OK, this book is a good manual if you want to know something about special artists and some of their records, but it were just three musicians who wrote the whole book, and they just did not tell about what they didn't like (for example Miles Davis: they stop with "Jack Johnson", then say he had his midlife crisis in the 70's and returned with "a wonderful album" in about 1981 - nothing about "Dark Magus" and other masterworks from this era!).

Maybe American readers are not interested in European musicians, but I think it is just fair to give them a place in this book, too (like Dieter Seelow, who lives almost next door to me).

Get this book if you need an encyclopedia about jazz, although it is a bit unbalanced. A better one is "Das Jazzbuch" by Joachim Ernst Behrendt (?), but I didn't find it here because I could not spell his name and I don't know if there's an English translation.

Like all guides that intend or claim to be definitive references to their subject matter, this falls short to an extent, and will not please everyone. However, along with other companion books, this is a great reference guide to jazz artists and styles.

I enjoyed this book because of its widespread coverage of both American and international jazz musicians. It's an excellent musical resource which has a place in my music library alongside with such user-friendly guides as "World Music: The Rough Guide" and "The Brazilian Sound."

Once again it seems another jazz books of regurgitated titdbits has forgotten most of the woman in jazz. True Ella, Sarah, Billie, Carmen and the likes are here -- but for the most part this is a good ol' boys jazz review book. Was also VERY disappointed to note that their selected discography hasn't changed much since the last edition

This volume has been around under various titles & editions for several decades; essentially what it does is serve as a continuation of Leonard Feather's essential encyclopedias of jazz in the 1960s and 1970s, since the format & aims are roughly the same. Like Feather's books, this book is an alphabetical listing of musicians, both well-known leaders and underrecognized sidemen who rarely get more than passing references in other books on jazz. The text is peppered with often excellent photos. There is also a useful appendix of a glossary of terms--really, these are highly idiosyncratic & polemical miniessays on terms like "blues", "swing", "fusion" &c--they're usually very entertaining though sometimes a little dubious or debatably accurate.

It's probably not coincidence that two of the most useful companions to jazz are by British authors--besides this volume I'm thinking of course of the Cook/Morton _Penguin Guide_. The nonAmerican perspective permits some distance from stylistic wars (between mainstream and avantgarde jazz, between jazz and fusion, &c) & also means that both books pay a lot more attention to jazz from Europe and other continents.

That said, just like Cook/Morton, this book does have its quirks, & while I mostly find Cook & Morton's quirks charming, the oddities here get on my nerves a bit more. The principal authors here are an odd lot. Trumpeter Digby Fairweather handles early jazz & swing, & British trad--these are some of the most enjoyable entries in the book, as he communicates his enthusiasm for even half-forgotten figures via pithy character-sketches & anecdotes. Pianist Brian Priestley & trumpeter Ian Carr handle the contemporary music, & this leads to some odd imbalances as Carr is considerably the windier & more superficial writer. Pages on pages are devoted to Carr's heroes--Miles Davis & Keith Jarrett are given entries vastly longer than anyone else's, with virtually every recording they ever made listed as recommended listening--& Carr inserts entries for what can seem like virtually every musician he's ever worked with. Meanwhile the entries on free jazz & free improvising musicians are an odd mixture of plain description (spiced with errors--the Evan Parker entry has a small raft of them), rather moderate doses of appreciation & frequent spots of carping & condescension. Carr also has a few set phrases that turn up again & again ("the music breathes" & "the shock of the new" are the main ones). The worst juxtaposition here is between the insultingly brief & tepid entry (by Priestley) for Bill Evans, & the vastly longer & more fulsome entry by Carr for Keith Jarrett--ouch.

Anyway, despite all the quirks of the book I can hardly give it less than 5 stars, simply as it provides a lot of information you can't get elsewhere, is always clearly written & is easily used. Like the Cook/Morton tome it makes for very entertaining & illuminating browsing.

The Rough Guide has been an essential component to anyone's jazz library, but the rapidly evolving face of the music had made the previous edition seem dated in just a few short years. Fortunately, the editors have given this superb revision, which gives space to some current jazz innovators, such as Chris Potter and Dave Douglas. They've also made successful attempts to cover figures not granted attention in the previous version, namely Bela Fleck, Al Di Meola, and Marcus Miller. Other entries get beefed up a little. For instance, Dave Holland's discography is expanded to include his current "Prime Directive."

Already important, this revised version is much more concise and current--highly recommended.

What do you want from this Charles Mingus biography?

1. A depiction of Mingus the man, including a psychological and/or anecdotal interpretation of his character?

There's not a lot of that here. Although I will say that this falls into the category of what I call "John Bonham Biographies", named for the Led Zeppelin drummer who came off as a manic-depressive Jekyl and Hyde in the book "Hammer of the Gods". Another good example of this is humourist Michael O'Donoghue in Dennis Perrin's bio "Mr. Mike". Mingus, in Priestley's hands, is an extreme man. He is either a soulful genius, or a tyrannical, violent, out-of-control maniac. It always strikes me as a road too easily traveled by the biographer, and is thus distracting.

2. A theoretical explanation of Mingus' music, with the intent of illustrating why he casts such a powerful shadow over the jazz world (as unparalleled bassist *and* composer)?

There's oodles of that here. Unfortunately, it leaves very little room for the layman to join the party. At times the book reads like an advanced textbook on modern jazz theory. I guess I should have taken the title of the book -- "A Critical Biography" -- a little more seriously. Also, there are references made to Mingus quoting other songs within his own, which further baffled me, as it would anyone but the most knowledgeable jazz historian. And when he tries to determine Mingus' place in music history, Priestley isn't afraid to let the hyperbole fly. Like when he implies that rock 'n' roll is an indirect descendant from a relationship between Alexis Korner and Mingus in London. Or an attempt to elevate Mingus' jazz as an artform, when compared to the vacuous pop of the mid-1960s, which lacks credibility because the vacuous being compared to is the (relatively) sophisticated music of the Beatles! Or an absurd claim that a disastrous concert Mingus put on at the Town Hall in New York "caused more fallout than the almost simultaneous Cuban Missile Crisis"! These and other arguments are handled sloppily at best, and do a disservice to Mingus himself.

3. An explanation/refutation of Mingus' fantastic semi-autobiography "Beneath the Underdog"?

You're in luck, because at times it feels like Priestley has a copy of Mingus' book beside him as he writes, ticking off fact after fact as it is corrected or explained here. Which might have been helpful had I read "Beneath the Underdog", but I haven't. And now don't need to. He should have just published a version of "The Annotated Beneath the Underdog", and left the biography writing to someone else with an original sense of narrative.

So just be sure you know what your goals are when confronting this work. Jazzheads and Mingus-freaks, you're welcome to join the party. Casual jazz fans and Mingus admirers (of which I am one), step lightly. Fans of biography, do yourself a favour and pass on by. Oh, and I almost forgot. This book has the tackiest, creepiest, and most irresponsible closing line of any book I have ever read. I just hope that Dannie Richmond (drummer and frequent Mingus band member) hasn't seen it.

This is a slightly disappointing, but still very good biography of one of the greatest jazz composers and probably its top bassist. Mingus, using a mixture of jazz, blues, church music, European impressionism and march music, and folk, wrote some of the most outstanding music of the 20th century. A man of wide-ranging, complicated emotions, lionesque appetites, and varied intellectual and creative pursuits, this titan of modern music is a fascinating biographical subject.

However, Brian Priestley does not capture the full measure of the man and his music. I'm not sure what the subtitle "A Critical Biography" is meant to convey, but there is not enough musical criticism. Particularly in the second half of the book, Priestley resorts to an "and then he wrote" approach, painstakingly detailing every new composition or derivative, and every new musician in the ever-changing Mingus ensemble. There is musical analysis, but often it is more technical than critical. Referring to a song on "East Coasting" Priestley writes, "it incorporates passages of G minor twelve-bar blues only slightly different from the opening of 'Eulogy' (Im/bVImaj\bII7\V7 instead of Im|bVImaj7\IIm7b5\v7)." The first part of this sentence is the more revealing: "It is a tribute to Mingus' maturing methodology that ideas are shown to be capable of repetition and rearrangement."

This does not go far enough, though. Why did Mingus "cross-breed" so many of his works, as Priestley notes but never really examines. The reasons (aesthetic, psychological--practical in the case of "Slop") for the similarities among some works (e.g., "Better Get Hit Into Yo Soul", "Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting", "Slop," and other compositions is never really explored. Were Mingus' edits across versions and his reworking of similar themes an attempt to forge a new "traditional" folk music within a mere two decades? (Perhaps this hypothesis is off, but I would have preferred that Priestley write a more encompassing analysis of both the whole of Mingus' work and its constituent parts.)

Conversely, we may praise the author for not indulging in psycho-biography, for including extensive well-documented quotes from Mingus as well as other musicians, and for describing enough on-stage Mingus behavior to get a sense of his personality. One might want to read the excellent though brief "Mingus/Mingus: Two Memoirs" for a better look at the offstage Mingus and his relationships with non-musicians.

The strength of the book is the extensive documentation of the entire Mingus discography, the ever shifting lineups, and both the recorded and non-recorded performances. This must have been a labor of love, as Priestley gives the definitive record of Mingus' output and how the performances map onto the different albums. The appendices include musical notations of ten (!) bass excerpts, a second-by-second structural analysis of "The Black Saint...,"and notes to all citations in the book. This is invaluable for the Mingus fan.

Priestley's writing can be awkward, "She it was who wrote....," and strained "Any minimally serious astrological guide will describe the typical Taurean as having outsized physical appetites; what is perhaps even more relevant to Mingus is the ability to treat extramarital affairs (like the ice-cream [sic] of which he was so fond) as a dessert complementing, but in no way threatening, any long-established relationship."

Despite the reservations noted above, I can recommend this book as a comprehensive resource for Mingus fans. It also includes enough personal information and sympathy (through interview excerpts with Mingus and others) that one begins to appreciate his complexities. There are a few clues to his Joycean autobiography, "Beneath the Underdog," and one gets a good sense of the racial tensions and injustices battled by Mingus. Finally, judging from the reviews of the other major Mingus biography, "Myself When I Am Real," this is the best book currently available. It will be enhanced, however, if read with the aforementioned autobiography (as perplexing as it is) and "Mingus/Mingus," as well as the brief but excellent critiques in "The Penguin Guide to Jazz." Includes 25 black and white photos, notes, appendices, and an extensive index.

The reviewer from LA makes this book sound like a cheesy celebrity bio. Nothing could be further from the truth. Priestly has written a carefully detailed history of Mingus's musical life. There's an effort to make sense out of Mingus's wild autobiography Beneath the Underdog, and his personal life is discussed, as it should be, but Mingus's accomlishments and his place in jazz history are the main focus of this book. This is a first rate jazz biography.

I purchased this book because I wanted a guide to unfamiliar (for me) world music. It is wide ranging and if browsed quickly, appears encyclopedic. Imagine my surprise when I searched for Israel and find NOTHING. There is a large section on Palestinian music, which is rife with anti Israel rhetoric. Music is a universal language. All cultures have much to offer of interest. Music is a force for peaceful interaction among people of different cultures. Even peoples whose politics are in conflict have found common ground through musical expression. I am dissapointed that a book with such promise turns out to be an outlet for some of the contributors political views. I write this not merely because I disagree with the point of view of the editors: I feel we should KEEP POLITICS OUT OF WORLD MUSIC.

This is a good introduction to the major figures of world music and is a handy companion for anyone exploring the music. My other favorite world music book is "The Brazilian Sound" (Temple University Press, 1998), which I also purchased through amazon.com.

I foolishly bought this book without doing much shopping or asking around. I found it way overpriced for what is ultimately a so-so book on the subject. I'm not a slate expert, but I tend to question the authority of authors writing about slate who are not actually slate roof restoration contractors. I checked out their web site, and they sell snow guards for a living. The author fully admits on his web site that "His start in the business was not via the usual apprenticeship or training program or even working in the summer for the local roofing company. Rather, his then high school teacher asked Brian one summer, to help find and purchase used roofing slate that many Vermont farmers had tucked away somewhere on their property." He then goes on to state that he learned the trade just by tearing slate off old roofs. Again, I'm no expert, but I believe that there's a lot more to slate roofing than can be learned just from removing slate.

I'm not saying that you can't learn a great deal by tearing something apart to see how it was put together, but my question is this: if you learn a skill on your own, without the benefit of the guidance of a master of the craft, how can you be sure you're doing it right? And perhaps more importantly, how can you be sure you're *not* doing something wrong? And when you're dealing with a slate roof, which could potentially survive for centuries, seemingly minor mistakes (due to an ignorance of the craft) might not be noticed at first, but could be devastating to the roof in the long run (by which time you've long since moved on to wreck other roofs).

I've since bought Jenkins' book on the subject, and am *much* happier with it. The author clearly knows his craft, has been practicing it for over 30 years, and is still an active slate roof restoration contractor. So don't waste your money on The Slate
Book. Jenkins' book is by far the better choice (and more reasonably priced, too).

I have worked with the author of this book on a slate roof. His work is poor and I think he has no buisness trying to come off as some kind of expert. Belive me he's not. John Cook Oak Sheet Metal, Inc.

I have been involved in the Slate Roofing industry for 14 years. Before this publication was available, each slate company had their own installation manuals, but none were written from the perspective of the applicator or the specifier. This left a tremendous void in the industry.
"The Slate Book" fills this void as no other publication can. This publication covers every aspect of slate roofing, from a new roof to the repair of an existing slate roof. When putting together a specification for any project, their section on budgeting a project will pay for the book over and over and over again on just one project. Every detail is covered thoroughly from the very basic for those who are just doing a small repair to the most advanced situations. A tremendous amount of experience is behind every page. This is what makes "The Slate Book" an absolute must have for anyone who is involved in the slate roofing business. The Authors of this publication have made a committment to the industry which is invaluable. Simply put, there are other manuals out there. No other manual on the market can come close to this one. It is simply the best.