advertisement


Printed magazines

Jim Audiomisc

pfm Member
Anyone know of a UK printed monthly magazine that has a fair number of reviews of jazz that is to a large extent covering recordings made in past decades? I suspect that these days there "ain't no sech animal", but it would be good to find one that does that and has articles on topics relevant to it. I know of mags that mainly cover gigs, modern recordings, etc. But personally I'm more interested in older stuff.
 
It is often interesting and quite amusing to hunt down reviews in old magazines of the era. Gramophone, of which I have a full set covering the prime 50s to 70s jazz period, is often highly amusing by the extent it misses trends and slams real milestone albums whilst praising average albums that have since fallen from view. Jazz Journal etc was very good too and has stood the test of time better.
 
I doubt you'll find what you are looking for in any contemporary printed media. There are better resources on the net.

I'd suggest looking for old editions of the Penguin guide - they are useful for providing background and reviews of old recordings, even if I find myself often disagreeing with their opinion (that's ok, it's just a guide and I have my own ears and taste). It's worthwhile to pick up different editions as they covered items in print at the time, and as we know things go in and out of print all the time.
 
Jazzwise has reasonable coverage of older releases, especially when there are reissues. Lots of interviews with jazz musicians of all ages, so inevitably music from previous decades is covered.

https://www.jazzwise.com/

I bought a few issues. My conclusion was that there were much fewer reviews than JJ and less of them were of the older material that interests me. The point of the reviews is that I can find out when old material is reissued and I can then buy items. Articles chatting about it are fine, but don't help that when I have no idea what is currently obtainable.
 
I doubt you'll find what you are looking for in any contemporary printed media. There are better resources on the net.

I'd suggest looking for old editions of the Penguin guide

Sadly, that 'better doesn't include arriving regularly and prompting me to read it.

Yes, I have a number of Penguin, Music Master, Gramobone, etc, old books listing issues. The problem is that they don't tell me what might be available NOW.So handy for research, but not for finding fresh re-issues or new findings. For that I seem to have to rely on luck...
 
I bought a few issues. My conclusion was that there were much fewer reviews than JJ and less of them were of the older material that interests me. The point of the reviews is that I can find out when old material is reissued and I can then buy items. Articles chatting about it are fine, but don't help that when I have no idea what is currently obtainable.
Searching the internet for things like “best jazz reissues 2020” might be worthwhile. Eg

https://www.jazzwise.com/features/article/top-20-jazz-reissues-and-archive-albums-of-2020
 
Searching the internet for things like “best jazz reissues 2020” might be worthwhile. Eg

https://www.jazzwise.com/features/article/top-20-jazz-reissues-and-archive-albums-of-2020

Thanks. Yes, that was useful. But only tells me about 2 or perhaps 3 issues/reissues over a *year* that I'd like to get. And I had to be told about it here...

One of the items also mentions an earlier release it follows. One I'd have probably bought if I'd known it existed.

Whereas when I got JJ I used toi find more per month than that, simply from reading it.
 


advertisement


Back
Top