Looking for histories of "the Real Book"

[moma...@gmu.edu]

Joe Finn's post about his almanac essay on "the real Book" got me
thinking. I'm an American historian for a living, interested in the
history of American music, and I've also played countless "real book
gigs," mostly as a bassist. It occurred to me that it'd be very
interesting to write a history of "the Real Book."

I would be delighted, and greatly indebted, if anyone on this list
could post any information they might have about the Real Book's
origins, and/or any recollections you might be willing to share about
how it's been used in your playing. I'm interested in what you might
call the cculture or the social history of music making

If you're willing, you could post it to the group or email me directly.

Thanks

[Willie K. Yee, MD]

See if you can contact Steve Swallow. He knows more than he should
about the subject.

[Jeff]

On 1 Feb 2006 05:02:20 -0800, moma...@gmu.edu wrote:

> ---8<--- It occurred to me that it'd be very

> interesting to write a history of "the Real Book."
>
> I would be delighted, and greatly indebted, if anyone on this list
> could post any information they might have about the Real Book's
> origins, and/or any recollections you might be willing to share about

> how it's been used in your playing.--->8---

I guess it's common knowledge that the Real Book was written by some
guys at Berklee School of Music, and the original was illegal in that
it did not get publishing agreements from the copyright holders.
However, for a bona fide article I would think you would want to
interview firsthand sources. The Wikipedia entry at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Book names names but I can't vouch
for its veracity.

Now they're pretty easy to find online in PDF formats.

If you've been using it for years you probably know all this so I hope
you don't mind that I recounted it.

I bought The Real Book by going into a music store in Towson, Md., as
a college freshman around 1975, and asking if they knew where I could
get one. They said, "Oh! That's illegal!" but I guess they figured
I wasn't trying to bust them and then had me come back the next day
and sold me a copy off the record. I don't know if the store itself
was selling them or if it was an employee doing a little business on
the side. I still use the same copy. It's remarkably durable for an
underground product.

--
Jeff
Don't put off until tomorrow
what you can put off until the day after tomorrow

[Joe Finn]

"Willie K. Yee, MD" <wk...@bestweb.net> wrote in message
news:43e0bbdc....@nntp.bestweb.net...

>
> See if you can contact Steve Swallow. He knows more than he should
> about the subject.

Also: Gary Burton, Pat Metheny, Mick Goodrick, Joey Goldstien, etc.

Even after 30 years most of the faculty staff and students are still around.
.....joe

--
Visit me on the web www.JoeFinn.net

[Winston Castro]

On Wed, 01 Feb 2006 11:49:02 -0500, Jeff <jeff....@cox.net> wrote:

>I bought The Real Book by going into a music store in Towson, Md., as
>a college freshman around 1975, and asking if they knew where I could
>get one. They said, "Oh! That's illegal!" but I guess they figured
>I wasn't trying to bust them and then had me come back the next day
>and sold me a copy off the record.

When I was going to Berklee around 1980, if you asked any of the
music stores in the immediate area, they would hook you up with one in
a similar fashion as yours did. Or else, point you in the right
direction to get one. Being fairly discreet about it.

Also, once a week, a guy would pull up with his car, and park off
the side streets near Berklee, and would sell 'real books' right from
his car trunk. Word would get out as to what time he would be there,
he usually stayed around for an hour or so.

______________________________________________
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it
will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
- James Madison

[Chickenhead]

I got mine in 1975 when I was 14 years old. I came down from high school in
Vermont and asked around at Berklee. My high school guitar teacher told me
about it and suggested I ask around at Berklee.

A student sent me to a copy shop about four blocks away on Boylston Street.
I asked at the copy shop and they said something like "yup, we've got 'em."
Twenty dollars later I was walking out of the copy shop with a black-bound
Real Book in my hot little hands. I think I still have most of it
somewhere, albeit in pieces and the black binder has long since disappeared.

<moma...@gmu.edu> wrote in message
news:1138798940....@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

[tomb...@jhu.edu]

I know one of the Berklee student copyists and authors, a saxophonist
currently living in Portland, OR. Send me an email.

[juru...@aol.com]

I got mine in 1975 when I was 14 years old.

---------------

I had photocopied pieces from here and there but couldn't find one
until getting to Springfield Mass in 1980. I bought one from the music
store in Agawam for $26 and got busy catching up. I think it's by far
the best instruction book I've ever owned. Even the mistakes are
valuable. I still have mine or most of it, but it's not the original. I
got mine mixed up with somebody else's once on a gig in the late
eighties.

Clif

[Tone]

> Send me an email.

Yeah I get the feeling that if these guys really wanted it publically
known they would have put their names in the front of the book ;)

[Kevin Van Sant]

On Wed, 1 Feb 2006 10:25:41 -0800, "Chickenhead"
<kurtWITHOUTTHES...@hoNOtmSPAMailTHANKS.com> wrote in
message <PN6dnftB7Mp...@comcast.com> :

> I think I still have most of it
>somewhere, albeit in pieces and the black binder has long since disappeared.

the Real Stack

_________________________________________
Kevin Van Sant
jazz guitar

http://www.kevinvansant.com
to buy my CDs, hear sound clips, see videos, and get more info.

Visit my new Instant Download Mp3 Store at:
http://www.onestopjazz.com/mp3-store.html

Alternate site for gig tape soundclips
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/kevinvansant_music.htm

[get...@gmail.com]

The Bumblebee Bookstore was on the corner of Boyleston at Berklee. I
bought mine in there the summer of 1972 or 3 while I took a summer
semester at Berklee. It was kept under the counter, so you had to ask
for it. That, like many of the other cool shops around there at the
time is gone. There was a great record shop on Mass Ave where I bought
innumerable great jazz cutouts. Man, I would go in that shop every day.
That's where I found the Tal Farlow Fuerst and Second sets. When I
first heard the name of Tal Farlow, I thought he was a cowboy!
Ken Willinger
http://homepage.mac.com/getken/guitar/

[moma...@gmu.edu]

This is very cool--thank you all. There's a guy, a musicologist, who's
done some interviewing on this--he interviewed Swallow and Metheny. I'm
still not sure exactly what i want to do with the subject, but it's
like anything else interesting--you get a nagging feeling, and you
explore it.

Mike

[unknowngu...@comcast.net]

The Bumblebee Bookstore...wow!

What a little great place that was. Aside from the fact that it was
run by a gorgeous Asian woman, they only had about 1000 books in the
place, they just all happened to be the right books. Mostly music,
dance, art and mysticism IIRC.

Sometimes when I'm lost in a Borders or B&N and I'm overwhelmed by the
vastness of those places I think about the BB and all the great books I
picked up there.

[Mike C.]

<moma...@gmu.edu> wrote in message
news:1138830811.4...@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...

I don't know if Metheny had anything to do with it. I know Swallow did. The
few Metheny tunes that made it into the book were so poorly done to be
unusable.

--
Mike C.
http://mikecrutcher.com
Teaching: http://findmeateacher.com/contact.php?id=1107

"As the light changed from red to green to yellow and back to red again, I
sat there thinking about life. Was it nothing more than a bunch of honking
and yelling? Sometimes it seemed that way."
- Jack Handey

[Joey Goldstein]

I believe it was first compiled by Berklee students Mitch Coodley and
Stu Balcomb. Circa 1974. Many of the charts came right out of Gary
Burton's file cabinet originally and then copied by C or B. Many were
transcribed by C and/or B. The original RB had some original tunes by C
and B too.

I was the 1st guy to sell them in Toronto. I made 20 copys at the U of T
library's Xerox machine and sold them to Humber College students.

--
Joey Goldstein
http://www.joeygoldstein.com
joegold AT sympatico DOT ca

[Joey Goldstein]

"Mike C." wrote:
>
> <moma...@gmu.edu> wrote in message
> news:1138830811.4...@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
> > This is very cool--thank you all. There's a guy, a musicologist, who's
> > done some interviewing on this--he interviewed Swallow and Metheny. I'm
> > still not sure exactly what i want to do with the subject, but it's
> > like anything else interesting--you get a nagging feeling, and you
> > explore it.
> >
> > Mike
> >
>
> I don't know if Metheny had anything to do with it. I know Swallow did. The
> few Metheny tunes that made it into the book were so poorly done to be
> unusable.

The original RB Metheny charts were copied off of Pat's own lead sheets,
the way I remember it.
The only Meth tune in the RB that was supsect, as I recall, was Exercise
#3. This is probably because the RB came out just before Pat's 1st
record, Bright Size Life came out and he probably hadn't finished
writing the arrangement for that tune that made it onto the album.

The charts for Bright Size Life, Unquity Road and Exercise #6 are dead
on. I know because I played these tunes in my lessons with Pat, as I
recall. But memory's funny thing.
There were a few other lead sheets Pat handed out for tunes that he
never recorded. I still remember the opening line from Farkle Flakes.

[glen]

shame on you Joey, and your piratical youth. 20 copies? was that the
limit of your nefarious ambition?

Imagine how differently your life could have turned out if you'd made
20 thousand copies.

you had it in your hands............and then you let it go.

; )

g

[Tom Walls]

In article <1138894148.5...@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>,
glen.m...@talk21.com says...

He'd probably still be sitting on 19 thousand copies.
--
Tom Walls
the guy at the Temple of Zeus

[jsd]

Hi,

I went to Berklee 1973-75 & 7975-80. In '73 the "fake" book I remember
was a 14" x 8.5" with 2 songs a page. It had a Pink cover with no name
on it. It was in a much inferior handwriting style to the common Real
Book. Lots of mistakes and hard to read. It had much the same tunes
though. I remember buying it at the KopyKop printing shop on Boylston
across from the Prudental Center near Copley Square if I remember. I
remember hearing that the "Real Book" was by a vibe player named Stu
Balcomb. Maybe he just sold or printed them, I really don't know.

Joe

In article <1138798940....@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,

[pmfan57]

I've seen a picture of Bill Evans at the piano with sheet music to one
of his tunes written in Real Book "font". I think the Bill Evans fake
book (legal) might be in that font too, but I'm not sure.

[moma...@gmu.edu]

Thank you all again--this is very interesting. I've also looked back at
some of the archived threads on the "real book" and they're
fascinating. The whole issue of the authority of the thing, whether or
not the changes are wrong--it's a rare instance of a specific community
creating its own "folklore." It's obviouslly a testament to the force
of Berklee and Berklee students in the jazz world, but also being made
by musicians, for musicians first it speaks to the needs of a wide
range of the community of music makers. It's a touchstone. That must be
part of why it "works" as well as it does, shortcomings and all.

[sunsee...@earthlink.net]

To my knowledge, the prototype(s) for the Real Book were Spaces "Jazz
Fakebook" Volumes I and II published by one Zircon Press circa 1976,
and Spaces Special Deluxe Edition c. '77 by Pasamala Press, New
Orleans. Both contain around 240 tunes. Vol I has (had) a blue cover
and horrendous manuscript, and is subtitled "Corrections included",
indicating a previous edition. SSDE followed and was of a better
quality, had a yellow cover and introduced the manuscript style we all
know and love interspersed with various manuscript styles. Both had the
same RB binding. The tunes are pretty much the same as the present,
that is to say, pre-Hal Leonard RB. I obtained them in a music store in
the Philly burbs. To the best of my memory, by fall '77 we guitar
majors were pointed to the present 500ish-page Real Book which was
later designated Vol I, which contained and added to the many exact
pages from SSDE. I still refer to these volumes because they will
sometimes contain the odd tune not in other fakebooks. If you want more
info you can email me at moon beams (one word) AT earth link (one
word) DOT net.
Hope this helps.
Skip L

[Joey Goldstein]

sunsee...@earthlink.net wrote:
>
> To my knowledge, the prototype(s) for the Real Book were Spaces "Jazz
> Fakebook" Volumes I and II published by one Zircon Press circa 1976,
> and Spaces Special Deluxe Edition c. '77 by Pasamala Press, New
> Orleans.

The Real Book was around Boston several years before that. It came out
in either '73 or '74.

> Both contain around 240 tunes. Vol I has (had) a blue cover
> and horrendous manuscript, and is subtitled "Corrections included",
> indicating a previous edition. SSDE followed and was of a better
> quality, had a yellow cover and introduced the manuscript style we all
> know and love interspersed with various manuscript styles. Both had the
> same RB binding. The tunes are pretty much the same as the present,
> that is to say, pre-Hal Leonard RB. I obtained them in a music store in
> the Philly burbs. To the best of my memory, by fall '77 we guitar
> majors were pointed to the present 500ish-page Real Book which was
> later designated Vol I, which contained and added to the many exact
> pages from SSDE. I still refer to these volumes because they will
> sometimes contain the odd tune not in other fakebooks. If you want more
> info you can email me at moon beams (one word) AT earth link (one
> word) DOT net.
> Hope this helps.
> Skip L

--

[sunsee...@earthlink.net]

Interesting. Then maybe the Spaces books were older than I was aware
of, and/or the deluxe edition "borrowed" it's material from the RB. The
fonts and layout of half the Spaces deluxe book are exactly the same as
the RB. The plot thickens I suppose.
Skip

[Joey Goldstein]

I may have been off by 1 year. The RB was on the scene by the time I
left Berklee which was the summer of 75.

--

[cl...@claymoore.com]

Joey Goldstein wrote:
> I may have been off by 1 year. The RB was on the scene by the time I
> left Berklee which was the summer of 75.

Hi Joey,

The first fakebook I had was Spaces, and I bought it in 1974 or maybe
early '75. It seems like The Real book was out already, but I couldn't
find a copy in Florida where I was at the time. Spaces had some great
tunes but the copy was not good - there was a lot of bad calligraphy
and the ink was often too faint for accurate reading. I can't vouch for
the changes and such, as I had only been playing about 2 or 2.5 years
and wasn't yet able to tell if the charts were right.

Clay Moore
http://www.claymoore.com

[Joey Goldstein]

I may have a vague recollection of the Spaces fake book too.
Did it have some of the tunes from the Coryell/McLaughlin album they did together?

[pmfan57]

The Spaces volumes I have are made up of much of the same sheet music
from the Real Book plus other stuff. They also have some volumes of
solos. One volume has a lot of "west coast" bop heads written in a
neat hand.

It's not related to the "spaces" album by Larry Coryell I don't think.

[Willie K. Yee, MD]

I have a fake book that we used in the '60's. It has no title page, no
publishing info, etc. The notation is hand written, though the titles
look like they were done on an IBM typewriter Oracle font. Each tune
has typed in "written by:" " recorded by" and an album number. Most
significantly, it is all bebop tunes, only a few standards like
Midnight Sun and Early Autumn.

I was sold unbound on 3 hole punched 81/2 by 11. I have no Idea if it
had any relation to the Real Books, other than that it was one of the
fake books that gave them their name.

On 3 Feb 2006 10:20:43 -0800, "pmfan57" <jwra...@aol.com> wrote:

>
>Joey Goldstein wrote:
>> "cl...@claymoore.com" wrote:
>> >
>> > Joey Goldstein wrote:
>> > > I may have been off by 1 year. The RB was on the scene by the time I
>> > > left Berklee which was the summer of 75.
>> >
>> > Hi Joey,
>> >
>> > The first fakebook I had was Spaces, and I bought it in 1974 or maybe
>> > early '75. It seems like The Real book was out already, but I couldn't

>> > find a copy in Florida where I was at the time. . . .

[Tone]

> I have a fake book that we used in the '60's. It has no title page, no
publishing info, etc. The notation is hand written, though the titles
look like they were done on an IBM typewriter Oracle font. Each tune
has typed in "written by:" " recorded by" and an album number. Most
significantly, it is all bebop tunes, only a few standards like
Midnight Sun and Early Autumn.

----------------------

Yeah I think I have one too, although mine says The BeBop Book on the
cover. It starts with A Dandy Line, Air Conditioning, Airegin, Algo
Bueno, A Night In Tunesia? I think mine was from the 80s though. It may
still be in circulation. No obvious connection to the realbook that I
can see.

[Tone]

> No obvious connection to the realbook that I can see.

Well one thing is similar... did you ever notice in the realbook that
blues almost always have 3 bars per line? That seems so un-intuitive to
me. This book, practically every tune is off the natural 4 bar phrase
by one bar... a pickup bar on the first line followed by 3 bars of the
first 4 bar phrase with the next line starting with the last bar of the
phrase. Its like they did it on purpose. 4 bars to each line but with
none synched with the harmonic rhythm of the tune. Like reading obscure
bop heads isn't enough of a challenge...

[Willie K. Yee, MD]

On 4 Feb 2006 19:09:47 -0800, "Tone" <a.ko...@computer.org> wrote:

>> I have a fake book that we used in the '60's.
>

>Yeah I think I have one too, although mine says The BeBop Book on the
>cover. It starts with A Dandy Line, Air Conditioning, Airegin, Algo
>Bueno, A Night In Tunesia? I think mine was from the 80s though. It may
>still be in circulation. No obvious connection to the realbook that I
>can see.
>

Yep, That's the one. I can testify that it existed in the 60's, since
that's when I got it.

[Bill Williams]

I started off with odd photocopied pages too (Realbook 1 style and page
numbering) - started acquiring them when I took some classes at
Goldsmith's College in London around 1980. I guess the teaching staff
there had the complete book but for me it was a question of
photocopying individual charts from other students and musicians, often
with handwritten corrections or suggestions, and putting them into a
folder in aphabetical order (interspersed with other charts). Still
have this folder and the now-yellowing and tattered charts which
accompanied me as I moved around different European and African
countries.

It was such a buzz many years later to finally acquire the complete
Volume 1 and later the Hal Leonard volumes.

Bill Wiliams

[Tom Walls]

In article <43e5fc65....@nntp.bestweb.net>, wk...@bestweb.net
says...

Back in the day, folks made their own fake books. When they got a lot of
tunes together sometimes they'd make copies and sell them. There were
countless fake books for sale. The "Real Book" was the big success
story.

[Gerry]

Right. It had a distribution "system". And more critically, it had a
few million additional "consumers" that hadn't existed 20 years before.
Most born of Elvis, the Beatles and at that point "coming of age" with
a hip new jazz scene born of Davis, Weather Report, et al. Suddenly
jazz was hip and there were a lot of pop/rock/blues players that wanted
to get on board.

My analysis. Sorry for the endless quotes.
--
What a day this has been, what a rare mood I'm in.

[Bill Williams]

Seems Barry Kernfeld (author of What to listen for in Jazz and other
works) may be writing a history:
http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/b/d/bdk4/PREHISTORY.pdf

Incidentally, on a related tack, a good resource for tracking down
Amazon and other examples of R Book heads is the Real Book Listening
Guide
http://www.realbooklisten.com/index.php

Bill Williams