Jazz Music Book ?

Hey there! I'm a total noob, but I was hoping to be able to play jazz someday....
Are there any books out there I might consider?

I read music and arranged most of the songs I played. I like the Lyle Ritz’s Orange book for if you know how to read music or Abe Lagrimas’ book.

Benjamin

Glen Rose's books are cheap and effective, if you have the temperament for them. Here's what I mean by that: his methodology is to eschew theory and technical aspects, and just play groups of chord shapes which are the building blocks of jazz songs. Because of personal issues, I couldn't abide that. So I went off by myself and learned theory and the why's and wherefore's of jazz and figured out the best way to play. Guess what? After all that trouble, I came to the same solution that Glen had offered. I don't regret what I did; I had to do it my own way. However, if you can just do what Glen Rose advises, it will put you into a good place for playing jazz standards.

You've gotten solid recommendations. I use all of them, but if you're at the exploration stage, here's something to try without cost: search online for a list of American Standards and then find the tabs on Dr. Uke's website.

https://www.doctoruke.com/index.html

That will get your feet wet. Many of Dr. Uke's tabs utilize jazz voicings. That won't get you all the way "there," but it's an effective introduction to jazz chords shapes and typical progressions. He usually sticks to first position play.

Glenn Rose makes it all seem so easy and you'll work up and down the neck. I really appreciate his straightforward style:

https://www.glenrosejazz.com/jazzy-ukulele.html

That was my starting point. I treasure Lyle Ritz's orange book, but early on it was too challenging for me and I had to set it aside and defaulted to Dr. Uke. My hands required more time to build strength and get comfortable with the chord shapes. Time has passed and I'm able to work on the orange book without frustration.

So many approaches and so much fun to be had.

Cheers, Bluesy.

Ditto Glen Rose. Sarah Maisel and Craig Chee on Artistworks are also great.

If you’re interested I have a Jazz Standards Chord Melody book:

https://theukeroom.com/product/jazz-standards-chord-melody-book-by-matt-stead/

Features:

Doxy, Heart and Soul, Honeysuckle Rose, How High The Moon, I Got Rhythm, Love Letters, Mood Indigo, Nature Boy, On Green Dolphin Street, Round Midnight, Satin Doll, Solar, St Louis Blues, Stella By Starlight, Take The A Train

56 pages

ISBN: 978-1-5272-6958-3

Bluesy said:

You've gotten solid recommendations. I use all of them, but if you're at the exploration stage, here's something to try without cost: search online for a list of American Standards and then find the tabs on Dr. Uke's website.

https://www.doctoruke.com/index.html

That will get your feet wet. Many of Dr. Uke's tabs utilize jazz voicings. That won't get you all the way "there," but it's an effective introduction to jazz chords shapes and typical progressions. He usually sticks to first position play.

Cheers, Bluesy.

Click to expand...

While I have not checked out all of the Dr. Uke songs, I have not found any tabs on this site. Anything I have looked at were chord sheets; a useful starting point, but not what we think of as "tabs".

Glen's approach has its merits and will get one playing Part of the decision comes down to asking yourself what you want to do. If you are looking to play a few songs, that approach is fine. If you wish to develop and apply knowledge to other songs on your own, it is worth it to learn a bit of the nuts and bolts. To some degree it is a little like the adage about giving a man a fish vs teaching him how to fish. Both methods can work, but it depends on your desired end result.

ripock said:

Glen Rose's books are cheap and effective, if you have the temperament for them. Here's what I mean by that: his methodology is to eschew theory and technical aspects, and just play groups of chord shapes which are the building blocks of jazz songs. Because of personal issues, I couldn't abide that. So I went off by myself and learned theory and the why's and wherefore's of jazz and figured out the best way to play. Guess what? After all that trouble, I came to the same solution that Glen had offered. I don't regret what I did; I had to do it my own way. However, if you can just do what Glen Rose advises, it will put you into a good place for playing jazz standards.

Click to expand...

Sorry about that! Nomenclature issue here. I need to be more precise.

Bluesy.

Here are a couple of jazz books for ukulele:
- Duke on Uke: 18 Duke Ellington Compositions Arranged for Ukulele - Paul Hemmings (Low G tuning)
- Jazz Ukulele: Comping, Soloing, Chord Melodies - Abe Lagrimas Jr. (Goes deep into theory, technique, and exercises. Not many actual arrangements)

Also. check out the many Japanese books of instrumental arrangements for the ukulele. They are written in Japanese, but the song titles and chord names are in English, and the notation and tablature are standard, so you don't need to know Japanese to get a lot out of them. They include CDs of the arrangements played by the authors. They can be hard to find here in the U.S. and are not inexpensive but they're excellent resources for ukulele jazz arrangements.

Two that I own and like are "Modern Jazz (Solo Ukulele Instrumentals)" by Kiyoshi Kobayashi and "Ukulele Swing Jazz (Instrumental Collection)" - Author is ??? (Can't read Japanese!) There are several other books available by Kobayashi and other Japanese players and are highly recommended if you can find them.

I have the Abe Lagrimas book.

My verdict:
If you know a bit of non-uke-specific music theory, just skip this book and go straight to the songs you want to play.
If you don't, it gives a bit of insight that is good to know.

The nice thing about playing jazz on ukulele vs. guitar is that you can pretty much get away with playing chords from chord diagrams in 4/4 tempo with a feel, and get a jazzy sound.
Jazz chords on guitar would be a mess to play advanced chords on 6 strings, you would need to learn the theory to figure out which strings to ommit.
This is one on the things that turned me on to ukulele, advanced chords are not that difficult to learn after all.