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Rating: 
Summary: Not true jazz arrangments and certainly not for pros
Review: Although I cannot recommend this book, it is not totally without its merits. It is one of the few "true" fake books that includes the actual introductions to the standards; most fake books on the market contain only the 32-bar body of the song. The handwritten script is also very clean and neat and makes for easy reading. Unfortunately, although the songs included are Jazz Standards, the arrangments are not really jazz arrangments. The arranger has substituted chords in place of the traditionally published chords in an apparent effort to give a jazz flavor. Not only are the chords not really jazz chords (they are harmonically weak and seldom will you encounter a chord with more than a 7th extension) but in many cases are harmonically inferior to the "original" chord. The song selection is also rather pedestrian and most of the songs can be found in other books by the same publisher
Rating: 
Summary: The best jazz fake book I've seen
Review: I grew up with the original "3 song to a page" fake book, graduated to the original Real Book, the Unreal book, and the "New Real Book" 3 volume set. This one tops them all - complete songs (not just the choruses) with lyrics, and both the original chords and suggested reharmonizations (which I find are often not as good as the composers' original chords). Just as importantly, this is an incredible colection of songs, including many that I haven't found anywhere else. I've stopped dog-earing the pages of songs I like, as it got to the point where the corner of almost every page was turned down! I've just ordered the "C" version, after being sold on this book by the "Bb" version, which I stumbled across in a mainstream bookstore, since the "Bb" version puts many songs into key signatures with 4 or 5 sharps or flats - playable, but harder than they have to be.
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