Reading Key Jazz Rhythms Clarinet by Fred Lipsius. Advance Music, 1996, SS, 68 pages + CD. This is a collection of 24 easy to medium level jazz etudes, and 24 simplified guide tone versions of the etudes. They are ideal for learning the basic language of jazz, swing phrasing, and articulation. The guide tone etudes (guide tones are the essential or defining notes for each given chord type) are followed by a melodious version as the chord changes might actually be performed (the rhythms are the same in both versions). On the accompanying CD the soloist (Ramon Ricker) demonstrates the 24 melodious etudes together with a professional rhythm section. You can also improvise along with the play-along tracks using the chord symbols. So if improvising is new to you and you find yourself getting lost, you can always return to a guide tone and play rhythmically around it. Any etude and its corresponding simplified guide tone version can be played together as a duet (with or without the CD accompaniment). (C1443)