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The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings: Eighth Edition (Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings) | 
| Authors: R. M. Cook, Brian Morton
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Category: Book
List Price: $30.00
Buy New: $13.94
You Save: $16.06 (54%)
New (38) Used (12) from $12.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 82277
Media: Paperback
Edition: 11
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 1548
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4.1
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.9 x 2.6
ISBN: 0141023279
Dewey Decimal Number: 781.650266
EAN: 9780141023274
ASIN: 0141023279
Publication Date: November 28, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: SATISFACTION GUARANTEED! NEW Book! May have remainder mark. Most orders ship within 1 BUSINESS DAY with ORDER CONFIRMATION.
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Product Description
The leading guide to recorded jazz, now extensively revised
Music fans have been turning to this established reference through seven editions as a source of intelligent and insightful criticism. Fully updated to incorporate thousands of additional recordings, the eighth edition features artist biographies, detailed recording information with labels and catalog numbers, reliable and authoritative ratings, the authors personal selection of the essential recordings for every collection, an index of artists, and more.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
 Seriously limited by its strict focus on in-print cds April 15, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
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 this very helpful. Otherwise, not. The All Music Guide to Jazz also has its limitations; although it does not share the Penguin's strong emphasis on "European Jazz", it wastes space on "smooth Jazz" purveyors. Neither guide is ideal. The Penguin doesn't, in my view, merit five stars in any case.
 Time for Two Volumes February 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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 alphabetically, or, as I think I'd prefer, taking the bebop era as a watershed and putting the 'modern' developments into a separate volume from the 'trad/swing' artists. I personally could also do without the index, but I know when they cut it from a previous edition there was an outcry. I hope the next edition (the first since the death of Richard Cook) will be bigger and better than ever.
On the road to an awesome jazz music collection January 19, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
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 considered must haves for the jazz aficionado. The list makes it easy to select what to search out and buy next, either by artist, style, instrument, backing musicians, recording era, you name it. One of my gripes is that the core collection is not listed all together in one index somewhere (I went through all 1500 pages and noted them down myself), which would have been a great help. I also didn't like the fact that the authors sometimes fail to mention when you are going to have one helluva a hard time finding certain recordings, either because they are so esoteric, so long out of print, or just plain way out there. Still, I haven't found any other jazz recordings resource better than this one, so I'm quite happy with my purchase and recommend this to all jazz fans.
Too Many Omissions January 6, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
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 possible to cross check existing compendiums by track title, but the only track listings are for a few specific tracks on a CD in the text of the review. So... for a book that is supposed to be a buyers guide, it falls far short in completeness. Well, it is published in the UK, and is probably a lot more useful there.
All that said, the reviews that are there are usually interesting, sometimes even enlightening. Unlike most efforts of this kind, the personnel listings for each CD (at least the ones I checked) seem complete and accurate. The capsule biographies manage to capture a lot about each artist in a concise form my old journalism teacher would have admired. While the highest rated CDs are mostly great choices for a beginning jazz library, there are two many levels of quality amongst the four star (highest rating) choices. On the plus side, the reviewers do deal with remastering sound quality, a significant issue particularly with older material.
The editors omitted most CDs which would have garnered 2 stars or less. I would have preferred a more aggressive paring down of the entries, eliminating perhaps most 3 star CDs, in order to discuss the really good ones in more detail and with track listings.
I love it December 27, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I replaced my 1996 edition. Many more listings. The best reference book for Jazz on CD out there.
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