All Music Guide to Jazz: The Experts' Guide to the Best Jazz Recordings (All Music Guide to Jazz, 3rd ed) - Softcover

Erlewine, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0879305304 ISBN 13: 9780879305307

Publisher: MILLER FREEMAN PUBLICATIONS, 1998

Synopsis

More than 14,000 sizzling recordings in all jazz styles are now identified in the third edition of this definitive, easy-to-use guide. 1378 pages, 6-1/8" x 9-1/4"

About this title

Review

The AMG Jazz encyclopedia is the resource of choice for anything you might care to know about jazz musicians, jazz history, and jazz recordings. The print is small and there's not a lot of space wasted on photos and filler--in fact, the only non-text additions are 51 music maps, smartly illustrating which performers played in which categories of a range of topics, from accordion and big bands to vocal groups and significant fusion players. There are short essays on topics like ragtime, cool, acid jazz, jazz history, and jazz in film, plus indexes for jazz books, venues, and videos, producers, writers, and labels, and a much-appreciated comprehensive index. The bulk of this extraordinary reference, however, consists of musician profiles (more than 1,700) and reviews of their recordings (more than 18,000), arranged alphabetically from Greg Abate to John Zorn, providing biographical details of well-known figures such as Artie Shaw, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, as well as his son T.S. Monk and more obscure artists such as Don Byas, Richard Tabnik, Oscar Pettiford, Hot Lips Page, and Chubby Jackson.

The profiles are well researched, short, and richly informative and entertaining. Take Bob Scobey, for example. In one brief paragraph, you learn he was a Dixieland trumpet player and band leader from Tucumcari, New Mexico, lived from December 9, 1916 to June 12, 1963, and was a popular trumpeter in his prime. He played in Watter's Yerba Buena Jazz Band in San Francisco (one of the most influential bands in the Dixieland revival), formed his own Frisco Jazz Band, opened Club Bourbon Street in 1959 in Chicago, and died four years later of cancer at 46. The profiles are reason enough to appreciate AMG Jazz, but the recording reviews are even more impressive. Following each biography is a comprehensive list of the artist's recordings, with a star rating (0 to 5), information about who plays what, how long it runs, what sort of music it is, notable high points, low points, or both, and any other songs or notes of historic or musical interest. Mesmerizingly addictive to jazz musicians, accessibly, enjoyably instructive to the novice, reliably erudite for the scholar, vastly entertaining for the browser, and irreplaceable as a CD-purchase guide, the All Music Guide to Jazz sets the standard for what a music-reference book should be. --Stephanie Gold

From the Publisher

Series Synopsis: For fine-tuning an existing collection or exploring new musical territory, the easy-to-use, fun-to-browse All Music Guides lead you to thousands of first-rate recordings past and present, plus enlightening background on performers, styles, instruments, and more. Each guide provides:

* Album reviews and ratings-selected best recordings, with release dates, record labels, and ratings on a scale of one to five

* Experts' guidance-insights from hundreds of top music critics and journalists

* Artist profiles-intriguing capsule biographies of each musician or group, noting vital statistics, instruments, and styles; full portraits highlight major artists

* Incisive essays-explorations of the music's varying styles, roots and evolution, plus topics of special interest, such as history-making record labels

* "Music maps"-easy-to-read charts showing the development of styles, instruments, key players, vocalists, and more

* Special symbols-quick indications of essential recordings and recommended first buys

About this edition

• Publisher: MILLER FREEMAN PUBLICATIONS
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0879305304
• ISBN 13: 9780879305307
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 1378