Requiem

It is with great sadness that I have to announce that our world-class music engraver, Chuck Gee, has departed this world. Chuck was perhaps the greatest music engraver in the world, but more importantly, a superb human being---always looking on the positive side of things, always ready to be of service to the world and the music he loved so much. There will be a Celebration of his Life later this spring and we'll keep you informed about that so those of you in the Bay Area can attend if you wish. Meanwhile, let's take a page from Chuck's book and greet each day with fresh and sparkling eyes. Rest in peace, our brother - Chuck Sher

Four new jazz books to start 2014 with!

We've been busy here at Sher Music Co. - four new titles just released as follows:


1. "THE JAZZ HARMONY BOOK" by NY pianist David Berkman. An instant classic, The Jazz Harmony Book is a course in how to add chords to melodies, showing how a single melody can give rise to rich harmonic variations. Endorsed by Kenny Werner, Fred Hersch, Mark Levine, and others, this book fills a big gap in the jazz literature and will be used by generations of jazz musicians to learn both the basics and subtleties of Jazz Harmony. $32 list price - 206 pages, including two CDs.

2. "AN APPROACH TO COMPING: The Essentials" by NY pianist Jeb Patton. The most comprehensive book ever publishing on how to accompany jazz soloists with supportive, propulsive 'comping.' Written by the long-time pianist for The Heath Brothers, An Approach to Comping starts with basic comping patterns and then uses transcriptions of the masters—Horace Silver, Barry Harris, Bud Powell, etc.—to dig deeply into how jazz pianists make the rhythm section cook. Endorsed by Benny Green, Renee Rosnes, Monty Alexander, etc., 272 pages, plus 2 CDs, $34 list price.

3. "MINOR IS MAJOR!" by Dan Greenblatt is the most comprehensive book ever written on minor key harmony. Minor is Major! gives the reader hundreds of ways to negotiate through chord progressions in minor keys, including scale choices, 'hidden chords' within those scales, melodic patterns, intervals studies and more. Includes numerous transcriptions of great jazz improvisers such as Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Clifford Brown, McCoy Tyner, and Joe Henderson showing how they make use of the harmonic and melodic minor scales. Endorsed by George Cables, Jerry Bergonzi, etc. 150 pages, $28 list price.

4. "PLAYING FOR SINGERS" by Mike Greensill. Playing For Singers explores, in depth, the art of accompaniment for the jazz and cabaret pianist. It covers all the fundamentals of playing for vocalists, as it applies to the performance of the “Great American Songbook.” Topics covered include how to accompany singers as a solo pianist, what changes when bass and drums are added, the art of 'out of tempo' accompaniment, the accompanist as arranger/composer, copyist and musical director, and more. Endorsed by Michael Feinstein, Lee Musiker (Tony Bennett's pianist), Larry Dunlap, etc. 121 pages, including numerous musical examples. $25 list price.

I hope you find these as fun to go through as it was to create them. Enjoy! - Chuck Sher

"Line Games" for iPad and Kindle released!

Good news for all tablet users - our webmaster here at Sher Music Co., Bob Afifi, has converted Randy Vincent's brilliant look at solo line construction, "Line Games," into Epub and Mobi formats, used for iPad and Kindle devices respectively. Featuring instant re-formatting for any size device, and and an interactive Table of Contents that takes you right to the page you want, the e-formatted versions of Randy's third book for Sher Music Co. will be very welcome for musicians who want all their books to travel with them. I can just see all you jazz guitarists sitting by a picturesque lake somewhere practicing your Joe Pass and Jim Hall licks to your heart's content. In any case, all you have to do is go to http://www.shermusic.com/9781883217747.php and you can download the Epub, Mobi or PDF versions of "Line Games" via the easy-to-use Paypal payment system for only $24. It's the wave of the future. Enjoy! - Chuck Sher

Chuck's latest offering

Lately, I have been writing poetry, or more accurately, some poems have come into the world through me, from realms unknown. Quite an experience! I have never written a poem before in my life, yet they have just been showing up, one after another, and for that I am most grateful. I hope you find them half as enjoyable to read as I have found them soul-satisfying to write. They exist here - http://shermusic.com/poetry. More are being posted as time goes on, so check back periodically if you wish. Enjoy! - Chuck

"Line Games" goes digital!

I got my wife an iPad for Christmas a year ago and now am looking for an iWrench to be able pry her off of it! So I know the attraction of said device and related technology, and am happy to report that Randy Vincent's third book for Sher Music Co., "Line Games," is now available for digital download, exclusively (at this point in time) at http://www.shermusic.com. Enjoy! - Chuck Sher

Our landmark publication, "The Real 'Cool' Book" now available

I discovered jazz in the 1950s by putting my ear to my brother Norm's room as he and my uncle Ben practiced Chet Baker/Gerry Mulligan duets. So when I joined the Neal Buckley Octet a couple years ago, it lit up a part of my musical subconscious that had long been dormant. What I found was that the West Coast, "cool jazz" charts we played sounded even better than I remembered them. So when someone said I should put out "The Real 'Cool' Book" this project just popped into being---first as a conception and now as a reality. My heartfelt thanks goes out to my musical editor/transcriber Larry Dunlap and our music engraver Chuck Gee for dedication to excellence beyond the call of duty. A world-class job!

What we have done is to take 14 of the best octet songs from that era and transcribe them from the recordings so that this happy, swinging version of jazz could be played by any college-level, or even good high school ensemble. There are separate books for each player, all in one big binder. And on our website there will soon be transposed versions of each of the horn parts so that groups with different instrumentation can still play these songs.

Jazz used to be "the music of the people." Without cowtowing to blatant commercialism, I feel that this book can bring back some of that connection with audiences that jazz has lost over the years. Why? Because the music is upbeat and unapologetically tonal, with great melodies, wonderful counterpoint writing and arranging, and a swinging forward motion that won't quit. And the sheer beauty of five horns blending with other is unbeatable, in my experience.

My hope is that schools, jazz camps and just groups of jazz players will find "The Real 'Cool' Book" to be as advertised, "The most fun you can have for $11 apiece!" - Chuck Sher

Randy Vincent's LINE GAMES just released

I have been very fortunate to play music with guitarist Randy Vincent in several different settings over the last half dozen years or so. My observations are that he is talented, no question; great ears, no question; completely conversant with the jazz tradition to the point of being able to tell you which chord substitutions were played by which artist for innumerable tunes, etc. etc. But Randy's unique gift is an insatiable curiosity with how music works, what the underpinnings are of the music played by the jazz masters. This is what makes him a great teacher and, at this point in time, the greatest living author of jazz guitar books.

His third book, LINE GAMES, is further proof of that claim. I won't go into a description of what he covers here - that is spelled out clearly on our website. But I do believe that, among others things, Randy (like Sher Music Co. itself) was put on this earth to accomplish the goal of creating the best jazz books possible. It is a real honor to work with him.

One further source of pride for me with this book is that the mosaic guitar on the cover was created by my wonderful wife and soulmate, Sueann Bettison Sher. If they gave Grammys for the best music book cover of the year, Sueann and our graphic artist, Attila Nagy, should win first prize. I hope you all enjoy this labor of love - Chuck Sher

Two new Sher Music books!

Things are popping here at Sher Music. Today we released two very well-done books. If the subjects interest you, you can't do better.
1) Method for Chromatic Harmonica by Max De Aloe is the first book on the big harmonica to treat it as a legitimate instrument. Endorsed by Toots Thielemans, Hendrik Meurkens, Olivier Ker Ourio and others, the book is designed for all levels of players and any style of music. Like classical method books, Max takes the reader through all the keys and makes sure that you learn to have facility all over the instrument. Scale studies, arpeggio studies, rhythmic training, ear training, special harmonica techniques like bending and vibrato, and more. Plus a very well-done play-along CD with a good Italian rhythm section.

2) Afro-Peruvian Percussion Ensemble: From The Cajon to the Drum Set by Hector Morales. Berklee professor and drummer with Paquito d'Rivera says: "This book/DVD package is a goldmine of information on Peruvian music and percussion." The book itself contains charts written out for all the various instruments - cajon, congas, bongos, cowbell, etc. for all the main styles of Afro-Peruvian music, photos showing how to play them, and good historical background on the music. There are also charts for bass and guitar parts and for the drum set too. The best part of the package, to me, is the DVD. The instructional sections are beautifully filmed, and many of them slowed down to half time, as well as normal speed, to facilitate easy learning. And the ensemble tunes on the DVD are quite fun to watch and listen to. The band includes one of the world's greatest Latin bass players, Oscar Stagnaro, along with the author, Hector "Jereto" Ferreyra, Eric Kurimski and others.

We have two more new books slated for release by the end of the month, "The Real 'Cool' Book" and "Line Games" by Randy Vincent. Stay tuned! - Chuck Sher

The Digital Age

Thanks to my webmaster & buddy Bob Afifi, I am being dragged kicking and screaming into the Digital Age. Which is good news to all of you iPad and Kindle owners. In addition to the Digital Real Book and the 16 Sher Music books released in digital form last year, we now have the following items ready for downloading:
1. "Three-note Voicings and Beyond"
by Randy Vincent
http://www.shermusic.com/new/9781883217662.shtml

2. "Introduction to the Conga Drum" - DVD
by Michael Spiro
http://www.shermusic.com/new/242169.shtml

3. Play-Along CDs for The New Real Book: Vol. 1
in downloadable format
http://www.shermusic.com/new/0961470143-cd.shtml

Enjoy! - Chuck Sher

"The Latin Real Easy Book" just released!

After about two years of work, we have finally finished a great new fake book - "The Latin Real Easy Book." This is the fourth in our "Real Easy" series of fake books designed for classroom use, with educational material tailored for each tune as part of the chart. But this volume features exclusively great Latin jazz, salsa classics and Brazilian music. A wonderful feature is that we have audio files for every tune in the book on "The Latin Real Easy Book" page at shermusic.com so you can hear the songs. Some gorgeous music is there and I hope all you jazz fans out there will take the time to explore the songs we've presented.

It's hard to know what is more beautiful - Ivan Lins' scrumptious melodies, Tito Puente's slamming version of Chucho Valdes' "Triton," or Tito Rodriguez' soulful rendition of "Si Te Contara," just to name a few. All of the composers have contributed to making the world a better place because of their artistic creations--- and we hope that you will enjoy the book and pass along their message of positive energy by adding these tunes to your band's repertoire. Have fun! - Chuck Sher