician. 

 

Specifically, Johannes Wallman (who now teaches at U of W Madison) gave me a great foundation. Peter Horvath built on that for several years, and really showed me how a lot of that applied in real-life work. And Benny Green encouraged me in private ways at a crucial point.

 

 

[JohnnyB3]

 

[time4jazz]

Sher Music has a good collection of Jazz Method Books with some novel approaches. A couple of these books have been mentioned above. 

[Dave Number Four]

Hal Galper's Forward Motion has a central idea that I think is pretty interesting and missing from most of the jazz theory books I've read.

 

Maybe it didn't need to be a whole book, but still worth checking out.

[TommyBoy]

On 12/6/2023 at 12:09 PM, timwat said:

 

I have the Levine books, and the Mehegan books before them. And several chord and harmony books, and etc. I just didn't find them all that useful in the largest sense of moving forward as a player and as a working musician. 

 

 

That was my feeling as well, but I chalked it up to being an accordionist and never having been trained on jazz theory. I found the books difficult to get any useful knowledge from.

 

I have always felt that if I could find the right teacher and just concentrate on the right hand solos I could improve dramatically. All of my accordion lessons were in-person and it helps immensely.  YouTube instruction just isn't the same because it isn't interactive. I have a lot of questions.

[GovernorSilver]

On 12/6/2023 at 1:32 PM, Bobadohshe said:

Metaphors for the Musician by Randy Halberstadt, if it's still in print.

 

You'll love it.

 

Sounds like a book on philosophy from the title, but it's not that. It's 80% concrete jazz piano brilliance. 

 

Yep, still in print and PDF version on sale for $17.  Piano was not the author's first instrument, so the book is kind of a document of his decision to switch from trombone to piano as his major instrument, and the steps he took to go from zero to hero on the keys.  He was already in university when he made this decision.

 

https://www.shermusic.com/1883217121.php

 

The section on scale fingerings was really useful for kickstarting my keyboard learning in keys like F#.