Real Book
The Real Book can refer to any of a number of popular compilations of lead sheets for jazz tunes, but is generally used to refer to Volume 1 of an underground series of books transcribed and collated by students at Berklee College of Music during the 1970s.
Whether the book used is the older "illegal" edition or the newer, Hal Leonard "legal" edition, at least one edition of The Real Book has become an indispensable resource for all aspiring and current jazz musicians. Musicians find it convenient to work from "the book", because it is available in different editions to suit B♭, E♭, and C (concert-pitch) instruments, as well as a bass clef edition. A band leader can conveniently call out page numbers, since each edition is also paginated identically.
Read more about Real Book: History of The 'original' Real Book, History of The 'new' Real Book, Other Real Books
Famous quotes containing the words real and/or book:
“Most of our occupations are low comedy.... We must play our part duly, but as the part of a borrowed character. Of the mask and appearance we must not make a real essence, nor of what is foreign what is our very own.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“We criticize a man or a book most sharply when we sketch out their ideal.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)