About book The Penguin Guide To Jazz Recordings (2006)
A book such as this one—1600 pages, containing literally thousands of reviews—seems destined for a certain kind of failure. Like any other large-scale collection of reviews, at least somebody's personal preferences are going to be slighted. And perhaps worse, sometimes a person's preferences won't even be represented at all. Of course, we might view this as an unfortunate but necessary consequence of finitude—both of minds and the books that these minds create. But it shouldn't come as a surprise. And it most certainly doesn't merit any sustained griping on the part of the reader.Because putting such subjective hang-ups aside, Cook and Morton's tome is an almost impossibly impressive achievement. I mean, when we talk about "quality" in jazz, we necessarily make reference to a multitude of factors. Technique. Inventiveness. Influence. Complexity. Soul. None of which allow for straightforward appraisal. Nor should we forget that "jazz" doesn't constitute a single unified art form, one complete with a single set of defining characteristics. No, jazz is intricate and multifaceted and (historically-speaking) rather convoluted. Yet Cook and Morton manage to represent—with subtlety and fairness, no less—pretty much the whole gamut of sub-genres and movements, from bebop to European free-improv to contemporary traditionalism and beyond.*Regarding the reviews and ratings themselves, Cook and Morton seem largely unmoved by personal biases and preferences. If anything, the critical pair are maybe even a bit too accommodating in their judgments. With an eye to fairness, they tend to evaluate records qua their respective styles rather than qua jazz or art in general, which means that the reader will invariably come across some rather strange results, like an utterly unimaginative neo-hard bop revivalist garnering the same sort of rankings as Coltrane or Shorter. (In a comparable fashion, grandmaster beer judge Gordon Strong once gave Miller Lite an impressive 43/50 score before adding that he'd personally rather drink a glass of lemonade.)In any case, Cook and Morton have written a balanced, capacious and almost always perceptive guide to jazz in all its heterogeneous forms. TL;DR: An essential (although maybe not definitive) read for anyone with more than a passing interest in the genre.* Honestly, the only styles that suffer any sort of serious neglect are jazz-rock and smooth "jazz." But ask yourself, is this really such a bad thing?
First they do an edition (the seventh one) without the index, which was a major mistake and pissed everbody off. Then they do the following edition (this one, the eighth) including the index but omitting albums they don't consider "essential."Mssrs Morton and Cook: Make it a two-volume box-enclosed set printed in microscopic print with a drawer and a magnifying glass in it, like the OED, (that way you can include reviews of albums that are out of print, which you frustratingly leave out) but stop futzing with the basic format!
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The Penguin Jazz Guide series is an indespensible reference for anyone who is interested in Jazz. Throughout the editions (I own most of them) the editors have kept up the strong review process for most in print jazz albums. A few reasons I really enjoy the PJG -- 1. They list the date the album was issued2. They list complete personnel for each album3. They give essential ratings and review information for each album4. Over the editions the editors views on certain albums change (albums fall in and out of favor)5. Non-American jazz is well represented6. Covers all genres, although smooth jazz does not get much coverage (thank goodness)Pick up any edition and be prepared to spend hours flipping through the thousands of pages and discovering new music.
—Jim
