Essential Jazz Records

A personal, and sometimes controversial, selection by three jazz critics of the "best" 250 jazz records - mostly LP collections of 78 rpm originals - from the earliest roots of music to the beginnings of the modern jazz era. Each record is placed in its musical context and reviewed in some depth. For each disc, full details of personnel and recording dates and locations are given.

"All collectors will welcome the meticulous documentation of recording dates, titles, and personnel . . . a valuable addition to jazz criticism, discography and . . . historiography." Popular Music, "An immense body of information is packed into the volume, the writing is lucid, literate, and frequently a joy to read, and the discussion builds on itself . . . nothing approaching the compass, balance, and erudition of this volume has been produced this side of the [Atlantic] ocean." Downbeat, "The Mona Lisa of its genre. To the initiate and novice alike, it provides an enlightened and enlightening overview of the music it surveys. . . . One looks forward to a sequel of like strengths. . . . this book stands on its own as one of the handful in the literature of jazz that can truly be called essential." Annual Review of Jazz Studies

Max Harrison is a musicologist who reviewed for The Times and The Gramophone from 1967-90, has written widely on jazz, and contributed to the 1980 edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and other reference works. Charles Fox (deceased) was a broadcaster and reviewer. He was the host of "Jazz Today," a weekly British radio program. Eric Thacker (deceased) was a clergyman, with a long-standing interest in jazz.