Real Book

This article is about the publication. For the album by Steve Swallow, seeReal Book (album).

TheReal Bookis a musicians'fake book– a compilation oflead sheetsforjazz standards.Fake books had been around at least since the late 1920s, but their organization was haphazard, and their content did not always keep pace with contemporary musical styles. The Real Book was initially produced by two students at theBerklee College of Musicin the 1970s, as an updated fake book.It became so popular that the book was eventually "legitimized" by publisher Hal Leonard, and re-released in a series of editions and transpositions for various instruments.

Background

For years, musicians had been producing "lead sheets", so called because they contained only rough outlines of music pieces rather than fully notated scores. These lead sheets were collected together in volumes and sold to other musicians. These books gave the musician enough basic information – melody, chord symbols, structure, sometimes also lyrics – to "fake" their way through the tune, that is, to perform a credible version of a tune that they might not be familiar with, and for which they lacked a full score. Hence these collections became known as "fake books".

Early fake books were mainly used by professional bands who performed mostly standards, often more geared to society and dance bands rather thanjazz ensembles,and devoted much space toshow tunes,novelty tunes, traditional jazz, etc. The first threeReal Bookvolumes, in contrast, contained manybebopand 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 theEast Coast of the United States.

The originalReal Bookvolumes, like earlier fake books, were printed without securingcopyrightreleases or payingroyalties,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, theReal Bookmaterial was acquired by thepublisherHal Leonardand 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., calledThe New Real Book.

The Real Bookis published in editions to suit bothtransposing(B♭,E♭,F) and non-transposing (C) instruments, as well asbass clefand voice editions ( "low" and "high" voice, with lyrics). Each edition is identically paginated.

History

Compositions bySteve Swallow,Paul Bley,andChick Coreaare heavily represented inThe Real Bookwithjazz standardsand classic jazz compositions. Those were the songs that were played most in Boston in the early 1970s when the book was written.When Swallow was asked about the origin in February 2018, he said the book was written by students at Berklee who wanted to make money. They asked permission to use some of his songs, and he agreed. Swallow asked Bley andSteve Kuhnif they wanted some of their songs included, and they did; so they all contributed lead sheets. Swallow helped briefly 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 imitationReal Booksout there almost immediately...The Real Bookwas imperfect; there were wrongchangesthroughout it, but it was tremendously more accurate than what existed previously. And also, it was a lot more legible; it was easy to read. "

Only the first volume is the original. The two following volumes ofThe Real Bookwere produced. Volume 2 is printed in characteristically "rough" handwriting and transcription, while the third volume istypeseton a computer. The transcriptions inThe Real Bookare unlicensed; noroyaltiesare 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.PDFeditions of the book are often available illegally onP2Pnetworks.

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 ofThe Phoenixnewspaper in Boston after a labor dispute.

A variety of dates have been attributed to the book. The April 1990 issue ofEsquirefeaturedThe Real Bookin 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 aReal Bookat least once in his career, "and he quoted John F. Voigt, music librarian at Berklee."The Real Bookcame out around 1971.The only material available in print then was crap. "

Another feature surfaced on April 10, 1994, inThe New York Timesarticle "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."

Pat Methenyclaims that while teaching atBerklee College of Musicfrom 1973 to 1974, one of his guitar students and one ofGary Burton's vibraphone students (both of whom wish to remain anonymous) invented the idea of assembling the anthology that would formThe Real Book.Early editions included several compositions by Metheny as "Untitled Tune" as they had not yet been recorded and released.

Hal Leonard

In 2004, the music publisherHal Leonardobtained the rights to most of the tunes contained in the originalReal Bookand published the first legal edition, calling it theReal Book Sixth Editionin 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.

Hal Leonard releasedThe Real Book, Volume II, Second Editionin answer to theReal Book, Volume II.This was followed byThe Real Book, Volume III, Second Edition(July 2006),The Real Book, Volume IV(December 2010),The Real Book, Volume V(June 2013), andThe 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 theReal Bookcharts. 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

1. The Real Book2nd edition,Hal Leonard(publisher) (2004)

   Volume IIOCLC605194191,60841601

   Volume II, COCLC213853072

   Volume IIIOCLC795309725,787732883,317729978

   Volume III, E♭OCLC605194255

2. The Real Book,2nd edition, O. Angabe (publisher) (1980)OCLC314155091
3. The Real Book,Pacific edition, Real Book Press (1980)OCLC9593108
4. The Real Book,6th edition (2007)OCLC56846058,189624769,750243800(Confusingly, there are also "European Edition" versions of the 6th edition (ISBN9781844498413) that contain slightly differing contents.)

1. The New Real Book,compiled & edited by Chuck Sher (Charles D. Sher; born 1947) & Sky Evergreen(akaBob Bauer;néRobert E. Bauer; 1956–1997),Sher Music (publisher) (1988)

   1st Edition, C & vocal versionOCLC311905162

   Volume I

   Volume II

   Volume IIIISBN978-1-883217-03-7

Similar books

Some other music publishers also apply the termReal Bookto their own publications.

• TheAssociated Board of the Royal Schools of MusicpublishesThe AB Real Book.
• Alfred Publishing Co.has several Real Books.
• Sher Music Co. publishesThe New Real Book,in 3 volumes.The collection of tunes differs from that of the original Real Book. This edition offers some of the same songs, with different transcriptions andnotation.

See also

• Ralph Patt,author ofThe Vanilla Bookof 400 chord progressions for jazz standards
• Chas. H. Hansen Music Corp.,pioneer publisher of legitimatefake books

External links

• 99% Invisible podcast episodeon the Berklee book from the 1970s