If you could only have five jazz guitar books......

[JimK]

I lost all my jazz books in a fire a year ago. Three of those white book boxes full. I probably never could have studied them all. But I would like to repurchase a few of the important ones. But I can't remember any that I thought were most important except Berg's The Goal Note Method, which I just reordered from jazzbooks.com, and Levine's The Jazz Theory Book, of course.

Would you say what jazz instructional books you consider the most important, say under five, or even one?

Thanks.
Jim

[JimK]

I regret putting "guitar" in the title. I didn't mean to ask about guitar books, more, how to play jazz in general.

[Gerry]

Post by JimK
I regret putting "guitar" in the title. I didn't mean to ask about
guitar books, more, how to play jazz in general.

If your intent is to *avoid* guitar books I'd consider Bert Ligon's
"Connecting Chords with Linear Harmony" and "Comprehensive Technique
for Jazz Musicians".

I probably have at least another 5 or 7 for guitar, but if your intent
is to limit it to "jazz music" without reference to the instrument,
there you go. I might add Barry Harris's "The Barry Harris Workshop
Video" available through Howard Ree's Jazz Workshops webpage.

[JimK]

No, I didn't mean to exclude guitar books, I just didn't want to limit to them. Don't see many replies, I haven't been here for a while and wonder if it's still active....

Thanks.

Lignon is one of the ones I think of as the top few I had, so thank you for reminding me of that. With The Goal Note Method, those two may be my top two that I lost.


Jim

Post by Gerry

Post by JimK
I regret putting "guitar" in the title. I didn't mean to ask about
guitar books, more, how to play jazz in general.

If your intent is to *avoid* guitar books I'd consider Bert Ligon's
"Connecting Chords with Linear Harmony" and "Comprehensive Technique
for Jazz Musicians".
I probably have at least another 5 or 7 for guitar, but if your intent
is to limit it to "jazz music" without reference to the instrument,
there you go. I might add Barry Harris's "The Barry Harris Workshop
Video" available through Howard Ree's Jazz Workshops webpage.

[Gerry]

Post by JimK
No, I didn't mean to exclude guitar books, I just didn't want to limit
to them. Don't see many replies, I haven't been here for a while and
wonder if it's still active....

As you can see, it's not. It's all moved to Facebook and away from the
tenacious trolls.

I'm in the neighborhood occasionally engaged in other, also dying, newsgroups.

Post by JimK
Lignon is one of the ones I think of as the top few I had, so thank you
for reminding me of that. With The Goal Note Method, those two may be
my top two that I lost.

[JimK]

Post by JimK
No, I didn't mean to exclude guitar books, I just didn't want to limit
to them. Don't see many replies, I haven't been here for a while and
wonder if it's still active....

As you can see, it's not. It's all moved to Facebook and away from the
tenacious trolls.
I'm in the neighborhood occasionally engaged in other, also dying, newsgroups.

Post by JimK
Lignon is one of the ones I think of as the top few I had, so thank you
for reminding me of that. With The Goal Note Method, those two may be
my top two that I lost.

Thanks Gerry for the responses. Well, sorry to hear everyone's gone to Facebook. I'm not comfortable with Facebook.

Take care and be safe....

[JimK]

Post by JimK
No, I didn't mean to exclude guitar books, I just didn't want to limit
to them. Don't see many replies, I haven't been here for a while and
wonder if it's still active....

As you can see, it's not. It's all moved to Facebook and away from the
tenacious trolls.
I'm in the neighborhood occasionally engaged in other, also dying, newsgroups.

Post by JimK
Lignon is one of the ones I think of as the top few I had, so thank you
for reminding me of that. With The Goal Note Method, those two may be
my top two that I lost.

Well, I'm getting back into playing more. I might try to suffer facebook to reconnect, where on facebook?

[Gerry]

Post by JimK

Post by JimK
No, I didn't mean to exclude guitar books, I just didn't want to limit
to them. Don't see many replies, I haven't been here for a while and
wonder if it's still active....

As you can see, it's not. It's all moved to Facebook and away from the
tenacious trolls.
I'm in the neighborhood occasionally engaged in other, also dying, newsgroups.

Post by JimK
Ligon is one of the ones I think of as the top few I had, so thank you
for reminding me of that. With The Goal Note Method, those two may be
my top two that I lost.

Well, I'm getting back into playing more. I might try to suffer
facebook to reconnect, where on facebook?

Jazz Guitar Chat
Modern Jazz Guitar
Jazz Guitar
Jazz Guitar Forum
Chord-Melody Guitar
Jazz Guitar Confidential

And there are more. Just search for "jazz" or "guitar" or similar.

[SteveK]

Post by JimK
I regret putting "guitar" in the title. I didn't mean to ask about guitar books, more, how to play jazz in general.

If I lost my ridiculously large library, I would probably just buy these (and the Levine book you already mentioned.) The first is my would be to buy them from top-to-bottom.

Charlie Parker or Miles Omnibook. OK, get both omnibooks and maybe you don't need the others?
Hal Galper, "Forward Motion"
Randy Vincent, "Three-Note Voicings and Beyond"
Barry Greene, "Solo Jazz Guitar Method"
Gary Campbell "Expansions"
Joe Pass "Chord Solos"--pretty advanced and no tab

[SteveK]

Post by JimK
I regret putting "guitar" in the title. I didn't mean to ask about guitar books, more, how to play jazz in general.

If I lost my ridiculously large library, I would probably just buy these (and the Levine book you already mentioned.) I would buy them in-order from top-to-bottom.

Charlie Parker or Miles Omnibook. OK, get both omnibooks and maybe you don't need the other books?
Hal Galper, "Forward Motion"
Randy Vincent, "Three-Note Voicings and Beyond"
Barry Greene, "Solo Jazz Guitar Method"
Gary Campbell "Expansions"
Joe Pass "Chord Solos"--pretty advanced and no tab

[slowjammerukdog]

I’m already reaching into the flames to rescue Ted Greene’s Chord Chemistry.

[Joey Goldstein]

Post by JimK
I lost all my jazz books in a fire a year ago. Three of those white book boxes full. I probably never could have studied them all. But I would like to repurchase a few of the important ones. But I can't remember any that I thought were most important except Berg's The Goal Note Method, which I just reordered from jazzbooks.com, and Levine's The Jazz Theory Book, of course.
Would you say what jazz instructional books you consider the most important, say under five, or even one?
Thanks.
Jim

The Chord-Scale Theory and Jazz Harmony by Nettles and Graff.

How to Improvise by Hal Crook

Patterns For Jazz - Coker, et al

A Chromatic Approach To Jazz Melody And Harmony by David Liebman

Thesaurus Of Melodic Patterns - Slonimsky.

For guitar it'd be:

The Mickey Baker Book (whatever it's called - for beginners)

A Modern Method For Guitar (Vols 1-3) - William Leavitt

The Advancing Guitarist - Mick Goodrick

120 Exercises For Right Hand - Guiliani

One of the Joe Pass Books waqs real important for me.
I forget if it was the Joe Pass Method or the Joe Pass Style.
They're both probably great.

[James Seaberry]

Post by Joey Goldstein

Post by JimK
I lost all my jazz books in a fire a year ago. Three of those white book boxes full. I probably never could have studied them all. But I would like to repurchase a few of the important ones. But I can't remember any that I thought were most important except Berg's The Goal Note Method, which I just reordered from jazzbooks.com, and Levine's The Jazz Theory Book, of course.
Would you say what jazz instructional books you consider the most important, say under five, or even one?
Thanks.
Jim

The Chord-Scale Theory and Jazz Harmony by Nettles and Graff.
How to Improvise by Hal Crook
Patterns For Jazz - Coker, et al
A Chromatic Approach To Jazz Melody And Harmony by David Liebman
Thesaurus Of Melodic Patterns - Slonimsky.
The Mickey Baker Book (whatever it's called - for beginners)
A Modern Method For Guitar (Vols 1-3) - William Leavitt
The Advancing Guitarist - Mick Goodrick
120 Exercises For Right Hand - Guiliani
One of the Joe Pass Books waqs real important for me.
I forget if it was the Joe Pass Method or the Joe Pass Style.
They're both probably great.

Jonathan Kreisberg's "Offerings Of Note" maybe?

[Gerry]

Post by James Seaberry

On 2020-08-10 11:27 p.m., JimK wrote:> > I lost all my jazz books in a
fire a year ago. Three of those white book boxes full. I probably never
could have studied them all. But I would like to repurchase a few of
the important ones. But I can't remember any that I thought were most
important except Berg's The Goal Note Method, which I just reordered
from jazzbooks.com, and Levine's The Jazz Theory Book, of course.> >> >
Would you say what jazz instructional books you consider the most
important, say under five, or even one?> >> > Thanks.> > Jim> >
The Chord-Scale Theory and Jazz Harmony by Nettles and Graff.>> How to
Improvise by Hal Crook>> Patterns For Jazz - Coker, et al>> A Chromatic
Approach To Jazz Melody And Harmony by David Liebman>> Thesaurus Of
Melodic Patterns - Slonimsky.>> For guitar it'd be:>> The Mickey Baker
Book (whatever it's called - for beginners)>> A Modern Method For
Guitar (Vols 1-3) - William Leavitt>> The Advancing Guitarist - Mick
Goodrick>> 120 Exercises For Right Hand - Guiliani>> One of the Joe
Pass Books waqs real important for me.> I forget if it was the Joe Pass
Method or the Joe Pass Style.> They're both probably great.

Jonathan Kreisberg's "Offerings Of Note" maybe?

Is that good? I don't know it.

I find I always go back to Alan Kingstone's "Barry Harris For Guitar"
for some ideas.

[JimK]

Hi Joey, long time. I still have the Harmonic Analysis book from the community college in Canada. I had that book under my desk at work, so it was not lost, thank goodness.

thanks for the list.

Jim

Post by Joey Goldstein

Post by JimK
I lost all my jazz books in a fire a year ago. Three of those white book boxes full. I probably never could have studied them all. But I would like to repurchase a few of the important ones. But I can't remember any that I thought were most important except Berg's The Goal Note Method, which I just reordered from jazzbooks.com, and Levine's The Jazz Theory Book, of course.
Would you say what jazz instructional books you consider the most important, say under five, or even one?
Thanks.
Jim

The Chord-Scale Theory and Jazz Harmony by Nettles and Graff.
How to Improvise by Hal Crook
Patterns For Jazz - Coker, et al
A Chromatic Approach To Jazz Melody And Harmony by David Liebman
Thesaurus Of Melodic Patterns - Slonimsky.
The Mickey Baker Book (whatever it's called - for beginners)
A Modern Method For Guitar (Vols 1-3) - William Leavitt
The Advancing Guitarist - Mick Goodrick
120 Exercises For Right Hand - Guiliani
One of the Joe Pass Books waqs real important for me.
I forget if it was the Joe Pass Method or the Joe Pass Style.
They're both probably great.

[Joey Goldstein]

Hi Jim

You Modern Harmonic Progression by Al Michalek?
I used to recommend that book when it was still available.
Very simple.
Just what you need to get started to be able to play.

Post by JimK
Hi Joey, long time. I still have the Harmonic Analysis book from the community college in Canada. I had that book under my desk at work, so it was not lost, thank goodness.
thanks for the list.
Jim

Post by Joey Goldstein

Post by JimK
I lost all my jazz books in a fire a year ago. Three of those white book boxes full. I probably never could have studied them all. But I would like to repurchase a few of the important ones. But I can't remember any that I thought were most important except Berg's The Goal Note Method, which I just reordered from jazzbooks.com, and Levine's The Jazz Theory Book, of course.
Would you say what jazz instructional books you consider the most important, say under five, or even one?
Thanks.
Jim

The Chord-Scale Theory and Jazz Harmony by Nettles and Graff.
How to Improvise by Hal Crook
Patterns For Jazz - Coker, et al
A Chromatic Approach To Jazz Melody And Harmony by David Liebman
Thesaurus Of Melodic Patterns - Slonimsky.
The Mickey Baker Book (whatever it's called - for beginners)
A Modern Method For Guitar (Vols 1-3) - William Leavitt
The Advancing Guitarist - Mick Goodrick
120 Exercises For Right Hand - Guiliani
One of the Joe Pass Books waqs real important for me.
I forget if it was the Joe Pass Method or the Joe Pass Style.
They're both probably great.

[JimK]

Hi Joey, I got that book once on library loan from the community college in canada, and once on ebay. I copied it when I got it from the library, and am scanning it in. I'd like to share it once I finish. I don't know about copyright infringement etc.

From what I have seen, there is only one other real harmonic analysis book like that and it's not nearly as good.

Hopefully I can put it out there in the internet one of these days. Let me know if you'd like a copy and I'll try to finish scanning it.

[Joey Goldstein]

Post by JimK
Hi Joey, I got that book once on library loan from the community college in canada, and once on ebay. I copied it when I got it from the library, and am scanning it in. I'd like to share it once I finish. I don't know about copyright infringement etc.
From what I have seen, there is only one other real harmonic analysis book like that and it's not nearly as good.
Hopefully I can put it out there in the internet one of these days. Let me know if you'd like a copy and I'll try to finish scanning it.

I'm pretty sure that copying that book and distributing it to others
will be illegal, especially if you charge money.

There are many books out there now that cover the same territory,
usually in more detail.
Michalek's book was an extreme reduction of the materials, which is why
I liked it.
Just the most important facts/info for a young player to get started
playing tunes.

Nowadays, I recommend The Chord-Scale Theory and Jazz Harmony by Nettles
and Graff.

Mark Levine's theory book is also quite good in some ways.
And there's a few other books out there whose titles I forget at the moment.
There's one by a guy named Jaffe, I think.

[JimK]

Joey, shoot me an email, got something for ya.

***@gmail.com