The Jazz Discography: Volume 18 (Powell to Rimaak) by Tom Lord

Lord will soon be entering the home stretch. These two volumes, like their predecessors, unfold the century’s jazz history in unique fashion. When you consider the nationality of artists for recordings listed side by side, the international outreach of the music is emphasized. for example: two pages of Vol. 18, chosen more or less at random, show sessions by Turkish, Canadian, British, Austrian, Danish, and American musicians. As usual, the small, clear type gets a maximum of information onto big pages of good paper.

In Vol. 18, the people with the most pages are Sun Ra (35), Buddy Rich (18), Django (13), Louis Prima (11), Andre Previn (10), Quintet HCF (10) and Sammy Price (9). In Vol. 19, they are are Sonny Rollins (16), Sammy Rimington (14), Max Roach (11), Shorty Rogers (10), and Mongo Santamaria (9). One notes with mild distress how often ciphers have made more records than major talents, and one wonders why Black and Blue is sitting on five 1977 Ram Ramirez sessions.

Have you read a discography lately?

Originally Published December 1, 1998