All Music Guide to Jazz

By: Erlewine, Michael

Book Overview

Lists, rates, and reviews more than 18,000 recordings by 1,740 jazz artists; provides biographies of the artists; and charts the evolution of jazz. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0879305304
• ISBN13: 9780879305307
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Backbeat
• Length: 1 Pages
• Weight: 4.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 1.1" x 1.1"

Customer Reviews

A Great Resource for "Treasure Hunters!"

My reasons for liking this book is probably different than most people. As an LP collector, I welcome information on vinyl no longer in print. I also like the fact that this book tells you the original title for the LP. Many CD's change the title and add alternate cuts. If I am going to purchase CD's I'd prefer the programming to be just like it was on the original LP.As far as the reviewer's being too easy with their ratings , I've purchased nearly 600 LP's and CD's from various sources over the past year and many of them I bought at the recommendation of this book, only 1 of them was not to my taste (The World Saxaphone Quartet's Tribute to Ellington).I've also had the opportunity to utilize the penguin guide as well others guides, I actually found the Penguin to be way to critical on some of the greatest recordings in Jazz History. The Penguin also doesn't seem to be as user friendly to vinyl fans.One area that this book may come up short is for fans of "Smooth Jazz" it is easy to see that the author is not a fan of this genre (neither am I for that matter)! I'd recommend this book strongly to anyone wanting to purchase a Vinyl and CD collection. I'm sure an argument can be made for the Penguin book, it is also a sound option, but as for me I'll take the AMG!

All Music Guide, or Penguin?

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!

A Valuable Tool

This book (encyclopedia) rates and describes nearly every quality jazz album available. It provides essays about the different jazz genres from traditional, to bop; thirdstream, to fusion, and all in between. Music maps chart the prominent players of each genre and instrument throughout jazz history.The discographies of these musicians are amazing.I use this book constantly. It may make a jazz student out of you too!

great resource

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.

Thick and Informative!

This is one of, if not THE finest jazz reference books around. Encyclopedic and thorough in reviews of numerous jazz CDs. The authors are very knowlegable about jazz but sometimes present themselves with a stuffy expert attitude. Nonetheless, is complete in terms of an artist's catalog, major sidemen, capsule biographies, etc. For people who are getting started in jazz and for those who have been around awhile...highly recommended.