Books & DVDs

[mtierney]

Hey everybody:

I wouldn't call myself a beginner to jazz by any means... I've been playing jazz guitar for a while now, and played jazz bass before that. But the only instructional DVDs that I have are the two Joe Pass DVDs "Solo Jazz Guitar" and "The Blue Side of Jazz".

I haven't hit any walls in my progress to improving as a player, but I feel like some guidance couldn't hurt. I just re-evaluated my daily practice schedule a few days ago, which has actually helped immensely already. What are some good books or DVDs that I should check out? For a bit of background, I consider my comping to be ahead of my soloing, but it's still not where I want it to be. I played solo gigs all summer, so my chord melodying is pretty strong. My weakest point is my melody-note reading (I know, guitarist stereotype..... I'm working on it though!!), but my theory knowledge is often-times ahead of my playing, so I don't think that I need a book that focuses on that. I'm in a few groups. I'm in a big band, a trio (piano, guitar, sax, we play restaurants for the most part), and a quintet (piano, guitar, bass, drums, sax) that plays mostly originals that I wouldn't call avant, but they're definitely not very trad-ey.

I guess what I'd really like is a book for intermediate to advanced players that covers basically everything... Or a few books, one that covers each of the bases...

Thanks, all suggestions are welcome!

[mtierney]

Oh! And I have a lot of fake book material. I use my computer for practices and gigs and I have somewhere around 1500 songs of sheet music. That's not the problem.

[Atticus]

Even though it's obviously bass-focused, I think Victor Wooten's Groove Workshop is essential viewing for anybody who plays a rhythm role.