Real Book
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (November 2018) |
| Author | Various |
|---|---|
| Subject | Jazz |
| Genre | Sheet music |
| Publisher | Bootleg |
Publication date | c.1974 |
| Pages | 512 |
| Followed by | Real Book, Volume II |
The Real Book is a compilation of lead sheets for jazz standards. It was created in the mid-1970s by two students at the Berklee College of Music. In its original form, it was an illegal publication made at local copy shops. It quickly became a standard reference for musicians. Two additional volumes were bootlegged in subsequent decades.
In 2004, Hal Leonard released legal versions of the three Real Book volumes.
Background
[edit]Jazz is largely an aural form where musicians learn music and improvise by ear. Much of the music was not expressly written down.[1]: 635 When a song was notated, it often employed the sort of shorthand notation familiar to continuo players in the Baroque era: a melody would be accompanied by numbers and symbols to indicate the harmony.[2][3] Jazz notation would typically include a song's melody and an outline of its chords. This shorthand notation became known as a "lead sheet".[4] By the 1940s, lead sheets were being collected into books and marketed to musicians in trade journals. Because a musician could credibly bluff their way through a song they did not know by playing off a lead sheet, these collections were called "fake books".[5]: 51
Early fake books were mainly used by professional bands who performed mostly standards, often more geared to society and dance bands rather than jazz ensembles, and devoted much space to show tunes, novelty tunes, traditional jazz, etc. The first three Real Book volumes, in contrast, contained many bebop and other jazz standards that were likely to be encountered on jazz gigs at the time. For this reason, the books were quickly adopted among jazz players in the 1970s, particularly on the East Coast of the United States.
The original Real Book volumes, like earlier fake books, were printed without securing copyright releases or paying royalties, and they were thus illegal. These unlicensed books were all sold through informal connections, such as for cash in the backs of music stores, and between musicians. In 2004, the Real Book material was acquired by the publisher Hal Leonard and licensed for legal sale. Many new volumes were eventually added to the series, and some of the errors in the original volumes were corrected. These books also inspired a similar series, offered by the Sher Music Co., called The New Real Book.
The Real Book is published in editions to suit both transposing (B♭, E♭, F) and non-transposing (C) instruments, as well as bass clef and voice editions ("low" and "high" voice, with lyrics). Each edition is identically paginated.
History
[edit]The Real Book was created by two Berklee College of Music students who remain anonymous. One was Pat Metheny's student and the other was in Gary Burton's studio. Burton's office had a filing cabinet full of precious lead sheets that would often be raided by curious students. The charts were for Burton's band, and they included tunes by Metheny, Steve Swallow, Chick Corea, Mike Gibbs, and Keith Jarrett. The two students created a music folio that combined their teachers' songs along with jazz standards.[6] Metheny recalls the students as "funny guys" who loved the joke of dubbing their fake book the Real Book.[5]: 150
Steve Swallow recalls that the students were interested in making money with their book, and they requested Swallow's permission to include some of his songs. He assented and asked Carla Bley and Steve Kuhn if they wanted to be included. They both contributed charts for the book, and Swallow briefly helped with editing.
Then I watched these guys finally get the book together. One of them had a beautiful manuscript that subsequently became classic—it's called the Real Book font, and it imitates with uncanny accuracy his hand. He went on to be a big-time music copyist in Hollywood... The irony is that shortly after the book was put out, some other people realized they could photocopy it and sell it themselves, and the two guys who did all the work and put the book together made a lot less money than they had hoped to because there were imitation Real Books out there almost immediately... The Real Book was imperfect; there were wrong changes throughout it, but it was tremendously more accurate than what existed previously. And also, it was a lot more legible; it was easy to read."[7]
Within weeks of its publication, the book had been copied hundreds of times. In the following years, it ballooned to the thousands.[6] The Real Book quickly became the most respected and utilized resource in the industry.[8][9]
Only the first volume is the original. The two following volumes of The Real Book were produced. Volume 2 is printed in characteristically "rough" handwriting and transcription, while the third volume is typeset on a computer. The transcriptions in The Real Book are unlicensed; no royalties are paid to the musicians whose songs appear in the book. Consequently, the book violates copyright and is therefore illegal. In the past, it was usually sold surreptitiously in local music stores, often hidden behind the counter for customers who asked. PDF editions of the book are often available illegally on P2P networks.
The name is a play on words from the common name for these types of song folios: "fake book", though it might have been influenced by the Boston alternative weekly newspaper, The Real Paper, started by writers of The Phoenix newspaper in Boston after a labor dispute.
A variety of dates have been attributed to the book. The April 1990 issue of Esquire featured The Real Book in the "Man at His Best" column by Mark Roman in an article called "Clef Notes". He stated, "I don't know a jazzman who hasn't owned, borrowed, or Xeroxed pages from a Real Book at least once in his career," and he quoted John F. Voigt, music librarian at Berklee. "The Real Book came out around 1971.[10] The only material available in print then was crap."
Another feature surfaced on April 10, 1994, in The New York Times article "Flying Below the Radar of Copyrights". Guitarist Bill Wurtzel was quoted as saying, "Everyone has one, but no one knows where they come from." The writer of the article, Michael Lydon, said, "I got mine in 1987 from a bassist who lives in Queens and who attended the Berklee School of Music in Boston; many in jazz circles suspect that students there reproduced the first copies of it in the mid-70s."[11]
Hal Leonard
[edit]In 2004, the music publisher Hal Leonard obtained the rights to most of the tunes contained in the original Real Book and published the first legal edition, calling it the Real Book Sixth Edition in tacit acknowledgment of the five previous illegal versions. The cover and binding are identical to the "old" Real Book, and the books employ a font similar to the handwritten style of the originals. One hundred and thirty-seven tunes were omitted from the 6th edition that were in the 5th, and 90 new tunes were added.[12]
Hal Leonard released The Real Book, Volume II, Second Edition in answer to the Real Book, Volume II. This was followed by The Real Book, Volume III, Second Edition (July 2006), The Real Book, Volume IV (December 2010), The Real Book, Volume V (June 2013), and The Real Book, Volume VI (June 2016). These books contain much of the same material as their counterparts, and in most cases charts from Hal Leonard books are compatible with the Real Book charts. In some cases, compatibility issues occur where corrections have been made to some of the mistakes in the 5th edition charts; in other cases, 6th edition charts reference changes on different recordings from those cited in the previous edition.
Selected editions
[edit]- The Real Book 2nd edition, Hal Leonard (publisher) (2004)
- The Real Book, 2nd edition, O. Angabe (publisher) (1980) OCLC 314155091
- The Real Book, Pacific edition, Real Book Press (1980) OCLC 9593108
- The Real Book, 6th edition (2007) OCLC 56846058, 189624769, 750243800 (Confusingly, there are also "European Edition" versions of the 6th edition (ISBN 9781844498413) that contain slightly differing contents.)
- The New Real Book, compiled & edited by Chuck Sher (Charles D. Sher; born 1947) & Sky Evergreen (aka Bob Bauer; né Robert E. Bauer; 1956–1997),[13] Sher Music (publisher) (1988)
- 1st Edition, C & vocal version OCLC 311905162
- Volume I
- Volume II
- Volume III ISBN 978-1-883217-03-7
Similar books
[edit]Some other music publishers also apply the term Real Book to their own publications.
- The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music publishes The AB Real Book.[14]
- Alfred Publishing Co. has several Real Books.[15]
- Sher Music Co. publishes The New Real Book, in 3 volumes.[16] The collection of tunes differs from that of the original Real Book. This edition offers some of the same songs, with different transcriptions and notation.
See also
[edit]- Ralph Patt, author of The Vanilla Book of 400 chord progressions for jazz standards
- Chas. H. Hansen Music Corp., pioneer publisher of legitimate fake books
References
[edit]- ^ Voigt, John, and Carolyn Ritt. "Printed Jazz Music: A Selected Bibliography." Black American Literature Forum, vol. 25, no. 3, 1991, pp. 633–53.
- ^ Williams, Peter, and David Ledbetter. "Continuo." Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press, 2001.
- ^ Schmitz, Hans-Peter, and Dominique-René de Lerma. "Baroque Music and Jazz", The Black Perspective in Music, vol. 7, no. 1, 1979. 78.
- ^ Witmer, Robert. "Lead sheet." Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press, 2003.
- ^ a b Kernfeld, Barry. The Story of Fake Books: Bootlegging Songs to Musicians. Scarecrow Press, 2006.
- ^ a b Metheny, Pat. "Preface", The Pat Metheny Real Book: C instruments. Hal Leonard, 2017.
- ^ "Conversations with Steve Swallow & John Scofield", NYU Steinhardt Jazz Studies. February 14, 2018.
- ^ Helgert, Lars. "Historians' Corner'", American Music, vol. 27, no. 3, 2009. 367.
- ^ Waters, Keith. "Modes, Scales, Functional Harmony, and Nonfunctional Harmony in the Compositions of Herbie Hancock." Journal of Music Theory, vol. 49, no. 2, 2005. 355.
- ^ Man At His Best: Clef Notes, by Mark B. Roman (born 1962), Esquire, April 1990, Vol. 113 ISSN 0194-9535
- ^ Pop Music; Flying Below The Radar Of Copyrights, Michael C. Lydon (born 1942), The New York Times, April 10, 1994
- ^ "The Real Book Listening Guide · Differences Between the 5th and 6th Editions". 9 May 2013. Archived from the original on 9 May 2013. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
- ^ "Sky Evergreen (Bob Bauer)", Obituaries. Bay Area Reporter, Volume 27, Number 26. June 26, 1997. 20.
- ^ "The AB Real Book". Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.
- ^ "Fake Books" (PDF). Alfred Music.
- ^ Sher Music official website, Chuck Sher (Charles D. Sher; born 1947) (proprietor)
Further Reading
[edit]- Berman, Jonah. "The Real Story: How Fake Books and Real Books Became, Well, Real Books," Jazz Education Guide 2004/2005 (special supplement to Jazz Times, circa December 2004 ), 34-40.
- Ferguson, Tom. "An Inside Look at the Real World of Fake Books," Jazz Educators Journal 31, Jazz Educators Convention issue (1989): 51, 53-56.
External links
[edit]- 99% Invisible podcast episode on the Berklee book from the 1970s