All Music Guide to Jazz: The Definitive Guide to Jazz

All you need to know at your fingertips. Largely trustworthy advice and insights on artists and albums. Handy biographical info too.

I never go into a jazz store without the book or notes from the book in hand. It has rarely steered me wrong in ten years of use. Don't believe me. Just look up an artist you have several selections by already and see how close their observations are to your own. The book is in plain english but with smart reviews that do not seem preachy yet make the point. The whole AMG series is fine but the jazz one is great especially if you are building your tastes or collection.

In addition to this great book, I own the Penguin guide and the Rough guide and all three are very worthwhile (see my other reviews). In my opinion this is the one you should buy first as it includes numerous essays and lists about jazz music styles, instrument types and musicians that the other two guides do not. These features are a really useful guide to knowing where to start with jazz. This guide also appears to have the largest number of reviews. The reviews in the AMG seem a bit more generous and open-minded than those in the more conservative Penguin guide. I suspect that this is because you are getting the opinions of a larger number of reviewers, with a wider range of tastes. In summary, this is probably the most useful of all of the three guides that I have.

This is THE resource for jazz record buying as it is far more comprehensive than any alternative. I take it with me to used vinyl stores because unlike any other guide, it attempts to include all major releases by an artist, not the ones that happen to be in print. On top of that, each artist and each release is considered in context, unlike the Penquin Guide, which attempts to apply a pecking order to artists based on their perceived "significance."

I have read the accompaning review and almost past the book up. I was called to its attention by Billboard magazine. So I went back and read that review. They devoted a half page January 11 by Steve Graybow and I decided I could not pass it up. Billboard, in my opinion has never been wrong.