The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide

by John Swenson (Editor)

Here are sixty-odd years of recorded jazz brillaintly reviewed in one essential source. Covering more than 4,000 currently available jazz albums, this long-needed work will remain the standard reference in the field for years to come.

Genres: Music, Reference, Jazz

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

Reviews

[Evan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm conflicted as to the merits of this guide. It's frankly inadequate in its coverage -- just a hair over 200 pages, and it ignores out-of-print recordings, which leaves a fragmentary portrait to say the least. The problem with a jazz guide like this is that it leaves out "lesser" jazz artists who, in my opinion, are probably more listenable than many of the more feted masters. The guide is attractively organized, in the same format as the RS rock guides. But this guide almost seems perfunctory by comparison. Even when I was heavily collecting jazz albums I found that I didn't consult it very much. That's kind of a negative testimonial.