The "Real Book" anyone got this jazz book?

[the second eye]

i'm starting to learn jazz and i found a awsome book in a second hand book shop which steve vai recomends it cost me $12 and i've learned heaps mostly about the II,V and -II, V progressions.
Anyway i've heard of this book which is refered to as "THE REAL BOOK", is that what it is really called or is it called something else, does anyone know where to get it?

[pawel]

I always thought that "Real Book" is a wordplay on the common name "Fake Book", basically referring to a book of transcribed standards...

[the second eye]

Yeah i think thats it , is there only one version or is there a whole bunch of different Real or Fake books if so which is the best one to get?

[pawel]

There is whole bunch of different ones I believe. Which one to get? That I don't know, a good idea would be to get in touch with some Jazzers around here - Jim Soloway for example.

[pawel]

On another note, I'm getting into the Jazz thing as well and I'm planning to shop for some good books...I've been using the Abersold book for now, but want something guitar-oriented. Any suggestions?

[JESTER700]

The original "real book" was actually illegal - many royalties went unpaid. Yet Temple U.'s college of music's Jazz program would deliver crates of them for sale - it was considered the best jazz fake book out. By the time I was a senior (1989) there was a new real book - some new tunes, some old ones missing, many rewrites. Opinions differed as to whether it was an improvement, but one thing WAS better - it was legal and royalties were paid. I think I've lost my original, but I still have the second edition around here somewhere...

[Drew]

I'd still be surpised if royalties are being paid... the real book i have looks to be hand bound (black spiral plasitc binde thing, think grade school) and photocopied, and was found under the main shelf where all the score books were to be found in my old local guitar store... ghetto as hell, but invaluable.

-D

[kennydoe]

There are a couple on ebay and I have the whole book (volumes 1, 2 and 3) as PDF (adobe acrobat) files. THey're about 25-30 MB each.

~K

[track7]

You can buy the official "real books" from shearer publishing i think it is...they come in volumes 1-3 and then there are special version like blues (not real blues but blues in the jazz sense) bossas etc and they are quite pricey.

I also know the other ones your talking about, they do look hand bound and illegal but i'm fairly sure they are not, and all the corect royalties are paid. They are great but not many people stock them. I've seen some actual fake books and they are far far worse made than the ones your talking about.

I also have the PDF thing which is cool, but can be more frustrating than a book...and turning up to gigs with a laptop and reading off it is a bit risky and pretentious lol

T