Jazz Guitar Books and Book/CD Sets

The following artists are featured on GF's Jazz Guitar page. Scroll down the page or click their name to go directly to your favorite players:

Howard Alden
Lenny Breau
Barry Galbraith

Joe Pass
Bucky Pizzarelli

Martin Taylor
Robert Yelin

For our exclusive Jazz and Classical Books, CDs and Videos by Charlie Byrd, click here to go to Charlie Byrd's page.

Howard Alden –
Sweet and Lowdown

It's here! The long-awaited transcriptions of Howard Alden's incredible playing in Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown. The film's main character, fictitious jazz guitarist Emmett Ray, is considered to be the second only to Django Reinhardt.

The versatile Howard Alden actually played all of the solo acoustic guitar parts for the movie. This new book contains note-for-note transcriptions in both standard notation and tab of Howard's Django-esque interpretations and improvisations of classic 1930's standards, as well as a few originals. Includes the film's two unaccompanied solos: I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles and 12th Street Rag! These two very popular tracks were inexplicably omitted from the soundtrack CD, but can be heard on the film's video/DVD release.

Sweet and Lowdown sparked a renewal of interest in swing and gypsy jazz guitar. Howard's playing is superb throughout. Highly recommended.

E is for Emmett
12th Street Rag
3:00 AM Blues
I'll See You in My Dreams
I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles
It Don't Mean a Thing
(If it Ain't Got That Swing)

Just a Gigolo
Limehouse Blues
Old Fashioned Love
Shine
Sweet Georgia Brown
Unfaithful Woman
Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams

Music/TAB Book: $19.95

Lenny Breau –
Fingerstyle Jazz

Re-released, now with companion CD! Written by Lenny Breau and John Knowles, Section I is a Lenny Breau Guitar Clinic. Topics covered include "Harmonics At Work", "Three Against Two" and "Building The Blues", where you'll improvise lead lines and comp chords at the same time! Section II features 3 transcriptions from Lenny's LP's: Freight Train, Five O'Clock Bells, and Little Blues. Note: The CD features the entire Guitar Clinic from Section 1, but does NOT include Freight Train, Five O'Clock Bells or Little Blues. Recommended.

Music/TAB Book and CD Set: $22.95

Barry Galbraith Guitar Solos
Thirteen Standards, Volume 1

One of the most respected guitarists in jazz, the late Barry Galbraith produced an incredible body of work. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of Jim Lichens and friends, many of these great solos are now available in two new Book/CD sets. Galbraith was a master of harmony and chord substitution, and each of these chord melody solos is a joy to play. Volume 1 also includes over 20 pages of biographic articles and photos, as well as a Galbraith discography. Highly recommended.

For All We Know
Darn That Dream
My Funny Valentine
Alone Together
I Can't Get Started
As Time Goes By
Have You Met Miss Jones

Born to Be Blue
Embraceable You
You Go to My Head
In a Sentimental Mood
'Round Midnight
Good Morning Heartache

Music/TAB Book and CD Set: $19.95

Barry Galbraith Guitar Solos
Thirteen Standards, Volume 2

More great chord melody arrangements by Barry Galbraith. (See Volume 1 description above.) You'll learn chord harmony while working with these great melodies by Gershwin, Ellington, and others. Highly recommended.

A Certain Smile
Come Rain or Come Shine
Here's that Rainy Day
How About You?
I Cover the Waterfront
I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face
Imagination

Last Night When We
Were Young
Love Walked In
Our Love is Here to Stay
Satin Doll
Somebody Loves Me
Yesterdays

Music/TAB Book and CD Set: $17.95

The Joe Pass Collection

What a great time to be a guitarist! Remember the old days when we'd wear out our LPs trying to figure out chords/riffs? (Heck—remember LPs?) Now professional transcribers do it all for us! Here's a great book of note-for-note transcriptions for 12 incredible Joe Pass arrangements. Believe me—you want this book. Highly recommended.

Cheek To Cheek
I Got Rhythm
In A Sentimental Mood
Blues For Basie
The Song Is You
The Way You Look Tonight

Satin Doll
Dissonance #1
Pasta Blues
Happy Holiday Blues
Blues For Hank
Yardbird Suite

Music/TAB Book: $18.95

Joe Pass –
Virtuoso Standards

I've been having a blast playing Have you Met Miss Jones and Sweet Lorraine from this collection—so I know it's extremely accurate. Six of the tunes are transcribed from his very popular Virtuoso series of recordings. As above, if you enjoy Joe's playing, you want this book. Very highly recommended.

The Man I Love
I Can't Get Started
Sweet Lorraine
Have You Met Miss Jones

'Round Midnight
On Green Dolphin Street
In Your Own Sweet Way

Music/TAB Book: $21.95

Bucky Pizzarelli –
Master Jazz Guitar
Solo Collection

33 great chord melody arrangements from seven-string jazz legend Bucky Pizzarelli. Bucky's sense of harmony creates beautiful, rich solos. If you're a seven-string player, you've just got to have this book. (Music and TAB with two CDs!)

If you're on a six-string like I am, you can still benefit from these solos with a little extra work. Here's how: A seven-string guitar adds a low A string, tuned an octave below the 5th string A. Scan the music/tab for notes fretted on the 7th string. Now finger that same fret on the 5th string. You'll still have Bucky's clever lines and chord substitutions, but of course you won't have quite as much "bottom." I tried this method with Bucky's arrangement of I Don't Know How to Love Him — it translated into a very cool six-string solo.

Eleven of the tunes are arranged for six-string, and I've marked the with a "6S" in the list below. Also note that three of the solos are not on the CDs. I've marked these "no trk." Don't miss this one!

All This and Heaven Too
Autumn Nocturne
Bewitched
Bizarre (6S)
Blues Chromatique (6S)
Cry Me a River
Dancing in the Dark
Darn That Dream
Do Nothin' Till You Hear
From Me (no trk) (6S)
The End of a Love Affair
Guess I'll Go Back Home This Summer
Happy Bass Note Waltz (6S)
Haunted Heart (6S)
I Could Write a Book (no trk)
I Don't Know How to Love Him
I Had Picked You (6S)
If You Could See Me Now

Indy Annie (6S)
Jersey Bounce
Noynyo's Waltz (6S)
One Morning in May
Over and Over Blues (6S)
Red Beans and Rice (6S)
'Round Midnight
Smoke Eyes (6S)
Sophisticated Lady/Prelude
to a Kiss
Stompin' for Boz
Sweet Lorraine
Tears
All The Things You Are (no trk)
Warm Valley
What are You Doing the
Rest of Your Life?
You Must Believe in Spring

Music/TAB Book and 2 CDs: $34.95

Martin Taylor –
Jazz Guitar Artistry

A great book! Seven note-for-note transcriptions of Martin Taylor's solo incredible fingerstyle solos from his debut album Sketches - A Tribute to Art Tatum. Includes performance notes. Music Notation only—NO TAB. Very highly recommended.

All The Things You Are
Don't Get Around Much Anymore
I've Got The World On A String
It's Only A Paper Moon
Ol' Man River
Taking A Chance On Love
Time After Time

Music Notation only – No TAB Book: $16.95

Robert Yelin –
Solo Jazz Guitar Series

We're happy to offer this popular 5-part series of chord melody books, released as Jazz Standards, Jazz Favorites, Jazz Classics, Jazz Gems and Jazz Treasures.

Each book features 35 tunes, reharmonized for solo guitar by Robert Yelin. To quote the author, these books are "for guitarists who want to learn chord melody arrangements, new chords, when and how to use them . . . You'll also learn that just because a chord has a long name, it doesn't have to be difficult to play! "

A great feature of the series is that above each line of music and TAB you'll also find the composer's original melody, chords, and lyrics. This allows you to (A) see what chord changes Yelin has made and (B) have the option to play the original 'vanilla' chords if desired.

All five Music/TAB books are similar in style and quality, so you can make your selection based on the tunes featured in each book. (Professional guitarists may want the entire set to cover any possible client requests.)