The Jazz CD Listener's Guide : The Best on CD

Rating:
Summary: Not Very Useful At All
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Not Very Useful At All
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Good 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.