The Guide to Classic Recorded Jazz

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Summary:

"Best guide to the music's development"--Wynton Marsalis
Review:

In his epilogue to this remarkably thorough and readable tour through the jazz canon, Tom Piazza writes, "The spirit that jazz embodies will never die; as long as we can touch a button and begin again, at the beginning of Duke Ellington's 'Ko-Ko' or John Coltrane's 'Crescent' or Louis Armstrong's 'West End Blues,' we will have proof that the individual and the group can be reconciled, that African and European cultural streams are compatible, and that the blues can be held at bay."

Here is a brilliant and deeply informed overview of jazz history, one which gives a rich sense of who the major figures were and how they fit in with one another while showing the reader what to listen for and which recordings are indispensable for a full experience of the music. Most guides to jazz recordings are essentially collections of capsule reviews by several writers. No other book has fused a singular examination of the key recordings with a presentation of the entire sweep of the music's classic period to provide the listener with such a useful and spirited companion.

The Guide to Classic Recorded Jazz serves, in a single source, as a field guide to all available recordings as well as a highly accessible vision of the development and sound of the music, one that will give the reader some sense of what musicians think about when they play, what kinds of demands are placed on them, and what kinds of solutions they have come up with. Piazza also provides a sense of the continuity of form and technique that has underpinned the music from the days of King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton to the time of Miles Davis and Ornette Coleman.

Tom Piazza writes about jazz and other American music for the New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, Playboy, New Republic, and Village Voice. He is a former professional jazz pianist and a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop; his short fiction has appeared in a number of literary magazines.

REVIEWS:

"I believe this will become a cornerstone of the literature on jazz, essential for every decent music library, and will make a marked contribution. Tom Piazza is a major new voice in jazz criticism, a voice with insight, style, and authority." --John Edward Hasse, curator of American music, Smithsonian Institution

"Tom Piazza's knowledge and understanding of jazz music are wide and deep, and his own experience as a player has given him a window into the music that few critics have. The Guide to Classic Recorded Jazz is the best guide to the music's development that I know of. Its unique structure, the attention it pays to ensemble styles as well as to the great instrumentalists, and Piazza's ability to explain what is happening in the music in terms that anyone can understand will make this extremely valuable both to longtime fans and to those checking out the music for the first time." --Wynton Marsalis
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Summary: Great guide for jazz beginners
Review: I bought this book three years ago, and I still go back to it regularly. When I first read it, I owned half a dozen, or fewer, jazz albums. My collection has swelled since then, and most of the LPs and CDs I've picked up were recommendations from this book. I have not been disappointed yet.

Piazza's knowledge of jazz recordings, together with his clear, direct, and enthusiastic writing style, make this a joy to flip through. I can say I've truly discovered some outstanding music thanks to him and his book.

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Summary: Best guide to Jazz music
Review: I really clicked with this author's personal selections of the best artists in the wide world of jazz music. He truly cares about this music and shares his feelings. The music of the 50s and 60s is rightfully highlighted as a highpoint in the development of jazz music.

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Summary: the tourist point of view
Review: In any books such as these, there will always be disagreements on ommissions and inclusions. I will not debate this.

That being said, it is quite clear that Piazza has a weak grasp of the fundamentals of the music. He is a tourist, not a scholar. So what if you want to see the other sights?

Piazza also practices an odious brand of Political Correctness. In his world, if you listen to the avant garde, that means you want African Americans to be noble savages.

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Summary: Essential
Review: N.B. I've known Tom for several years, and consider him a friend. That said, I got his book shortly after I met him, and consider essential for anyone who either loves jazz, or wishes to learn about jazz.
I used it to construct a fantastic collection over the years. I literally built my pillars of Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Charlie Parker around his well-chosen recomendations, and have added a number of lesser well known favorites to my roster (Charles McPherson! Brew Moore!) My copy is dog-earred. I keep it next to my computer, and use it to decide which discs I'll next purchase from Amazon or my online music service. (This book is a dynamite companion to emusic.com, which has a huge amount of the Prestige/Riverside/OJC catalogue on line)> The first part of the Guide orients you with a brief history of how the music progressed from New Orleans joys forward. Throughout the whole book, there are citations to readily available records of what he discusses. Anything he cites that sounds particularly tantalizing will, believe me, get purchased. Tom's love and enthusiasm for the music shine through and he is a most persuasive salesman. (The RIAA should give him an award)!
There follows a detailed review of the role of various instruments in the ensembles.
Trust me-these recent posts have some sort of hidden agenda. But from the point of view of simply teaching you about the large topic of jazz-this is the book.

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Summary: A really dreadful guide to compact discs...
Review: This book is enthusiastic and full of cliches. It's an extremely odd view of jazz history, largely discounting white musicians and modern jazz in general. The standard guide is still published by Penguin, which is much more knowledgable and open-minded.

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Summary: A Must-Have Reference Work
Review: 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.

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Summary: Best guide to Jazz music
Review: Thoughtful rather than just encyclopedic. This book never fails in sorting out the CDs I want. I know the artists I enjoy. The hard part with jazz is all the reissued material. Easy to get a bad recording of a great artist. This book is fun to read and has saved me megabucks. We have been using the book for the Williams College Book Award to high school students here in Connecticut. The guidance counselors all call me to ask where they can get a copy for themselves.

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Summary: Don't buy a cd without checking this book.
Review: Thoughtful rather than just encyclopedic. This book never fails in sorting out the CDs I want. I know the artists I enjoy. The hard part with jazz is all the reissued material. Easy to get a bad recording of a great artist. This book is fun to read and has saved me megabucks. We have been using the book for the Williams College Book Award to high school students here in Connecticut. The guidance counselors all call me to ask where they can get a copy for themselves.

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Summary: I concur: it's the best
Review: Tom Piazza is both a jazz pianist and a writer, giving him a rare combination of insight and ability to express it. Musicians know that many renowned critics don't really know what they're talking about--if you don't play, you (usually) don't know. Piazza knows.

His book is divided into halves. The first half covers the recordings of the great jazz ensembles from dixieland through the 1960s avant-garde. (There's no coverage of 1970s jazz-fusion, the 1980s young lions, or later, which are too recent to be "classic.") The second half covers the recordings of the most important jazz soloists on each instrument over the same period. An advantage of this structure is that it gives an overall sense of history in a way that books like the All-Music Guide, organized alphabetically by artist, can't.

Piazza does have an ideological leaning. He is part of the current Wynton Marsalis/Stanley Crouch camp, which feels that much recent jazz should not be called jazz at all, because it is not based on the blues. The free jazz of the 1960s and the jazz-fusion of the 1970s are without merit to this camp, and this is probably why Piazza does not reach into the 1970s. (He does say, of 1960s free jazz, that "people who like this sort of thing like the following albums.") It's a mark of Piazza's excellence that while I do not belong to this camp, I still think his guide is the best for the period it covers. Fans of free jazz and jazz-fusion will want other books to supplement Piazza's guide, but Piazza's book should be the first purchase for your jazz library.