texts

[bassist]

does anyone know of a useful and comprehensive textbook for learning jazz voiceleading and other theory, analogous to the billions out there for classical music? i have The Jazz Theory Book (Levine). any others? Levine still doesn't really present a method for learning to hear jazz... even just the basics.
just curious mostly... (i know that jazz is a primarily aural form... but it HAS been acadmic-asized in the last like 30 years.............)
thanks,
dan

[El Hombre]

If you run a search on this forum, you will find reference to a number of other books that have been mentioned in prior posts. Check Jakeweiser's, Ed Byrne's, or Phil Kelly's prior posts during your search of this forum and you will probably find reference to some additional texts.

However, the best tool for learning jazz voiceleading and theory for me has been listening and playing the music itself. Spend lots of time listening to different players (players on your instrument, players on other instruments, etc...). Spend time trying to transcribe the melody or chords of a tune from the recordings themselves or learn a tune from a reputable transcription of that tune. Eventually you start to absorb it and "get it." Jazz more so than any other style of music (IMHO) is based upon listening and playing what you hear rather than learning theory first and then applying what you have learned theoretically.

[bassist]

yep... i understand and do all that. i was just talking to one of my classical teachers about it... she asked me if there were any theory texts that she could read. she said that she had bought a few and found them to be vague and unclear. short of The Jazz Theory book, i didnt' know what to tell her. which is funny, because in my classes with her, we have used some AWESOME books, which have really outlined an entire method for learning. it would be great if there was something similar for jazz.
anyways... we jsut got into a conversation about why that would be, and i thought i'd post on here to see if there WERE indeed good texts.
thanks
dan

[pallemino]

I found one in the library at school called ' the big book of jazz harmony ' or something along those lines.

It has lots of info about common chord progressions and different ways to approach them with scales and chords. It also shows many examples of how various jazz greats used these harmonys to create thier own specific sounds.

Its not really deep on the theory side. I found after experimenting with it a bit and listening to the players refferenced many things began to make alot more sense. Specifically to do with ways of navigating the old 2-5-1 progressions.

[Jakeweiser]

There's a book called "Hearing the Changes" that was recommended to me a few times by a few people about hearing Jazz harmony and lines. I can't remember who wrote it, probably one of those big guys that write all those jazz books.

[Phil Kelly]

Have you checked out Dave Liebmans book on jazz harmony ? ( sorry ..forgot the name and too lazy to go out to the garage to look it up )

Also, there's a Bert Ligon book on jazz voice leading that might be of some help

Google both names for actual titles

[artmaus]

Jazz Harmony by Andy Jaffe is also a pretty good book. IT's published by Advance music.