This remarkable book not only reviews and rates more than 18,000 Jazz recordings, it presents thumbnail profiles of over 17,000 musicians. Each profile is extended according to the importance the musician has played in the development of Jazz. So that musicians like Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Kenton are give considerably more space the the general run-of-the-mill sideman.
The evaluation of the music is exhaustive, knowledgeable and awe inspiring, but even so there is a lack of coverage of World Jazz, in particular the European contribution in the second half of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, this deals with its subject in a thorough manner and will delight the large majority of followers of the art of Jazz.
by Al Merritt, Jazz Now's London, U.K. Editor
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