Paperback ordered!
Looking forward to receiving it in January, and regretting that the preordered Pacific Jazz book by James Harrod will take some more time to arrive. It certainly wil be interesting to compare how these two major labels are covered.
And I'll take the word of Allen Lowe (see below) that the Prestige book does not limit itself to the "usual suspects" of the biggest names only in covering the output of Prestige. At any rate, I'll have my copies of the Prestige discography by Michel Ruppli and of "The Prestige Book" (from the Japanese "Jazz Critique" series) within reach when digging into this new one.
"When it comes to jazz, this is one of the rare books that we actually need, that does not cover the usual ground with the usual suspects. Prestige Records, for all the attention it has received from audiences, is not well known in the historical sense. Every jazz fan has these records, which is important, but few know the inside story, the complex process of the jazz independent label in the era before independent labels became as common as recording projects. And Tad Richards is the writer to do this, with a firm grasp of jazz's historical succession, the bebop era, and the musical needs of musician and audience. Read this book." — Allen Lowe,