All Music Guide To Jazz vs. Penguin Guide To Jazz

[A Lark Ascending]

What else I liked about that Carr book was that it had pics of lots of LP covers at a time when such things were not always easily found.

At the time I bought it - 1978 - most were not available in Britain (I had to wait for 6 weeks or so for copies of 'A Love Supreme' and 'Africa Brass' to be imported from somewhere abroad! That's how bad it was in the UK provinces). Some of those images are etched onto my brain!

[JSngry]

Yeah, hunger can do that to you. I still remember the taste of a ham sandwich my mom fixed me at 8 PM one evening in 1963, after we had gotten in from a six hour road trip, not having eaten since noon. MAN did that sandwich taste good, nice crisp lettuce, juicy tomatoes, and nice thick slices of ham that was neither too cold nor too warm. MMMMMMMM GOOD!

Maybe music is not a ham sandwich, but they both can feed you, and they both taste really good when you're hungry for tehm.

[Man with the Golden Arm]

[king ubu]

By contrast, AMG (...) was largely Amerocentric

It still is - very, very much so!

I've been using it for lots of rock and related stuff, and it's very good in many cases.

But have you ever tried looking up a French chanson singer? Brel, Françoise Hardy? They're completely useless... and that makes me think how much I'd like them to be better as they are good, after all, to read up stuff quickly, gain some basic information and impressions... but there are huge gaps with respect to non-US music, also in jazz!

[.:.impossible]

Jim, go make yourself a snack!

[king ubu]