Cool Jazz: Jazz Piano Solos Series Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The Good:

I really like the arrangements in this book. Many books aimed at beginners will oversimplify the songs so that they don't sound that good when you play them. This book contains arrangements which can be played by intermediate level players and sound really good. I particularly like the Miles Davis songs. I would give this book five stars if my copy had held together better.

The Bad:

After only a few days of the book started to fall apart at the spine as a result of me trying to get it to open flat. This has not happened with any other book I have owned for such a short period of time. I was able to get Kinkos to comb-bind it for $2.99 and it is now opens flat.

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Product Description:
18 tunes from the '50s and '60s jazz cats who invented "cool," including: All Blues (Miles Davis, George Benson) * A Ballad (Gerry Mulligan, Stan Getz) * Con Alma (Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz) * Django (Modern Jazz Quartet, Vince Guaraldi) * Epistrophy (Thelonious Monk) * Killer Joe (Art Farmer, Benny Golson) * Nardis (Bill Evans, Joe Henderson) * So What (Miles Davis, Chet Baker) * Take Five (Dave Brubeck, George Benson) * and more.

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The Music of John Coltrane (Jazz Giants) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)While this book is an excellent collection of John Coltrane's compositions, I would not recommend buying it.For one thing, all of the music in the book has been transcribed from B flat (the key of tenor sax) to C.So, unless you like to instantaneously transcribe music as you playalong, or unless you just want to peck things out on a piano, this book isprobably not for you.Another disappointment is that the songs don'tinclude any of Coltrane's solos-- they merely give you the basic,introductory tune of the song, with some chord charts and repeat barsthrown in.Needless to say, I'm returning the book.

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Product Description:
This collection includes over 100 Coltrane classics: Bessie's Blues * Blue Train (Blue Trane) * Giant Steps * Impressions * Naima (Niema) * Some Other Blues * Venus * and more.

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The Vince Guaraldi Collection: Piano (Artist Transcriptions) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I bought this together with Vince Guaraldi - Greatest Hits, both containing a lot of songs I really wanted to play on the piano myself. That combination has allowed me to hear what Vince played while also reading through the music to see just what it is he played. Without exception, I've found the written music exactly true to what Vince recorded, including pick up notes, tricky min-maj-min progressions, arpeggios, diminished 9th chords, and what-not, and it has made some previously unapproachable passages much easier to understand. I've also been able to use the book as a sort of learning tool, getting a feel for what a jazz musician really tries to accomplish when he sits down and plays a piece. I would like to have seen some fingering indications included, and without those, I think some beginners will not be able to do much with this work. And personally, I didn't find the performance notations particularly useful ("laid back" doesn't really convey much to me), but like I said, I also purchased a CD of Vince's music, so I already have an idea of what sort of sound I want to achieve. Other than those two minor points, I can't find anything wrong with this edition. The binding is "lay flat" perfect bound, so the pages stay glued together but pull away from the spine, allowing this book to retain a crisp appearance and feel even after the pages are pulled open on a music stand. Guaraldi fans and aspiring jazz pianists will gain a lot from this work.

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Product Description:
Along with Dave Brubeck, Vince Guaraldi was one of the leading pianists to rise to prominence from the California Bay Area scene. Originally a Latin jazz musician, his recording of "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" is one of the best-selling jazz records of all time. Guaraldi later composed the beloved and timeless music for the Peanuts television specials. This folio spans Guaraldi's multi-faceted career, with note-for-note transcriptions of 9 terrific songs: Cast Your Fate to the Wind * Christmas Time Is Here * Greensleeves * Linus and Lucy * Manha De Carnaval * O Tannenbaum * Outra Vez * Samba De Orfeu * Star Song. Includes a biography and a discography.

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