Review

Charles Beale
The AB Real Book (C Bass Clef Edition):

London, , United Kingdom
Publisher: The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music
Date of Publication: 2003
URL: http://www.abrsmpublishing.co.uk

211 page book

Primary Genre: Jazz Material - etude

The Associated Board provides quality jazz-education aids ideal for persons preparing for ABRSM jazz exams but just as accessible to anyone willing to explore and learn. The AB Real Book is available in the typical C Treble, C Bass, B-flat, and E-flat editions, each containing the 100 tunes in lead-sheet format with melody and chord symbols; a handful of the tunes also include lyrics.

The AB chose these tunes for less-experienced improvisers and provides a soloing “arrangement” that offers one to a dozen boxes inserted within selected chord-change measures. Each box includes typically four or five suggested common-tones shared across the succeeding bars: you can simply emphasize these tones until the next box appears, ignoring the chord changes also shown. Clearly this limits the soloist to the few tones, but the opportunity to improvise free of chord symbols will be welcomed by many. Because of this option, a lot of tunes that would not often be present in a fake book for beginning/intermediate improvisers can appear in this book. The last several pages outline the AB’s suggestions for exam-preparation of these tunes, including a handy breakdown of tune-titles according to skill-levels Grade 4-5 for clarinet, saxes, trumpet, and trombone. The text’s introduction emphasizes that nothing will replace the effectiveness of listening to jazz, learning phrasing and tunes by ear; and each lead sheet includes a brief historical profile and suggested listening reference.

The 211-page spiral-bound book easily stays open. The font is clear, though the note-justification setting is ultra-symmetrical and thus a bit unnatural in appearance. Occasionally specific rhythm-section detail is shown in smaller font. A tear-off panel on the back cover provides easy reference to an explanation of basic chord symbols, and a sample piano chord-voicing guide remains on the inside back cover. Written-out piano accompaniments for most of the tunes are also available for purchase from the AB web site; play-along compact discs are available for some of the tunes. Related exams, graded by difficulty, are available as free PDF downloads. This is an excellent fake book that can interconnect with many related resources. To learn more about The Associated Board’s series of education materials, visit www.abrsmpublishing.co.uk.

-Antonio J. García
Virginia Commonwealth University