Home » Jazz Articles » Book Review » The Playboy Guide to Jazz

270

The Playboy Guide to Jazz

By

View read count
By Eugene Holley Jr.

The Playboy Guide to Jazz Neil Tesser
Plume, 1998
ISBN 0452276489



Aside from its role in encouraging and chronicling the sexual revolution, Playboy has been in the vanguard of reviewing jazz. This guide, written by the magazine's Chicago-based jazz critic, Neil Tesser, is a complete, compact handbook for the general public that offers a well-written and informative look at the essential recordings of "America's classical music."

Putting a jazz guide together is an intricate balancing act: what—and whom—do you include or leave out? Tesser has done a great job of presenting the jazz canon of yesterday and today, but he also gives us a credible glimpse into what we'll be listening to in the future. Starting from 1917 and working up to the 1990s, Tesser lists some of the best jazz albums, including Duke Ellington's The Blanton-Webster Years, Miles Davis's Kind of Blue, Ornette Coleman's avant-garde stylings on Free Jazz, the fusion of Weather Report's Mysterious Traveller, and Wynton Marsalis's neoclassic J Mood. Although the book could have benefited from illustrations and lacks specific Latin jazz recommendations, Tesser's compilation is in the groove and up-to-date.

Synopsis: The ideal introduction to the history of jazz and its rich and varied heritage, this guide profiles 250 of the best jazz CDs—selected from the thousands available—grouping them into chapters devoted to significant movements and periods of jazz history.

NEIL TESSER on The Playboy Guide to Jazz...

Having spent most of my adult life spinning jazz on the radio, writing reviews, and talking to new (as well as experienced) listeners and readers, I've come to realize how initmidating it is for most people to walk into a CD store or crack open one of those "all-inclusive" jazz guides. That's why I tore out so much hair winnowing the available discs down to an average of 25 first-tier selections per chapter. (And coming up with 50 "essential" starters, as I did at the end of the book — well, don't even ask.) If you've ever wondered something like, "This bebop stuff sounds intriguing; where should I start?" (ch.3) or "Despite all the hype, is Wynton Marsalis really that good?" (ch.8), or "Who's really happening RIGHT NOW?" (ch.9), then I wrote this for you. Making choices like this just about guarantees controversy, and I'm steeled for it: my e-mail address is included, so feel free to ask more or offer your opinions. No reasonable request will go unanswered.

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Popular

Read Take Five with Pianist Irving Flores
Read Jazz em Agosto 2025
Read Bob Schlesinger at Dazzle
Read SFJAZZ Spring Concerts
Read Sunday Best: A Netflix Documentary
Read Vivian Buczek at Ladies' Jazz Festival

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.