The Jazz CD Listener's Guide : The Best on CD [Paperback]

Howard Blumenthal (Author)

Book Description

Series: Best on CD | Publication Date: January 1998

This jazz lovers' consumers guide reviews 600 of the best jazz CDs currently available, representing 100 of the best-loved and most influential artists of the 20th century. Each CD is cross-referenced to a recording of similar appeal to point shoppers toward possible future purchases. 150 illustrations.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Billboard Books (January 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823076628
• ISBN-13: 978-0823076628
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 4.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,014,951 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not Very Useful At All, December 8, 1999

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miss teri parson - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Jazz CD Listener's Guide : The Best on CD (Paperback)

This book should be re-titled "Howard Blumenthal's Personal CD Collection". The artists that he lists are only a handful of jazz giants and innovators (he lists benny green as being one of the 100 greats, without a mention about Scott Joplin!). The selections do not contain a personnel listing (a must when it comes to jazz music), and there are a number of inaccurate facts (i.e. naming jelly roll morton's 1926 band as being the Red Hot Chili Peppers, a punk/funk group of the 80/90's. the 1926 band was the Red Hot Peppers.) While this may appear as nit-picking, it still makes the book a minor amongst the other greats (see: the history of jazz, Ted Gioia). Get the Penguin Guide instead.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Decent Guide - With Some Reservations, February 3, 2009

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B. Parker "bcsparker" (oh) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Jazz CD Listener's Guide : The Best on CD (Paperback)

Since the only other reviews here were written pre-millenium, allow me to frame this book in the context of the post-2000 jazz consumer.
Maybe you have a bit of a collection going and are wondering what else to pick up. The size of something like the Penguin Guide To Jazz scares you. So you spot this pocket size volume and figure it can point you in the right direction. And it does have some good choices, but beware.
This is a good guide of what recordings to get, but not the right editions. This book was written in 1998, when a lot of Jazz CDs were in their first print run in the new format. In the ten years since, a lot of these things have gone out of print and are really expensive now. I knew what I was in for when I saw him recommend things like "The Complete Mercury Recordings of Rahsaan Roland Kirk" and "The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz" - go ahead, look them up on Amazon.
The opposite also happens - he directs you to box sets here and there in cases where the individual albums hadn't been released yet - but now they have been. And newer reissue series like Columbia Legacy, the Rudy Van Gelder Collection, Orrin Keepnews Collection, etc. hadn't happened yet. You can just look at all the covers from the Columbia Jazz Masterpieces CDs (like the Kind of Blue cover, a 1958 album with a picture of Miles Davis which is clearly from the 70's - yuck), and you know what period of technology this guy is coming from.
So in the end, this can point you in the right direction so you can expand your listening, just research and make sure you're getting the right editions of the CDs.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Reference Work, April 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Jazz CD Listener's Guide : The Best on CD (Paperback)

This is a must-have reference book that is of great use to the jazz aficionado. It does have one glaring flaw, though -- not enough coverage of bossa nova and jazz influenced by Brazilian music (think of the hundreds of jazz interpretations of Jobim's compositions). For that I would recommend "The Brazilian Sound," which includes 1,000 titles in its discography.