Walking in the footsteps of Paul Chambers

I have been interested in Paul Chambers since I began listening to jazz. The 1st albums I bought were Miles Davis' Kind of Blue & John Coltrane's Blue Train. Both had P. C. on bass and thus started my search for any information about him. I was surprised that, despite his massive output as a recording artist, there was very little info on him. So when I saw this book by Rob Gourlay I was excited. However, once I received it and began reading through it, I was mildly let down. Here's why:1. These are not complete transcriptions. If fact, Mr. Gourlay doesn't even indicate WHICH chorus of the song he transcribed. An experienced bass player can listen to the recording to find the specific chorus, but it would have been helpful if he had notated the time the exact chorus transcribed began. For instance, "Summertime" has a transcription that starts @ 3:12 into the recording.2. He listed the corresponding albums on the last page of the book. Why not put that information on the page of the transcription? It would make it much easier than flipping back and forth through the book.3. There is no analysis on any of the transcriptions. This would have enhanced the value & quality of this book. Observations of P. C.'s reoccurring patterns & bebop approach, which can be pointed out throughout this book, were not even attempted. Mr. Gourlay didn't even give tempo markings.4. Finally, I found the album choices (not the actual songs) a bit odd. "The Complete Vee Jay Paul Chambers Wynton Kelly Sessions 1959-1961" by Mosaic Records is an excellent box set. But it's also very out of print & my recent check on Amazon reveals sellers are asking $200 - $400 for it. Arthur Taylor's album "A. T.'s Delight" is another LP that's hard to come by. Perhaps some more mainstream albums that remain in print (Re: Miles' Columbia catalogue or Coltrane's Prestige catalogue) could make it easier for the reader of the book to listen to the original recordings (which Mr. Gourlay encourages at the beginning of his book).All that criticism now written, I will follow with this: I did like this book. As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, ANY information on Paul Chambers is welcome. The transcriptions are accurate and the SONG choices were good. As written at the beginning of the book, the songs are jazz standards that are played often & by many jazz musicians. It's great to see how P. C. interpretted "Autumn Leaves" and I'm not ashamed to confess that I copped some of his licks! If an experienced jazz bass player wanted, they could complete the transcriptions themselves as a great musical exercise.Once I've worked my way through this book it is likely I will buy Rob's additional "Walking in the footsteps of…" books- specifically the Doug Watkins book. I will have a much more accurate expectation, though, now that I have experienced Rob Gourlay's authorship.

A great collection of tunes with a good selection of lines by Paul Chambers. Good range of difficulty from upper lever beginner (Summertime) to advanced. Study of this book will definitely leave you with some nice material as an improviser.However, unfortunately there are numerous transcription and editing mistakes this book. At least this is the case in the pieces that I have studied or used with students in here thus far. The errors such as missing accidentals are frequent and severe enough that they are would leave you with some misconceptions about who Mr. Chambers was as a bass player and how his lines were constructed. There are also errors in octave choice, which are to be expected because of the woolly tone of Paul Chambers E string on the original recordings. To best illustrate the types of errors encountered I will post my list of all errata from one excerpt presented the book.List of errata for “Summertime” – p.49:(The excerpt begins 3 minutes and 10 seconds into the recording.)m.1 – The first two notes should be one octave lowerm.8 – The first C natural should be raised to a Dbm.9 (rehearsal “A”) – The third note, G, should be one octave lowerm.10 – The third note, G, should be shortened to a dotted eighth and immediately followed by a B natural sixteenth note to lead to the C. The last two notes of the measure should be marked as straight eighths. The final note of the measure, G, should be lowered one halfstep to Gb. (Though the intonation is slightly questionable on the recording here, if G natural was intended, Chambers would have most likely used the open string, allowing an easy shift. Also, Chambers plays his perfect fourths with excellent consistency on this recording. I find it unlikely that the note would have been out of tune if a G natural was intended)m.11 – The final two notes of the measure should be one octave lower.m.19 – The F should be played arco, pianissimo, or changed to a rest.m.20 – The final two notes should be one octave lower, with the C being changed to Cb, and a fermata should be added above the final note, a Bb.Also It should be noted that these are excepts, though well selected, usually around 3 choruses long, not complete transitions. There is no indication which portion of each recording is excerpted in the transcription. This could potentially be troublesome for the student using this book to self-study, and at the very least, an annoyance for the professional looking to quickly brush up on the playing style of Paul Chambers.Even with the errors and omissions, it still is a valuable resource. There are enough right notes in here that it is still faster in most cases to make the corrections than it is to transcribe everything yourself. The list of recordings (the majority of which are available on Spotify) from which the transcriptions were taken is quite useful by itself. I continue to recommend this book to my students, though I will definitely be keeping my eyes open in case a revised edition comes out.

Book is pretty thin even before factoring in the missing pages (book starts at page 14. I also found missing pages towards the back. Other than that it looks like a good book. Sending it back.

Exactly what I was looking for!!

Great!