{"id":56627,"date":"2019-03-07T15:36:10","date_gmt":"2019-03-07T20:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/?p=56627"},"modified":"2024-08-07T22:23:03","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T02:23:03","slug":"the-charlie-parker-omnibook-volume-2-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/the-charlie-parker-omnibook-volume-2-review\/","title":{"rendered":"The Charlie Parker Omnibook Volume 2 Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

*I posted all the recordings I could find on Youtube that go with this transcription book at the bottom of this review………Enjoy!<\/em><\/p>\n

Today, I am excited to be reviewing the Charlie Parker Omnibook Volume 2<\/strong> that has just been released by Hal Leonard.\u00a0 This great book of transcriptions was created by Chris “Doc” Stewart who also transcribed the Sonny Rollins Omnibook<\/a>\u00a0 and the Cannonball Adderley Omnibook<\/a> that I reviewed earlier last year.\u00a0 Hal Leonard was kind enough to send me the Charlie Parker Omnibook Volume 2 in Eb and Bb to review here on the site.<\/p>\n

Before I get into the book, let me just say that Charlie Parker has had a huge impact on me as a sax player.\u00a0 When I was in junior high school,\u00a0 I was introduced to the saxophone playing of Charlie “Bird” Parker by my sax teacher. \u00a0It was 9th grade and up to that point all I had listened to was Spyro Gyra, Chuck Mangione, Dave Sanborn and the Yellowjackets. \u00a0My saxophone teacher told me that if I wanted to be good at jazz then I had to get the \u201cOmnibook\u201d and check out Charlie Parker.<\/p>\n

I immediately went to the local music store and bought the Charlie Parker Omnibook and started working on it. \u00a0I have to admit that these solos were extremely hard and frustrating for my 9th grade brain to handle. \u00a0The hardest thing for me to figure out (besides all the fast notes and hard rhythms…..) was why Parker would play a certain lick or phrase over a specific chord. \u00a0There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to it in my young mind. \u00a0I was learning all my chords from \u201cPatterns for Jazz\u201d by Jerry Coker and was learning what notes sounded good over what chords but when I looked at a Charlie Parker solo, I had trouble seeing how he was using these same notes.\u00a0 It just seemed like he was playing whatever the heck he wanted to and it sounded great.\u00a0 That’s what I wanted to do!<\/p>\n

Youtube Links of Solos from Charlie Parker Omnibook Volume 2 at bottom of page!<\/h3>\n

It wasn\u2019t until many years later, when I was in college that I started to understand a bit more about what Parker was doing. \u00a0Even to this day, I am in awe when I hear a recording of his.\u00a0 His lines are so harmonically rich. \u00a0His rhythmic ideas and displacements are mind boggling. \u00a0You just get a sense that he is playing whatever he wants, whenever he wants and he makes it sound great over the chords\u2026\u2026\u2026.<\/p>\n

The original Omnibook is still sitting on my desk within arms reach even after all these years.\u00a0 I don’t think it has ever left my desk.\u00a0 It is so important to me that to put it across the room on my book shelf just seems wrong.\u00a0 I know that I will be reaching for it at any minute, so I keep it close at hand.\u00a0 \u00a0If I could only bring five music books to a desert island with me, the original Charlie Parker Omnibook would be one of them!<\/p>\n

When I first heard that Hal Leonard was publishing a second Charlie Parker Omnibook with sixty new solos I was incredibly excited.\u00a0 Sixty new Charlie Parker solos for me to dig into!\u00a0 I couldn’t wait to get these books and dive in!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Charlie Parker Omnibook Volume 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Charlie Parker Omnibook Volume 2 is created with the same standard of excellence as the other Hal Leonard Omnibooks.\u00a0 It is coil bound so it is easy to open on a music stand and it stays open and flat when you are reading from it.\u00a0 The coils are big enough that it is easy to turn the pages quickly on the fly.\u00a0 The book is 230 pages long and has 60 solos in it.\u00a0 Here is the complete song list:<\/p>\n

Bird Feathers \u2022 Bird of Paradise \u2022 Bird’s Nest \u2022 Body and Soul \u2022 Bongo Beep \u2022 Bongo Bop \u2022 Carvin’ the Bird \u2022 Cheers \u2022 Cherokee \u2022 Confirmation \u2022 Cool Blues \u2022 Crazeology \u2022 Dexterity \u2022 Dizzy Atmosphere \u2022 Drifting on a Reed \u2022 East of the Sun \u2022 Easy to Love \u2022 Embraceable You \u2022 Groovin’ High \u2022 Hallelujah \u2022 Hot House \u2022 I Get a Kick Out of You \u2022 I Remember You \u2022 I’ll Remember April \u2022 I’ve Found a New Baby \u2022 I’ve Got You Under My Skin \u2022 Indiana \u2022 Klactoveededstene \u2022 Little Willie Leaps \u2022 Liza \u2022 Love for Sale \u2022 Lover \u2022 Mango Mangue \u2022 Meandering \u2022 Move \u2022 My Heart Belongs to Daddy \u2022 My Heart Tells Me \u2022 My Old Flame \u2022 A Night in Tunisia \u2022 Oh, Lady Be Good \u2022 On a Slow Boat to China \u2022 Out of Nowhere \u2022 Quasimodo \u2022 Repetition \u2022 Rock Salt a\/k\/a Rocker \u2022 ‘Round Midnight \u2022 Salt Peanuts \u2022 Sippin’ at Bells \u2022 The Song is You \u2022 The Squirrel \u2022 Star Eyes \u2022 Stupendous \u2022 Swedish Schnapps \u2022 Sweet Georgia Brown \u2022 They Didn’t Believe Me \u2022 This Time the Dream’s On Me \u2022 Tiny’s Tempo \u2022 Visa \u2022 Wee (Allen’s Alley) \u2022 What is This Thing Called Love?<\/div>\n

Youtube Links of Solos from Charlie Parker Omnibook Volume 2 at bottom of page!<\/strong><\/p>\n

I found as many of these recordings as I could on Youtube and saved you about 2 hours and 20 minutes of your time by listing all the links I found at the bottom of this review. As I followed along with the Eb transcriptions, I quickly realized that one of the coolest aspects of this new Omnibook is that a lot of these tunes are standards.\u00a0 You get to hear and see on the page what Charlie Parker chooses to play over many other keys.\u00a0 As great as the original Charlie Parker Omnibook was,\u00a0 all the solos in it are really in only a handful of keys and most of those are sharp keys (except Chi Chi and Donna Lee).\u00a0 The new Omnibook still has a lot of solos in G, A and D but there is a lot more variety with the chord changes he is playing over than in the original Omnibook.<\/p>\n

Here are a couple of highlights I noticed in the new Charlie Parker Omnibook Volume 2:<\/p>\n