Jazz: The Essential Companion to Artists and Albums (Rough Guide) - Softcover

Carr, Ian; Fairweather, Digby; Priestly, Brian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1858281377 ISBN 13: 9781858281377

Publisher: Rough Guides, 1995

Synopsis

Offers 16,000 critical biographies of jazz musicians and album reviews

About this title

Review:

Written by musicians, Jazz: The Rough Guide contains more than 1,600 biographies, from Ahmed Abdul-Malik (Brooklyn bass and oud player, 1927 to 1993, who played with Thelonious Monk, Herbie Mann, and Coltrane) to Axel Zwingenberger (German boogie- woogie pianist, born 1955, played with Joe Newman, Joe Turner, and Sippie Wallace, and has helped revitalize jazz piano). In addition to profiling a broad spectrum of jazz musicians (both famous and lesser-known composers and performers), it clarifies crucial jazz issues, gives historical perspective, and also serves as a buyer's guide, with discographies and pithy reviews of representative recordings.

The Guide's alphabetical, encyclopedic organization makes it useful as a dependable jazz reference, and it's wonderfully browsable, too, illustrated with fine classic black-and-white photographs (of performers such as Jelly Roll Morton and his Red Hot Peppers) and beautifully written. A good starter text for jazz neophytes, the CD suggestions are a great help toward custom- building your jazz library. There's also a fine glossary that explains a cappella and acid jazz, Afro-Latin, airshot, and atonality. It's a safe source of education if you're ignorant about ballads, bebop, or B-flat. It's useful for learning about major jazz styles (Chicago, Dixieland, and dirty, Kansas City, ragtime, and scat), plus musical concepts such as harmony, improvisation, and tempo. Concise, accessible, and addictively readable, Jazz: The Rough Guide is a great introduction to the world of jazz. --Stephanie Gold

From School Library Journal:

YA?The biographies of nearly 2,000 leading individual musicians and groups, both contemporary and from the early part of this century, are presented here. The emphasis is on each person's interest in and contribution to the world of music. Information such as family or education may not be given unless it relates to that topic. Written by jazz musicians themselves, the entries conclude with annotated recommendations for purchase of the "best and most representative recordings" of that artist. The designation of CD or LP is done through symbols. The black-and-white photographs add interest. The concluding 30-page glossary discusses styles, techniques, and terms. This section will be useful in its own right as long as librarians remember that it is in a resource shelved in the collective biography section. A comprehensive resource.?Claudia Moore, W. T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Rough Guides
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 1858281377
• ISBN 13: 9781858281377
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 912