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The Penguin Guide to Jazz


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Was flipping through the latest edition today. The index has returned, the type is shrinking and some old reviews have become capsule reviews.

Sadly it's still error ridden, including a review of fictitious Braxton quartet CD, and poorly edited. There are some bewildering judgements: Hill's Andrew!!! is in the "Core Collection" instead of Black Fire or Judgment, Thornton's The Panther and the Lash and the Cellar Door Sessions get three stars, etc. etc.

They've also delved into the nebulous world of the Lonehill catalogue, reviewing an edition of Ayler's Slugs Saloon which omits a track when there's far superior alternatives available and falling for Lonehill's claim that Lalo Schifrin is the pianist on a Dolphy date. A couple of editions ago, they reviewed the latter in a different edition with the correct personnel. Wouldn't they have clued in?

Earlier editions in this series were a great resource and helped introduce me to the likes of George Russell, Ganelin Trio and others. But now it's evolved into an unreliable mess. It's almost as if they don't listen to half the CDs, instead regurgitating the liner notes.

One and a half stars.....

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My introduction to the Penguin Guide was nr. 7 which I bought when it came out after reading several recommendations.

Did not find it very helpful and only return to it once in a while. Will skip vol. 8 even if it now has an index which was sadly missing from vol. 7.

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I had a quick flick through it and for £30 a go there was not much that is new. For some reason they miss out stuff that is very much still non-OOP and on the shelves and put in reviews of Verve Elites like Alan Shorter's 'Orgasm' that disappeared with the dodo. :huh:

'Mosaic' also seems to be a forbidden word with these guys..

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I have editions 4,5 and 7 and won't need another one...

The Lonehill stuff is likely turning into a problem for more knowledgeable people, too, as there are so many labels popping up that release the same stuff all over again in different package and pairing and each time screaming at you "first time on CD" and some incredibly great new hyper remastering shitte having been applied, too (when they have just stolen the oldest CD version around and then applied some bad software)... this does start to suck. It also gets to be more and more a problem in CD stores, as the chaps there end up with tons of crappy material and seem to be lost on knowing which would be a legitimate version... They had the Dizzy/Bird Town Hall on Uptown half a year late, but for something like 25€ or more, and now there's only the Disconforme edition of it around... of course they feature "loving" new liner notes by "highly competent" jazz critics... all going down the toilet, it seems to me.

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pisses me off that Volume 7 has no "index". i mean WTF! it's a freekin' sourcebook. lazy sods ...

and does the newest edition still have that crap about Sonny Clark being an "average player happy to have a bottle open on the piano and some business to be attended to in the back room" or some such...?

i'm sure Rudy's mom kept wondering about all the bent spoons!

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pisses me off that Volume 7 has no "index". i mean WTF! it's a freekin' sourcebook. lazy sods ...

i stayed away from the 7th edition due to the absent index. to be fair, it wasn't the authors' doing. from what i remember, the publisher put restraints on the length of the book, limits that would have been exceeded had the index been included (the 6th edition's index was 127 pages long!).

even with the errors, imo it's still the best book of its kind.

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pisses me off that Volume 7 has no "index". i mean WTF! it's a freekin' sourcebook. lazy sods ...

i stayed away from the 7th edition due to the absent index. to be fair, it wasn't the authors' doing. from what i remember, the publisher put restraints on the length of the book, limits that would have been exceeded had the index been included (the 6th edition's index was 127 pages long!).

even with the errors, imo it's still the best book of its kind.

I'd agree. I have always really enjoyed reading (or browsing) the Penguin Guide. Obviously I don't always agree with their judgements but I don't know that I'd always agree with my own judgements over time. Whay I've always quite liked is the fact that they are prepared to change their minds (or at least the balance between the two writers) from edition to edition.

I've always been a bit bemused by the refusal to review Mosaic sets, especially given that they often have sets that are OOP reviewed for a number of editions. For example I'd be interested to see if the Roland Kirk or Dexter Gordon Blue Note sets are still listed.

Having said that nothing in life is ever perfect and I'm looking forward to getting the new edition.

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well, I only bought the earlier ones because they described me as a "cult" figure - I figured, being associated with Charles Manson and Jim Jones could only help sales -

sad to say, however, I'm not in the latest edition -

that's shocking! what an insult! to prove my allegiance to you, i will not buy the new edition!

btw, love your new walker. :Dcult_classics_4_sebastianfull.jpg

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Anyone notice any new Crowns? I spotted Electric Ascension and Monk's Casino.

I should add it's still my favourite of the review books, but the series has been going downhill for the past three or four editions and needs some major editing.

Hi,

A link to crowns in the Penguin with new ones is here.

http://www.crazyjazz.co.uk/penguin/penguincrowns.htm

Don't know if it is complete.

- Jostein

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As for Monk's Casino: great! But...

- once again: Schlipp hopped on the train late, it's the project/idea of the quartet Die Enttäuschung, masterminded by Dörner/Mahall who also did the arrangements

- haven't heard the box set, but seen them live a year ago, and from what I've heard their recent performances are much better than the early performance documented on the set

anyway, again: great! go see them if you get a chance, it's really worth it! Three very short hours! I saw it spread over two late night/wee small hours sets, but if they'd started earlier it would have been fun to see it in one go, I'm sure!

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Very good price on amazon.uk. You can get it for £14.17. I have just grabbed it.

£14.17....shipping charges included in the price?

Shipping is free to UK customers when you spend £15. For customers who live outside the UK, this is obviously not the case. The normal price is £30. Paying 50% less than the normal price and expecting free shipping to Finland may be too much to ask...... ;)

I have just received my copy and will spend part of my weekend reading the latest reviews.

Edited by ASNL77
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