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

~ Vladimir Bogdanov (Editor), Chris Woodstra (Editor), Scott Yanow (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com 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 Library Journal

There is certainly no current dearth of buyer's guides to recorded jazz. The Guide to Classic Recorded Jazz (LJ 3/1/95), The Penguin Guide to Jazz (Penguin, 1996), and Jazz: The Rough Guide (LJ 3/1/96) are now joined by a third edition of the All Music Guide to Jazz (LJ 9/1/96. 1st ed.) and Musichound Jazz. These two guides are very similar in content and coverage, with some significant differences in approach. Both consist of biographical entries, ranging in length from a mere paragraph to several pages, followed by discographical listings with some kind of rating system. Musichound covers almost 1300 artists in 1390 pages, while All Music has over 1700 entries in 1378 pages (employing a somewhat smaller font). The biographical entries in both tend to be more in-depth than those found in Jazz: The Rough Guide and cover a much wider range of artists than found in the more conservative Guide to Classic Recorded Jazz. Quite helpful and easy to read, Musichound covers in essay style which recordings to buy first, which to buy next, which to avoid, and which are rare but worth hunting. It also manages to include several artists' birthdates that do not appear elsewhere, giving it added strength as a reference source. All Music presents its listings in chronological order, employing a system of symbols indicating essential collections and recommended first purchases, as well as a rating system. The discussion of each individual recording seems designed to stand on its own, which makes for some repetition. This edition of All Music corrects many of the errors that plagued earlier ones. Both books are recommended; the library that can only obtain one might opt for All Music, since it is more comprehensive, but it would be a very close call.?Michael Colby, Univ. of California, Davis
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 1378 pages
• Publisher: Backbeat Books; 3rd edition (1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879305304
• ISBN-13: 978-0879305307
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7.2 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #759,457 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars good reference guide, but the reviews say very little, August 3, 1999

By A Customer

It's very extensive and it gives a good history of jazz, different styles, many albums are included, etc. But the reviews don't say much about the albums. Most of the time the band members are mentioned and there's very few information about the music that's on it. For example, for every album made by the mid-60s Miles Davis quintet the band members are mentioned and there's something like: 'The music is challenging but quite rewarding'. But it doesn't say anything about the differences between the albums. For a guide that tells you more about the music, look for 'Penguin Guide To Jazz'.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great resource, December 2, 1999

By	Ravi Desai "Ravi" (India) - See all my reviews

This huge book is a great resource for the jazz fan. it is very comprehensive and has a useful overview of the different genres in jazz. nearly 20,000 albums(including Out-of-Print albums) are reviewed. the only flaw if that it uses a team of reviewers to cover all the material and as a result some artists may be reviewed inconsistently. On the whole this is a good reference for both dedicated jazz fans and people who want to start a jazz collection.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All Music Guide, or Penguin?, October 16, 2001

By	Irene Orage (Northern California) - See all my reviews

I use both the All Music Guide to Jazz and the Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD. If I had to choose between them, I'd choose the All Music Guide because of the capsule biographies (including birth and death dates) of each artist that are included with every entry. Also, it lists more albums, although some of them are not on CD, but on vinyl only. I also love that it has such a wealth of additional material: music histories and charts of the various genres, "maps" of significant players, and even essays and book reviews! Books about jazz and biographies of jazz artists are reviewed; if that weren't enough, there are also listings and reviews of jazz videos! Truly a wonderful book! In most ways it is much more complete than the Penguin Guide, for example, in the All Music Guide, there are 89 listings under "John Coltrane" whereas in the Penguin Guide there are only 66. On the other hand, many of the Penguin reviews are more lengthy and in-depth than those in the All Music Guide. For myself -- I need both of them!