This article is written by Toru Hoshino, a jazz bassist and instructor based in Japan who teaches online lessons to students worldwide. In this article, he shares five jazz books and play-along collections from his own shelf that he expects to keep coming back to for the next ten years.
I was tidying my bookshelf today, and it got me thinking about which books and music collections I keep coming back to year after year.
These aren’t necessarily “easy beginner books you can read in one sitting.” They’re the kind of material that rewards you more and more as your own playing grows — every time you revisit them, you understand a little more than you did before.
If any of these catch your eye, I’d encourage you to check them out. Let’s get into the first one.
Contents
The Real Book (a.k.a. “The Black Book”)
This is the fake book that’s used at pretty much every jazz session on the planet. It has lead sheets for 227 standards that come up constantly in sessions, and just listening your way through the tunes in it is genuinely educational.
I personally use the handy/pocket-size edition — being able to keep it open flat on a stand makes it more practical day-to-day than the full A4-size version.
Bass Workbooks for Constant-Motion Practice
Another play-along/etude book. This one is packed wall-to-wall with eighth notes over blues progressions and jazz standard changes — no rests, just constant motion.
It would probably take years to actually play through the whole thing, but even just getting comfortable playing the lines that are written here will seriously build up your jazz vocabulary.
Analyzing Jazz Standards — Unlocking the Mysteries Behind How the Great Songs Were Written
This book was full of “wait, I never thought about it that way” moments for me. It looks at the melodies and chord progressions of jazz standards through the lens of harmony, lyrics, and compositional intent — explaining the reasoning behind why a melody was written the way it was.
I’ve borrowed a huge amount of what I learned from this book for my own lessons and YouTube videos. I’m genuinely glad I came across it.
Jazz Standard Theory
This is by the same author as the Real Book mentioned above, and it’s an analysis of the standards that appear in that book. Some of the trickier areas of jazz theory — subdominant minor, minor ii-V-i — finally clicked for me after reading this book multiple times; I got to the point where I could actually explain them to other people.
I still pull this one off the shelf whenever I think, “wait, how does that piece of theory work again?” or “how am I supposed to interpret this chord progression?”
A Guide to Blue Note’s Classic Recordings
This book introduces a huge number of classic jazz albums. I’ve read plenty of “essential albums” guides over the years, but this one focuses specifically on releases from Blue Note, jazz’s legendary label.
Just working your way through the recordings featured in this book will teach you a lot on its own.
If anything here caught your interest, I hope you’ll check it out. I hope these help with your daily practice.
Thanks for reading all the way through — if you made it this far, you’re clearly someone who’s serious about jazz.
Want Personalized Feedback on Your Playing?
Reading and listening will take you a long way, but knowing exactly which habits or weak spots to work on next is exactly the kind of thing that’s hard to fix alone — and where having a teacher makes all the difference.
At Line on Bass, I offer an online lesson service where you send me a video of your playing, and I give you specific, detailed feedback — every single day if you want.
Students from around the world are using this to fix exactly these kinds of issues and steadily improve their jazz bass skills.