The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings: Eighth Edition (Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings) @ richardeward.com

The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings: Eighth Edition (Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings)
by R. M. Cook, Brian Morton
from Penguin (Non-Classics)

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

• Seriously limited by its strict focus on in-print cds
  When I was first getting into Jazz and buying the obvious stuff, this guide was certainly useful. As I've developed my own tastes and interests I've found it increasingly less so. The fact is, there is alot of great music that is out of print and thus, only available used that you will not find listed in this book! So the claims of "best guide to Jazz" really only make sense if you're starting to build a collection in 2008 and are confining your purchases to what's in print. If that's the case, you'll find... more info

• Time for Two Volumes
  This is the third edition of this excellent work that I've bought. I love the tartness of some of their opinion, even when I disagree with them, and have discovered an immense number of new artists through its recommendations, but I do think too many artists have been cut from this edition, or had their entries shortened too drastically, simply because of the constraints imposed by having to cram eighty-plus years of music into one volume. It may be time to expand the contents and split them, either... more info

• On the road to an awesome jazz music collection
  You know Penguin is really reliable for this type of guide, and this Guide to Jazz Recordings is no exception. 1500+ pages chock full of jazz recording information on all the major stars of jazz, and most of the minor ones too. As a long time (30 years) musician who is new to the jazz world, I really needed a guide to help me wade through the monstrous amount of recorded jazz. This book is proving quite effective in the task. I especially like the "Core Collection" notations on those recordings that are... more info

• Too Many Omissions
  When I got the book, I looked up 50 or so jazz CDs I have either recently purchased or have considered purchasing and less than 50% were covered, although none were recently released! Similarly, many of the listed CDs are NOT readily available in the US. CDs listed are heavily slanted toward European releases, a vastly disproportionate percentage of the reviews are for the French Melodie Jazz Classics series. Since many older tracks are often gathered in similar "Best Of" type releases, it would have been... more info

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