Being the sucker I am for materials, it was only a matter of time before I posted with book in hand.
Overall, a very good book. Some pluses and minuses:
- When you read the description, you think you'll get something with high fun factor, with a creative, non ordinary approach. As in - learn something, then put it to immediate use inside of a song. Not really. The book is pretty traditional - a flurry of exercises, and then just a stream of tunes at the end.
- The independence exercises are probably the best I have seen among the jazz books. Not too short to be incomplete, not too long to be overwhelming. It's a good, solid, complete independence tour.
- Many exercises have MP3s which are very helpful. But, being the knucklehead I am, I don't like when All the exercises are not recorded, which is the case here. Only a percentage of the material is on the CD.
- Good jazz fills examples. Very good.
- Lots and lots of reading exercises - more than I expected, much more than I personally want.
[being the lazy person I am.]
Comparing to two other books I have - the Artt Frank book and the Riley Bop book - I'd say:
- More complete than Frank
- More fun than Riley
Recommended.
