PENGUIN Richard Cook's Jazz Encyclopedia

This is a fantastic book stuffed full of intelligent and erudite reviews and is a good companion to the Penguin guide to jazz on cd. The print is just a wee bit small but well worth the price. Recommended.

Richard Cook has an ear that I trust, does this cover everything in Jazz- no, but this book is the best resource I've found. I listen to a lot of streaming jazz and use this to get information on the artist.

I would have liked to use this book in my History of Jazz class but found out that it's out of print.

The much regretted Richard Cook (1957-2007) has given us one of the best A-Z reference works on Jazz. Intelligent, opinionated, it's a pleasure just to browse it. He covers not just musicians, but also some of the more important record labels, jazz writers/journalists/producers/orchestras. One category he has ignored are jazz photographers, such as Wm. Claxton, Wm. Gottlieb, Francis Wolff, Chuck Stewart, Duncan Schiedt et al. . Among the writers, I miss Albert Murray, Gary Giddins, Benny Green, Steve Voce, Albert McCarthy. And don't look for Bessie Smith, Sinatra or Ray Charles.

This is that rare commodity, an encyclopedia that both informs and entertains. Richard Cook's comments are pertinent but objective, and each entry carries a recommended recording as a footnote. Its big enough, at nearly 700 pages, to cover a great deal of the subject, yet small enough to fit into a large pocket.