- Mass Market Paperback: 1744 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; 7th Revised edition edition (28 Oct 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0141014164
- ISBN-13: 978-0141014166
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 17.8 x 7.9 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
373,585 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #18 in Books > Music, Stage & Screen > Music > Guides to Music > Jazz
- #99 in Books > Reference > Consumer Guides > Music
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Product Description
Review
Impressive and exhaustive. ("Billboard")
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD is now firmly established as the world's leading guide to recorded jazz, a mine of fascinating information and a source of insightful - often wittily trenchant - criticism. For this completely revised seventh edition, Richard Cook and Brian Morton have reassessed each artist's entry and updated the text to incorporate thousands of additional CDs. The result is an endlessly browsable companion that will prove required reading for aficionados and jazz novices alike.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
40 of 40 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an excellent guide. However, don't be so quick to chuck the old editions away as many of the CD's go out of print, and later editions drop them from their index. With so many re-issues each year, I imagine it is an especially difficult task to keep abreast of the discographies of jazz artists.
The biographies are good. I especially like the fact that they have included so many European, Asian, African and South American artists. Jazz is truly global and most guides tend to focus to heavily on American jazz, treating jazz in other countries as step children. Not so with the Penguin Guide, it gives deservedly high marks to Tomasz Stanko of Poland, The Ganellin, Cekasin, Tarasov trio of Russia and Lithuania, etc. It may not be everyone's bag, but this guide certainly gives you the opportunity to explore new jazz sounds by providing illuminating descriptions of music the world over.
And, of course, there is everything you want to know about the quintessential jazz greats in the way of their recordings on CD. This guide will help you to form a CD library that will be the envy of your jazz friends. The star-rating system is a fairly good gauge of what to buy and not to buy. Plus, this guide give you juicy insights so that you can impress your friends with arcane bits of information.
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
For anyone interested in tracking down the major works (and less well-known works) of any significant artist in the history of jazz this encyclopaedic tome is an absolute gem - second to none.
Other books may provide the reader with comprehensive discographies and general overviews of an artist's work (e.g. AllMusic Guide To Jazz, Virgin Encyclopedia Of Jazz) but what these books singularly lack is the ability to inform the reader about the music itself - i.e. what the individual works actually sound like (especially in relation to other works produced by the same artist at different stages of their career).
The Penguin Guide To Jazz On CD, on the other hand, is one of those rare books that succeeds in engaging the reader in active dialogue. The authors' sometimes outspoken views on what is essentially a very subjective matter are a real joy to read (and to take issue with on occasion). Even where you disagree with their views on one artist, CD, or track you know you absolutely must see what they've got to say on the others. Not only is the book very informative - detailing each artist's career via their respective works - but the caustic, dry wit of the authors (which permeates this work throughout) will have you chuckling out loud from time to time: a constant reminder not to take things too seriously... this is jazz after all.
This is everything a good guide to jazz should be - comprehensive, witty, informative, argumentative, and - most importantly - it invites the reader to seek out the music for him or herself and to formulate your own opinion. This is a great book on jazz for novices and aficionados alike - if you are going to buy one book on jazz this year make sure it is this one for it will be an invaluable source of new territories to explore and a comprehensive reference work for years to come. Get with it.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
When it comes to Jazz, the Penguin Guide can't be beat. It offers the most complete, up-to-date catalog available on the market, covering an exceedingly broad range of jazz artists from around the world. Unlike other discographies, which tend to be American centered, Richard Cook and Brian Morton cover many European, Asian, Latin and African musicians, which will greatly expand your musical range. The guide tends to cover CD's that are in print, so out-of-print CD's and albums are not covered, except in the lengthy biographies the authors have prepared. They also have a very good rating system, which will help you to decide what to pick to add to your collection. I have found these guides to be invaluable aids over the years, keeping my past catalogs, as out-of-print CD's tend to be dropped from the discographies to make room for new releases.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Almost the authority
Probably the best reference guide to Jazz in its many forms, spanning almost a century of recorded music. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Sentinel
Jazz
It is a good book about jazz and the pleople who make the jazz fine to listen to.
Published 20 months ago by Bert van der Saag
A must
First things first -- as will always be the case with this sort of book it's out-of-date almost as soon as it's published as new releases pour forth. Read more
Published on 31 July 2009 by J. Myles
Invaluable
While the Rough Guide and AMG are better in their potted biographies of various Jazz Musicians - they too do not cover everyone - they also do not give any real detail of the... Read more
Published on 17 Mar 2006 by pkx166h
Best you can do in print but...
there are too many artists, contemporary and historic, that have been dropped for this edition. This work is really reaching the stage where it must be put online: on subscription... Read more
Published on 30 Nov 2004
A hugely detailed work, but AMG & Rough guides are better
Alas there is no best reference book of jazz, too big a subject matter and too subjective. Of the 3 big guides Rough Guide is a grear place to start for first purchases, the AMG... Read more
Published on 18 Feb 2003 by Mr. A. J. Frost
An Intelligent Guide, worth buying, but not for everyone.
This is an excellent book. It is well written by two knowledgeable and enthusiastic journalists. Their preference is for "classic jazz", and the book is aimed more at fans of... Read more
Published on 19 May 2001
The best by default...
And if that suggests an underlying lack of enthusiasm then I must admit to being deterred by the editorial sloppiness the new guide displays. Read more
Published on 5 Jan 2001 by Sue Denim
A truly titanic book on jazz
This precious new edition of Richard Cook and Brian Morton's Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD is absolutely magnificent. Read more
Published on 2 Nov 2000
An indispensable resource.
A truly magnificent work and invaluable reference. What other reviewers of this book have mistaken for pomposity is actually a dry wit and unabashed critical eye. Read more
Published on 28 Aug 1999
Listmania!
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