Penguin Guide to Jazz Diffs

[Guest Chaney]

Delta lists for the 6th Edition of The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD

Includes: master list, additions only, grade changes only, deletions only, 4-star/better, 3.5-star/better.

Its creator: Tom Hull

Music Database

[J.A.W.]

Very interesting. Thanks Tony

[kumakuma]

Thanks for posting this. All the drops and adds between the editions reflect the biggest complaint I have about the Penguin Guide - its focus only on in print CDs. I believe this is much less important than it used to be with all the US/European OOP CDs available from Japan and the large after market that Ebay provides.

The other major complaint I have is the decision not to list Mosaic releases due to their limited edition nature. Mosaic releases are too important to be left out regardless of whether or not they are in print. The high prices OOP sets command in the after market are witness to their importance to serious jazz fans.

Other than the above, the Penguin Guide is much preferred over the alternative and is invaluable.

[Uncle Skid]

Thanks for the links -- just added it to my jazz bookmarks.

Also, I've found this one useful as well:

Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD: A List of the Four Star Discs .

This site has 4 star/crown CD's in Word, Excel, and text file formats. The Excel format is nice, as it's easy to sort by album title, record label, etc.

[Guest Chaney]

Thanks Skid! Good stuff!

[Claude]

Thanks a lot!! I have the Penguin Guide, but this Excel file will fit into my pocket (Palm organizer)

Edit: No, it's too large, my synchronization software only accepts 700 rows in an Excel file But it works with the txt file.

Edited September 2, 2003 by Claude

[Uncle Skid]

Edit: No, it's too large, my synchronization software only accepts 700 rows in an Excel file  But it works with the txt file.

Over 2,200 entries!

I ended up sorting the list by Album Title -- all of the Crowns end up together because of the (C ) preceding each title. This made the list a bit more manageable -- somewhere around 86 lines.

I'm surprised they don't have a cross-reference of the "Crown" titles in the book. I'd bet it's because they consider those a "personal indulgence", and they don't want people to take them seriously. Even so, it's fun to look up the entries for these titles, and maybe get turned on to something I've never heard of before.

[Jazzmoose]

Thanks for posting this. All the drops and adds between the editions reflect the biggest complaint I have about the Penguin Guide - its focus only on in print CDs. I believe this is much less important than it used to be with all the US/European OOP CDs available from Japan and the large after market that Ebay provides.

The other major complaint I have is the decision not to list Mosaic releases due to their limited edition nature. Mosaic releases are too important to be left out regardless of whether or not they are in print. The high prices OOP sets command in the after market are witness to their importance to serious jazz fans.

Other than the above, the Penguin Guide is much preferred over the alternative and is invaluable.

I totally agree with you. Jazz CDs go in and out of print so fast, compared to pop and such that I just don't see the point to this. Plus, as you say, there are plenty of avenues for tracking down OOP stuff.

As for the Mosaics, I could see their point if they were limited to the point that they sold out in a matter of months, but calling a product "limited" that takes three or four years to sell out is just a marketing tool, not an actual limit...

[minew]

I'm surprised they don't have a cross-reference of the "Crown" titles in the book. I'd bet it's because they consider those a "personal indulgence", and they don't want people to take them seriously. Even so, it's fun to look up the entries for these titles, and maybe get turned on to something I've never heard of before.

Anyone remember the 3rd edition? The crowns were not printed in the text so they printed a lavender bifold insert that listed all the crowned recordings. Kinda weird but also kinda intresting. That was the beginning of my crown fetish.

[clandy44]

The Crazy Jazz website has a separate list of the Penguin crown cds.

[J.A.W.]

The sixth edition was published in 2002, so I'm guessing there'll be a new Penguin Guide this year (they're publishing one every other year).

Edited February 9, 2004 by J.A.W.

[minew]

The sixth edition was published in 2002, so I'm guessing there'll be a new Penguin Guide this year (they're publishing one every other year).

If form holds true, it'll be out in the UK in the fall and in the US the following spring.

[Claude]

I just noticed that the 6th edition of the Penguin Guide has no entry on Bill Dixon, although he was featured in previous editions.

His music fits into the author's preference for free/avantgarde jazz, and many of his albums on Soul Note are in print, so I guess this must be an error.