The Jazz Theory Book

For many years, a lot of the "Jazz" educational material on the market was either antequated by the time of publication (remember going into music shops to find "modern" piano books that would teach you how to play stride version of Honeysuckle Rose and the Maple Leaf Rag?)... other books contained misleading information, or some of the better ones required technical reading skills (as well as hand spands and chops) that few Jazz masters themselves were known to possess (!) - - Finally, over the years, a few breakthroughs... two of the earliest that come to mind would include books by David Baker and John Mehegan. - - But most of us still wondered, "When is somebody going to write *the book* ?" - - ...finally someone did.

The publication of this book has launched Jazz education into the modern era... Very readable, well presented, modern, practical, never over academic or esoteric, and requiring the most minimal amount of reading of musical notation possible - - and written for a generation raised on Miles Davis and John Coltrane not Fats Waller and Louis Armstrong (as great as they were.)

Combining this book with the right listening, hands on playing (check out some of the Aebersold play-a-longs) and the right fake book... in a situation where a great Jazz teacher might not be so available or affordable, with the right attitude (check out Berliner's Thinking In Jazz) - - this book is your spiral bound musical conservatory, with advice relevent to players of all levels... From those basic intervals, scales, chord voicings and changes that all Jazz students learn in their first lessons, to the insight required to "put it all together" - - This is a great reference for everyone, from the begining student, the aspiring amateur trying to get into a program (or take his or her playing to the next level)... to the seasoned veteran who'd like to learn the language and reason and gain better insight into what he or she is playing and hearing in order to grow as a musician. Regardless, this is one resource that belongs in your music learning library !


Exceptional Theory Book for All Jazz Musicians   October 26, 2001
This is easily the best jazz theory resource I have ever seen. The book is exceptionally well written and is liberally sprinkled with numerous musical examples. The basics are covered here as well as some quite advanced topics.

Players of all instruments can benefit from the information presented in this book. Music reading ability in both treble and bass clefs is required.


an absolute must-have!!   October 25, 2001
 2 out of 4 found this review helpful

Have you ever heard a solo and wondered "Where did he get that?" ?
Well, this book tells you!! Great book, couldn't live without it.
Well structured, with a lot of information but it never sounds like he is talking "over your head."


Best Jazz Theory Book Ever!   April 22, 2001
 10 out of 11 found this review helpful

Concise and entertaining text; Clear analysis with excellent musical examples; The section on Chord/Scale applications alone is worth the price; Check out Levine's analysis of Coltrane changes: he makes this complex harmonic device comprehensible, and even manageable! This is the last theory book I'll ever need.


Oh Yeah!   December 2, 2000
 10 out of 45 found this review helpful

Jazz is a modern paradox of perplexity and consciouness, but who would have known that the ample force existent in Jazz would be attributed to the theory of the sun? The book, oh fellow funk, fusion, bebop cats is the culmination of all known theories, postulates, hypotheses, ideas, facts, falsities, ponderances, etc. Levine is definitely a intelligent cat, intent on disseminating the information of the mind in a simplistic, non-threatening, way to all the cats out there who love jazz, but don't maintain the intellectual ability of Sun Ra, Mingus, or other spacial wizards of time and space. The time has come for a jazz revolution. We must rise up behind our leader Cool Cat Levine, and explicitly and wholly follow his teachings. Jazz must become part of the human soul. And The Jazz theory Book must become the bible. There is only one savior, and his name is Levine.