Not a bad guide, just a definite drop-off in the reviews and bios from Vol. 1 edited by Ron Wynn, but with lots of reviews from places like Cadence. This new edition is primarily the responsibility of Scott Yanow, and I can never get around the feeling that he just serves up his best idea of the critical consensus of the recordings, which is not what I want most times--I want a point of view. ( )

Jazz and red wine are part of the good life, though most people don't grow up learning a lot about either of them. Jazz is seldom played on the radio and most towns/cities do not have jazz clubs where you can go and here the music first hand. A book like this one is indispensible for anyone that has discovered that jazz is a gift from the gods. It opens up the doors on a life time of the good life.

I bought the Rolling Stone guide to jazz in 1986-87. It was a little thin book and was good for me and my budget at that time. Then I got a divorce from my first wife and had more disposable income and started out collecting great jazz records. In 1993 I bought first the Penguin Guide to Jazz and then the All Music Guide to Jazz. Both are indispensible to me now as well as the web site that All Music runs for all kinds of music and movies. I like this guide slightly more than the Penguin Guide. The All Music guide has both profiles of the musicians and has a much more complete listing of all LPs that the artist has released than the Penguin Guide does. The Penguin Guide has only the albums that are currently available by the record labels. But the Penguin guide does have a much better feel for the european jazz scene and covers each of the releases they cover a little more throughly. I have used both of them repeatedly.

I don't necessarily recommend divorce though it did work out well for me and my first wife. And as a result, I found my second wife and ended up with a lot of great jazz records and CDs that I probably would have never gotten to hear. And, my recommendation about red wine, is that you don't need a book or guide to tell you about them, even if you don't know anything about red wine at all. My experience is that some red wines are really, really good, and all the rest of them are almost that good. You don't need a book to tell you which ones are good, they will all help open that door to the good life. Both jazz and red wine are truly gifts from God. ( )