Others say...

"Very unprofesional display"
I read the reviews, I went through the site, I checked around... Seemed like a great book to get a hang of jazz theory...

I have one problem though...I can't read music. And NOWHERE in this whole reviews or description is it mentioned that this book has ONLY MUSICAL NOTATIONS.

I've bought a few books on music and have actually picked up quite a bit through tabs (My instrument happens to be the guitar.)

Now when I get to the returns section it says I have to ship it right back to the US of A... while all incoming packages are shipped by Amazon to a local courier who then delivers it to respective addresses.

What a sham! Overall all those who might be toying with the idea of picking up this book BEWARE. ITS MANDATORY TO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND NOTATIONS.

Otherwise well the money's down the drain... at least for me for now I guess...


"Highly recommended!"
I'm a lifetime guitar player and have recorded and toured with a jazz band for the last five years. I'm long past buying books on improving my playing; not that I think I'm that good I've just not found that many that seemed to be worth the time. Many offer ideas based on some gimmick such as learn only 5 scale patterns and you can be an expert at solos! My experience has taught me that there is no substitute for practice and playing with great musicians! However as my band has matured and we have become more classically jazz oriented there have been many occasions where I need a technical reference on jazz theory and just didn't have access to a good one. A friend of mine who is a professional musician mentioned this book almost in passing and called it "The Bible" on the subject. Well whatever you want to call it its great! The author lays it all out in a very straightforward and logical approach that anyone with an interest in jazz and some basic experience can understand. In addition, it's not just for guitar players. Highly recommended!

"Awesome"
There is not much more that I could say that has not been already written, but I want to do whatever I can to promote Mr. Levine's book. Truely Brilliant. Even non-jazz players will appreciate the huge amount of thought and work that must have gone into the creation of this book.

Buy It



"Eventually, you do have to ask, "What is jazz?""
Louis Armstrong said, "If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know." And while I agree that jazz is something that comes from within, I think eventually, it does require some analysis and thought. In my jazz education (piano), occasionally, like all musicians, I hit a wall where I can't progress very far or very fast. It's then that I like to turn to this book and try to gain some insight. Levine's strength is that he really knows jazz well, so he can call on a vast number of real jazz examples: riffs, tunes, progressions, chord substitutions, whatever, from actual jazz songs by famous jazz musicians. This is an invaluable resource in that respect. The spiral binding allows the reader/musician to put the book right on the music stand, and play right out of it while reading (though I like to read first and go to the piano later). The reason I didn't give this five stars is because I already purchased The Jazz Piano Book and a lot of the material in Jazz Theory overlaps. So, if you are a non-piano jazz musician, I recommend this book, but if you are a pianist, I think you can skip this book and stick with the Jazz Piano Book.

"Not for beginners"
This is an excellent book but not for beginners. I've been playing bass for over 20 years and found useful information right on the first chapters. I had two years of piano lessons and I'm having a tough time trying to play some of the more complex examples. You must be able to read treble clef and play some piano to take advantage of the material. I found this is a University level course, not your "Learn to solo in 24h" kind of book. I had to get a teacher to help me through this book. Definitely recommend.