Jazzman Founded in 1995, 11 issues per year (nothing in August, the French are on vacation then, attending the diverse jazz festivals). Very extensive review section, grading system in 20% steps. Because of information overload in this section, it would help to have a "must buy" choice of the month. The European jazz scene is well represented. But the editors know the the U.S. is the major jazz country, and this approach helps to put jazz around the world into perspective. Jazzman is very good at special features, e.g. they have an annual summer festival feature, and the May 1998 cover story on "Jazz et Cinéma" was all-inclusive. With Jazzman, a cover story is really a cover story, looking at the topic from different point of views. Cover art is real art, the July 1998 cover (Michel Petrucciani) is the most beautiful jazz cover I have ever seen. The December issue lists the top 25 records of the year. The only problem with this magazine is that not everyone understands French. Subscription price including surface mail to any place in the world: 214 francs, which is about US$ 35. Address: Jazzman, B.P. 443, 12bis place Henri-Bergson, 75466 Paris Cedex 08.
Down Beat Founded in the 1930s, this monthly magazine can afford to ignore the commercial trends to which other U.S. jazz magazine have subjected: the information-to-advertisement ratio is pleasently high. Predominance is on American jazz, but Down Beat does not suffer from it (even from a European point of view), because jazz rightfully belongs to America. The review section is pretty short: only a few records released every month are reviewed in a 10% grading system. Well done: appended to this section are reviews on special aspects of jazz, blues, "beyond" music, and reissues. The annual highlight is the July issue with its very detailed Annual Critics' Poll. (The December issue is dedicated to the Readers' Poll, but then this is just a hiccup product by what the readers have digested in July.) Subscription prices are US$ 35 for one year, US$ 55 for two years, add US $ 11 for surface mail in case of foreign subscriptions. Address: Down Beat, 102 N. Haven Road, Elmhurst, IL 60126-2970, [email protected].
The three books below are absolutely complementary:
The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, LP & Cassette by Richard Cook & Brian Morton. All records currently available are reviewed graded in 20% steps. This book seems to include everyone, including Manhattan street musician Charles Gayle (he even gets 100% for his record Touchin' on Trane) and the Russian Ganelin Trio.
Gramophone Jazz Good CD Guide by Keith Shadwick. A bunch of contributors review one record per jazz musicians. The most important musicians are reviewed more (e.g. Miles Davis got 15 reviews, Duke Ellington and John Coltrane got 13 each). Gradings are in 10% steps and there is an additional list of records for a basic jazz library (those we buy according to this list will inevitably end up poor because this list is very long).
Jazz The Rough Guide by Ian Carr, Digby Fairweather & Brian Priestley. The focus is on the biography of musicians, and for each musician there are very reasonable mentions of their important records with short unemotional reviews.
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