[Dixielandjazz] Remembering Those Old Time Fake Books

[Steve barbone]

Larry Walton Entertainment <larrys.bands at charter.net> wrote (polite snip)
About Fake Books of yesteryear

> .  .  . When I say "trade" I mean
> sold owned and distributed by professionals to professionals and not the
> general public often "under the counter".  Many of you remember the old
> book number 1 that had about a thousand tunes, 2-3 to a page,  that you
> could go out and play gigs with.  It was in C and some years later came
> out in a dual Eb Bb version.  If you didn't have this book you didn't
> work because all the bands here used them.  I had to know the tunes
> because the books only existed in C. .  .

> I own one 
> Dixieland fake book that was purchased complete with all the cloak and
> dagger from a local music store that specializes in off the wall music
> and used recordings.  The guy actually took me to a back room, wanted to
> know who told me he had them and wanted cash. (Knock three times and
> whisper low that you and I were sent by Joe) It was like buying drugs or
> trading national secrets.  What a hoot.

Yes sir, it was worth your life to get one of those "trade" books. Very
secretive because we were all afraid that Guido from ASCAP would break our
legs if we were caught cheating them out of "their" money.

I got mine the same way, circa 1950 from the local drug pusher/thug who also
pushed fake books on the side.

One good thing about that "C" book. It taught me to read chords in C and
transpose them to Bb for the clarinet. Downside? Today, I read concert key
automatically transposing, but have trouble with charts in my key.

That's why I bought Sheik's fake books, and all the Great American Songbook
fake books I own today, in "C".

Cheers,
Steve