Best Jazz Theory Book

The Jazz Theory Book by Ted Levine.

It's got everything from the basics to Coltrane changes and beyond, plus it gives recording names and albums where you can hear each item demonstrated. Great reference to work your way through.

I think you mean mark, not ted. but yeah, that's the best one.

Another vote for that one.

That's a good book, but I'm a huge fan of The Jazz Language by Dan Haerle, I think you can get it from the Aebersold web site. It's got a lot of the same info as the Levine but presented in an incredibly concise and easy to digest way; it's very skinny and has all the essentials of theory without anything extraneous.

princeganon said:

I think you mean mark, not ted. but yeah, that's the best one.

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Oops...can you tell I haven't pulled it out in a while...

Goal Note Method, Shelton Berg

Not sure if this is considered a "theory" book but its more practical for improvising than the Levine book IMO. I have both and refer to Berg's book most often....by far.

David Baker
Jazz Improvisation

HeavyWeather77 said:

That's a good book, but I'm a huge fan of The Jazz Language by Dan Haerle, I think you can get it from the Aebersold web site. It's got a lot of the same info as the Levine but presented in an incredibly concise and easy to digest way; it's very skinny and has all the essentials of theory without anything extraneous.

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I use both The Jazz Language and The Jazz Theory Book as references, but they aren't really comparable. The Levine book covers topics TJL doesn't even touch on and covers the topics covered by TJL in much more detail. I wouldn't really call anything in Levine's book "extraneous", but Levine's book is defintely better when all you want is a quick reference on some chord/scale theory. Seems to me like everyone should have both.

Another interesting reference/theory book is Jazzology (Rawlins/Bahha). Complete and cheap!
IMHO

I like "Scales for jazz Improvasation" by Dan Haerle its an awesome practice book and the scale choice guide is easy to understand. Im going to get that other book that the other poster talks about I think . Skinny books with a lot of meat, easy to understand. The problem with this site is I learn about other things to buy.

Conrad Cork. "Harmony from Lego Bricks"

Conrad Cork. "Harmony from Lego Bricks" [balls, double post and can't get rid..apologies]

Most definitely, the two books most often mentioned in this thread. First off, the Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine and there are a couple of books by Dan Haerle in my library that are short, to the point and don't turn things into rocket science when they don't have to be!

If you can get yourself a copy in english of "La Partition Intérieure" by Jacques Siron you won't need ANY other book on jazz theory. The books starts with the simplest to some crazy stuff through its 650+ pages of carefully explained pieces of theory with carefully chosen examples and well thought questions.

Victor.

hsitz said:

I use both The Jazz Language and The Jazz Theory Book as references, but they aren't really comparable. The Levine book covers topics TJL doesn't even touch on and covers the topics covered by TJL in much more detail. I wouldn't really call anything in Levine's book "extraneous", but Levine's book is defintely better when all you want is a quick reference on some chord/scale theory. Seems to me like everyone should have both.

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That makes a lot of sense and I definitely see your point. Levine's book is much more detailed and in-depth, for sure, and is a great book to check out. I guess what I like about Haerle's book (aside from the fact that he was my teacher and a great, great guy) is how brilliantly it takes care of the essentials, which are so, so easy to slide over and not really take care of. I'd say it like this: check out Levine's book if you're on top of your game, for sure, but if the stuff in Haerle's book doesn't make sense to you, don't move on until it does.

"Clear Solutions For Jazz Improvisers" by Jerry Coker is EXCELLENT...has answers to a lot of commonly asked questions and is quite straightforward.

The Mark Levine book is great. But, another one deserves to be mentioned. I really enjoyed reading Jazz Tactics by Chase Sanborn. This book has some innovative, and very illustrative explanations for concepts in jazz. Check out for instance the "Hamburger notes". Really funny stuff, I never though I would find myself laughing loud while reading jazz therory. Yet, this book is a great learning resrouce. The accompanying DVD gives some great examples, and shows that the author is a serious trumpet player.