Holiday Favorites: Vol. 78 - Jazz "Holiday" Classics - Bk/CD Great jazz musicians have long enjoyed playing and recording the great holiday classics. These songs have withstood the test of time and have gained widespread and timeless popularity for their ability to inspire a sense of warmth and nostalgia. Treat yourself to a priceless gift. Book includes lyrics. Includes:  We Three Kings, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, Let It Snow, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, Santa Claus Is Coming, Silent Night, Sleigh Ride, Winter Wonderland, I'll Be Home For Christmas, Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, Auld Lang Syne. Rhythm Section: Andy LaVerne (p); Lynn Seaton (b); Steve Davis (d) Vol. 125 - Christmas Carol Classics - Bk/CD A fantastic collection of 17 traditional carols - accompanied by a superb piano, bass, and drum trio - with a tasteful jazz flair. A refreshing approach to familiar, sentimental melodies and fun to play. Includes:  Auld Lang Syne, Away In A Manger, Deck The Halls, Greensleeves (What Child Is This?), God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Go Tell It On The Mountain, Hark The Herald Angels Sing, It Came Upon A Midnight Clear, Jingle Bells, Joy To The World, O Come All Ye Faithful, O Little Town Of Bethlehem, Silent Night, The First Noel, Up On The Housetop, We Three Kings, We Wish You A Merry Christmas. Rhythm Section: Steve Allee (p); Tyrone Wheeler (b); Jonathan Higgins (d) Our Newest Play-A-Longs: Vol. 124 - Brazilian Jazz - Bk/CD Discover the latest fresh, exciting trends in today's Brazilian Jazz scene. These 10 tracks, recorded in Brazil with some of its finest musicians, cover a variety of Brazilian styles, including Samba, Bossa Nova, Baiao, Afoxe, Partido-alto, and Maracatu. Book includes the usual transposed parts for all instruments plus bonus drum information, showing the basic beats of each style. Rhythm Section: Renato Vasconcellos (Electric Piano); Andre Vasconcellos or Romulo Duarte (Electric and Acoustic Bass); Leander Motta (Drums and Percussion) Vol. 126 - Randy Brecker A wonderful collection of 13 original jazz songs by the masterful artist/composer Randy Brecker, comprising a wide variety of modern and straight-ahead styles. Book includes the lead line and harmony parts transposed for all instruments. Includes: There's A Mingus Amonk Us, Shanghigh, Some Skunk Funk, Marble Sea, Thrifty Man, Incidentally, Free Fall, Hit Or Miss, The Sleaze Factor, You're In My Heart, Moontide, Dirty Dogs, Tokyo Freddie. Rhythm Section: Steve Allee (p); Bill Moring (b); Tim Horner (d) New To Improvising?  Where Do You Start? If you've never used the Jamey Aebersold Play-A-Long Series before, check out our Great Starting Places.  Volume #1 along with the Anyone Can Improvise DVD and Volume #24 work well together for a strong foundation.  Vol. 1 - "How To Play Jazz & Improvise" Product #V01DS Price $15.90 Beginning/Intermediate. Easy to understand and inspiring for all musicians wishing to explore the secrets of jazz improv. The CD includes Jamey playing exercises from the book. Hear the master clinician show you exactly how it's done! "Anyone Can Improvise!" DVD by Jamey Aebersold Product #JAD Price $19.95 Basic/intermediate. This nearly two-hour long DVD features Jamey at the piano explaining and demonstrating the fundamental techniques used by all great jazz improvisers. Topics covered include chord/scale relationships, keeping your place, patterns, the blues and pentatonic scales and their application, what and how to practice, articulation, memorizing songs, and much more. This DVD not only provides the technical information essential to getting started on improvisation but also serves as an overview of the entire creative process in terms that even a non-musician could understand. This DVD is closely aligned with Volume 1 "How To Play Jazz" and Volume 24 "Major and Minor." The visual, hands-on demonstration makes their concepts easier to grasp. Jamey even plays along with tracks from those two play-a-long volumes, showing proper application of scales to chords and essential practice techniques. Vol. 24 - "Major & Minor" Product #V24DS Price $19.95 For all instrumentalists and vocalists. CDs contain 30 extended tracks of recorded background. Great primer for learning basic skills in major and minor keys.  Special tracks have Jamey Aebersold playing various exercises and soloing on his saxophone with actual cuts from Volume 24 so you can hear and see how to use this set. All exercises and sax solos on the demo tracks are transcribed and written out in the book! Pick a different key each day/week/practice. NOTE FROM JAMEY: When I first heard "So What" on the Kind of Blue record I didn’t think anything was happening because I was used to hearing changes flying by and this seemed so tame by comparison. I quickly fell in love with Kind of Blue.  We at Indiana University started experimenting with modal tunes and trying to keep our place in those many 8 bar phrases.  At times, they made me feel like I was in the middle of a desert and couldn’t see for the life of me the beginning of the next 8 bar phrase!  When I began teaching privately for the first time in Seymour, Indiana I had a girl flute student who really had a great sound. One day I asked her to improvise on a D- Dorian scale and off she went.  I could tell she was playing what she heard in her mind and I was so surprised.  It really sounded natural.  So, I asked other students to play on a Dorian scale and they did fine.  That’s how I got started teaching jazz.  I think others at the time were using the blues as a vehicle but the students I was working with knew nothing about the blues; however they could keep their place in the 4 and 8 bar phrases, so I went ahead later and used that modal approach on my Volume 1 play-a-long ... and the rest is history.  And now we also have Volume 116, Modal Jazz.  - Jamey Aebersold