Real Book - History of The 'original' Real Book

History of The 'original' Real Book

Bassist Steve Swallow and pianist Paul Bley are rumored to have been responsible for producing lead sheets for the book. However, this is a myth. Compositions by Swallow, Bley, and their friends (e.g., Chick Corea) are heavily represented in The Real Book alongside jazz standards and classic jazz compositions because those were the songs that were being played most by jazz musicians in the early 1970s, when the book was created. There is also speculation that composer Stu Balcomb was heavily involved in putting the book together, given his credit in Swallow's album "Real Book" for "cover graphics", and given the presence of several of his tunes in the book. The handwriting in the Real Book matches that in the liner notes for the album as well, suggesting that the whole book was written out by Swallow. Again, this is not accurate - but Swallow knew whom to call to get the picture for his album. Only the first volume is the original. The two following volumes of The Real Book were produced—volume 2 is printed in characteristically 'rough' handwriting and transcription, while the third volume is typeset on a computer.

The transcriptions in The Real Book are unlicensed, meaning that no royalties are paid to the artists 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. PDF editions of the book are now often available on P2P networks.

The name is most likely a play on words from the common name for these types of song folios: "fake book". It could however, have been influenced by the Boston alternative weekly newspaper, The Real Paper, launched by writers of Boston's The Phoenix after a labor dispute.

A variety of dates have been attributed to the book. The April 1990 issue of Esquire magazine featured The Real Book in the "Man At His Best" column by Mark Roman, in an article called "Clef Notes." He states, "I don't know a jazzman who hasn't owned, borrowed, or Xeroxed pages from a Real Book at least once in his career," and he quotes John Voigt, Berklee's music librarian, "The Real Book came out around 1971. The only material available in print then was crap." Another feature surfaced on April 10, 1994, in The New York Times article, "Flying Below the Radar of Copyrights." Manhattan guitarist Bill Wurtzel is quoted as saying, "Everyone has one, but no one knows where they come from." The writer of the article, Michael Lydon, says that "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-70's."

The most recent development has been the RealBookSoftware that contains all four transpositions (C, B♭, E♭, bass). This for-profit version allows musicians to sort or find charts by song title, artist, genre/style, key, or tempo and can be embedded with the original recordings for quick reference.

Music sequencing software Steinberg Cubase has "Real Book" as a choice in Page Mode Setting, meaning that the key signature would be displayed only once at the top of the page in the notated sheet music, as is the style in the fake book.