Jazz Guitar Standards Chord Melody Solos

Description
This is a spiral bound book with 44 arrangements and 2 CD's. Two outstanding arrangements are 'Misty' and 'Summertime', each by a different arranger. I like 'Misty' for the innovation and 'Summertime' for the feeling. These are not the only good arrangements in the book, just my personal favorites. The recordings are bare bones for the most part utilizing just a miked up jazz guitar but there are a few exceptions with bossa nova rhythm sections. The only slight negative I've found is there are a few tunes that were arranged, performed and/or recorded poorly. One arranger for example tries to put chords to every beat of the melody he tackles which is redundant sounding and too difficult for even him to pull off. Dogmatically sticking to one discipline when combining other techniques might help is ridiculous. Another example is the arrangement of 'It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing' which sounds more like a funeral dirge than the uptempo, fun tune it was meant to be. The chord/melody format is probably wrong for this tune. The majority of the arrangements are however professionally competent to exceptional. 'Misty'(Rick Stone-arranger) to repeat uses interesting,(not run of the mill), chord voicings that change as the song progresses, quick change chords, counterpoint, ascending diads, some linear lines and more. Very nicely done I think ! You wouldn't need to add much to this one.

Pages: 144
Year: 2004
Buy this book
RapidShare: (if you have a link please provide it in the comments section)