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Origin of The Real Book
The Real Book contains a broad selection of standards and jazz classics, and indeed helped to define those terms. It has been a primary source of jazz tunes for many professional musicians. The original The Real Book is not legal, since the authors neither obtained copyright permission for the selected songs, nor paid royalties to the copyright owners. For the most part, the original authors did not make any money themselves from this book. Copies of The Real Book and individual songs from it are widespread. Most people obtain these copies from friends, under the counter purchases, music instructors or now, on the Internet.
The Real Book contains some transcriptual errors. Recordings from musicians who use The Real Book duplicate these errors. It is only recently that The New Real Book has begun to supplant it.
There are versions in Bb and Eb, and also a vocal version. There are several slightly different editions, with the Pacific Coast Edition and the Fifth Edition being most common. http://www.outsideshore.com/primer/primer/index.html
The Digital Real Book Needs You!
If you have access to a scanner and own a Real Book, please send me [realbook@hotmail.com] your scans. I will gladly post your name and URL under the "credits" section should you wish.