2nd Edition, Edited by Michael Erlewine with Vladimir Bogdanov, Chris Woodstra, and Scott Yanow
Miller Freeman Books, 1996
ISBN 0-87930-407-3
|
All-Music Guide to Jazz
Reviewed by Peter Luce
AMG’s Greatest Strength: Musician Biographies and Lists of Recordings
Nine times out of ten, when you pick up the All-Music Guide to Jazz, you will be looking for biographical or discographical information. This is the heart and soul of the Guide and what makes it so useful as an everyday reference.
| Musician Biographies |
These biographies are brief, but fact-filled overviews of a musician’s life and musical career. Each entry begins with the artist’s date and place of birth and death, instrument(s) played and jazz style. Given their relative brevity, the bios are amazingly comprehensive in summarizing a musician’s place in jazz history, bands played with and recorded with and other musical activity. How often have you come across the name of a musician you had never heard about and asked yourself the question, "Who is so and so?" Richie Kamuca, for example, or Sonny Red? Well, find out in the AMG.
|
| List of Recordings |
Following each bio is a listing of the artist’s major recordings. Each recording is rated using a system of 1 to 5 diamonds (see below for more on ratings) and many, but not all of, the listings contain a brief review. Some recordings receive special recognition. Landmark Recordings are those "...singled out as landmark or career turning points for the particular artist. These are classic albums-prime stuff." Essential Collections "...should be part of any good collection of the genre...You can’t go wrong with them." First Purchase albums are "where to begin to find out if you like [a] particular artist." Like the length of the biographies, the number of included recordings is directly related to a musician’s importance in jazz history. Duke Ellington has 182 entries. Miles Davis has 106 and Sonny Rollins has 54. It’s important here to cite the Editors’ criteria in selecting recordings for inclusion. Included are "...CDs or LPs (most of which are
still in print or reasonably available) that, taken as a whole, represent each artist’s most significant recordings."At a minimum, each listing contains the recording title, label, recording date, and rating. The reviews, while very brief, are gems in their ability to convey an evaluation of the recording and to place the recording within the historical context of the musician’s career and often, amazingly, within the overall historical context of the jazz tradition.
|
Read about other great reference material you'll find in AMG ... 
|
