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Product Description
From Booklist
The updated, eighth edition of this long-running title features more than 14,000 reviews of CDs and 400 new artist entries. Entries include very brief descriptions of the artists and a list of their recordings, with reviews and ratings by the authors. The lengths of the CD entries vary from very short (label, catalog number, issue date, and performers) to extensive, multiparagraph descriptions of the album's history, reception, and individual songs. The authors are clearly devout jazz historians, and the character of the entries is as much admiring as it is strictly factual. Their detailed descriptions of albums, songs, and even artists' tone colors and interpretations within specific songs are testament to their expertise. They also lament the loss of jazz divisions at many major record companies, leaving independent labels to carry the lion's share of the responsibility for documenting this art form.
Changes from the previous edition are worth mentioning. The artist index, missing from the seventh edition, has returned in response to reader demand, but to maintain what the authors consider a reasonable physical size for the volume, they have eliminated entries "which have seemed to stand still in recent years through the lack of any new releases by the artist in question." In some particularly long entries containing extensive lists of albums, they offer an "in brief" section, which allows for the inclusion of less-important yet still worthwhile recordings by presenting shorter descriptions.
Another important feature is the "Core Collection" selections. Within the listings for some artists, recordings considered essential for a basic jazz library are printed in bold type and described in greater detail. A separate list of these 200 titles would have been useful for those who are looking to build their own collections without having to wade through the entire book to find these seminal works.
Libraries holding the seventh edition, without the author index, will probably want this one. Anything older will certainly need to be updated. Steven York
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
--This text refers to the
Mass Market Paperback
edition.
Review
? It's the kind of book that you?ll yank off the shelf to look up a quick fact and still be reading two hours later.?
?"Fortune"
? The leader in its field . . . if you own only one book on jazz, it really should be this one.?
?"International Record Review"
?"Fortune"
? The leader in its field . . . if you own only one book on jazz, it really should be this one.?
?"International Record Review"
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Less user-friendly than the Penguin Guide to Classical Music,
By
This review is from: The Penguin Guide To Jazz Recordings 9e (Paperback)
I started reading the PGZ awhile back, after my jazz epiphany grounded in re-discovery of Miles Davis (Kind of Blue), Bill Evans (Everybody Digs), John Coltrane (Ballads), and a particularly stunningly-recorded performance of 'Ask Me Now' by Joe Henderson.Having used the Penguin Guide to Classical Music [which I have reviewed elsewhere] for many years as a Light through successive jungles of vinyl, tape, and little pits on silvery discs, I looked forward here to the qualities of that volume: reviews written to guide the listener, evaluations of performance and recording quality, relative ranking based on even-handed treatment of all artists and composer on their own merits, and bouquets of roses for special items pleasing to the musical sole. Unfortunately, PGZ does not come near this standard. The Editors make few bones about their personal preferences for certain styles and performers, and their snide (if not withering) disdain for others. Ex.: You *will* like Free Jazz, it's good for you (like broccoli). Intrinsically, there is something wrong with any artist who is popular: Diana Krall is no more than a sexy girl singer, Dave Brubeck (and the West Coast School generally) is too mainstream to be a real jazz musician. Most condescendingly of all, Vince Guaraldi is not even included in the guide, the success of A Charlie Brown Christmas etc and Cast Your Fate to the Wind condemning him to the outer darkness. Again, unlike the Classical guide, Coronets are frequently awarded to multi-disc sets as 'achievements' rather than tokens of personal appreciation. The guide remains useful as comprehensive listing of available recordings, and once you factor out the Absolute judgement, the Relative rankings usefully identify the priority albums by the artist. For my money, the various Rough Guides are more suited to those seeking to build a collection. Interestingly, their is little overlap between the Rough Guide 100 and the Penguin coronet albums [Kind of Blue, Take Five, A Love Supreme, and a few others]. Take it, but take it Easy.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
essential but flawed,
By johnbrett (victoria bc) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Penguin Guide To Jazz Recordings 9e (Paperback)
I have editions 1-7 and 9 so I obviously recommend it. The 'Penguin' will save you a lot of money by avoiding second rate recordings. This makes up for the reviewers often snide attitude, however, at least they are willing to be blunt. Other guides are way too diplomatic. Penguin reviews are better than the ones on Amazon for the simple reason that most people write reviews for stuff they like a lot. You do have to make allowances for the Penguin's biases, though, such as for Europeans musicians who are, well, Europeans. (The reviewers are British.) Also, they often favour music which may be groundbreaking or experimental but maybe not the best by that artist. There is, also, another problem which is that their rating system may have an internal relativism for the artist in question but does not always prove useful when comparing works by different artists. For example a ***(*) star Coltrane may be an invaluable recording but not so for Hank Mobley. (sorry Hank) A major problem with the later editions of the penguin guide is that they had to stop including essential works because the book got to big with all the new stuff on the market (and it was a paperback). They could have put out a volume one and two for each edition but that would have made too much sense. I mostly listen to recordings from the sixties so it is great to have older Penguin editions for CD reissues. The latest 2010 guide is not very useful.
4.0 out of 5 stars
An essential reference guide,
By william rerie (winnipeg, mb.) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Penguin Guide To Jazz Recordings 8e (Mass Market Paperback)
I've owned the 8th edition of the Penguin Guide to Jazz for several years and regard it as a necessary aid in exploring the expansive world of classic jazz recordings. As with any book of this nature, it is ONLY a guide and will undoubtedly generate bones of contention among the jazz cognoscente. However, for someone new to jazz, who finds the recording catalogue overwhelming, Richard Cook and Brian Morton can provide a lot guidance. They provide a surprising amount of detail about the artist within the context of the album reviews; thereby giving the reader valuable background to the artist's career. I find their greatest contribution is in their commentary on albums made by the great jazz artists of the past - Armstrong, Ellington, Monk, Davis, Coltrane, etc.. Their evaluations of more contemporary artists (Dianna Krall) may be of less value. By consulting other guides (ex. the online ALLMUSIC Guide) the listener will begin to establish their own list of "essential" albums. Each time you reference the Penguin Guide, you'll discover something new and informative even if you may disagree with the conclusion.
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