Some good Jazz/blues reading for beginners...

[Toxikator]

http://aebersold.com/Merchant2/merchant ... =_HANDBOOK

I've d/led it, it's pretty sweet stuff if you're not familiar with the style.

[martian]

cool. any chance you zip the whole thing?

[Km7]

I would also suggest the jazz harmony courses as taught in Berklee (Barrie Nettles book). It proceeds from basic to advanced topics. Andy Jaffe's "Jazz Harmony" is a good book, too.

[jopy]

these are really good; these plus a couple of choice aebersold playalongs (esp. the fundamentals like the ii-V, rhythm changes, and blues sets) could take a person a long way toward a good vocabulary for real improvisation.