Discographies & Buyer's Guides Books

1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die (1,000 Before You Die)

Tom Moon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 56 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The musical adventure of a lifetime. The most exciting book on music in years. A book of treasure, a book of discovery, a book to open your ears to new worlds of pleasure. Doing for music what Patricia Schultz—author of the phenomenal 1,000 Places to See Before You Die—does for travel, Tom Moon recommends 1,000 recordings guaranteed to give listeners the joy, the mystery, the revelation, the sheer fun of great music.

This is a book both broad and deep, drawing from the diverse worlds of classical, jazz, rock, pop, blues, country, folk, musicals, hip-hop, world, opera, soundtracks, and more. It's arranged alphabetically by artist to create the kind of unexpected juxtapositions that break down genre bias and broaden listeners’ horizons— it makes every listener a seeker, actively pursuing new artists and new sounds, and reconfirming the greatness of the classics. Flanking J. S. Bach and his six entries, for example, are the little-known R&B singer Baby Huey and the '80s Rastafarian hard-core punk band Bad Brains. Farther down the list: The Band, Samuel Barber, Cecelia Bartoli, Count Basie, and Afropop star Waldemer Bastos.

Each entry is passionately written, with expert listening notes, fascinating anecdotes, and the occasional perfect quote—"Your collection could be filled with nothing but music from Ray Charles," said Tom Waits, "and you'd have a completely balanced diet." Every entry identifies key tracks, additional works by the artist, and where to go next. And in the back, indexes and playlists for different moods and occasions.

The Pitchfork 500: Our Guide to the Greatest Songs from Punk to the Present

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

FROM THE BRAIN TRUST BEHIND PITCHFORKMEDIA.COM -- THE WEBSITE THE LOS ANGELES TIMES DECLARED "AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THE IPO D GENERATION'S LEXICON, A MUST-READ" -- A FRESH GUIDE TO THE 500 BEST SONGS OF THE PAST THIRTY YEARS.

Named the "best site for music criticism on the web" by The New York Times Magazine, Pitchforkmedia.com has become the leading independent resource for music journalism, the place people turn to find out what's happening in new music. Founded in 1995, Pitchfork has developed one of the web's most devoted followings, with more than 1.6 million readers monthly who tune in for daily reviews, news, features, videos, and interviews.

In The Pitchfork 500: Our Guide to the Greatest Songs from Punk to the Present, Pitchfork offers up their take on the 500 best songs of the past three decades. Focusing on indie rock (Arcade Fire, the Shins), hiphop (Public Enemy, Jay-Z), electronic (Daft Punk, Boards of Canada), pop (Madonna, Justin Timberlake), metal (Metallica, Boris), and experimental underground music (Suicide, Boredoms), it features all-new essays and reviews written with the sharp wit and insight for which the site is known.

Kicking it off in 1977 with the birth of punk and independent music, The Pitchfork 500 runs chronologically, with each chapter representing a distinct period and offering a narrative of how the musical landscape of the day influenced its artists. The book opens with David Bowie, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Kraftwerk, and Brian Eno, the "art-rock godfathers" who set the tone and tenor for the next thirty years, and wraps up in the present, when bands connect with new audiences through social networking sites and prime-time TV placements -- and when a single mp3 can turn a niche indie artist into a global sensation. Sidebars like "Yacht Rock," "Runaway Trainwrecks," "Nanofads," and "Career Killers" call out some far-from-classic musical trends and identify the guiltiest offenders.

Modernizing the music-guide format, The Pitchfork 500 reflects the way listeners are increasingly processing music -- by song rather than by album. These 500 tracks condense thirty years of essential music into the ultimate chronological playlist, each song advancing the narrative and, by extension, the music itself.

The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music 2009 (Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music)

Ivan March, Edward Greenfield, Robert Layton

Amazon Price: $23.10 List Price: $35.00 Not yet published By: Penguin (Non-Classics)

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Editorial Review:

This has remained the best and most successful guide to classical music for more than forty years. Fully revised by its team of eminent authors and written with wit and passion, The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music offers reviews of all the latest releases as well as the finest established recordings. It also includes an overview of the greatest historic performances, major period instrument recordings, an in-depth survey of the best of the budget-priced CDs, and the core collection of 100 handpicked, must-have CDs. Now published annually for the first time, this book is essential reading for every serious classical music fan.

The Beatles - Complete Scores

The Beatles

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 190 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

This Collection is Great 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The Beatles Complete Scores really is a one of a kind collection. Sure, the highly trained eye will see simple mistakes here or there, but for those of us who aren't trained classical pianists and just like to play Beatles tunes, this book is amazing. The print is small, but not too small; complaining about the print is really being nitpicky. Plus, no other book gives you all of their recorded songs, and in the correct key. For example, this is the only book I've ever seen that finally puts Strawberry Fields in b flat instead of A major. This book is amazing, team this book with your own ear and you've hit the jackpot.

Editorial Review:

A fitting tribute to possibly the greatest pop band ever?The Beatles! This outstanding hard-cover edition features over 1100 pages with full scores and lyrics to all 213 titles recorded by The Beatles. Guitar and bass parts are in both standard notation and tablature. Also includes a full discography. The book is packaged in its own protective box. A must-own for any serious Beatles fan or collector!

The Greatest Album Covers of All Time

Grant Scott, Barry Miles, Johnny Morgan

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

At a time when listeners increasingly download or upload songs, creating personal playlists on MP3 players and I-Pods, the art of packaging music seems to be fading away. But, for more than 50 years, musicians have released their work inside brilliantly-designed packages that made an important statement about their music and style. Look at the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Band, for example—just one of the 500 memorable images in this amazing collection, all chosen by a panel of 50 experts and each accompanied by enlightening commentary. Among the choices: the brilliantly psychedelic and way-out art from the Rolling Stones’ Their Satanic Majesties Request; Peter Tosh’s fiery cover for Bush Doctor; and the somewhat demented-looking prom queen on Hole’s Live Through This album. From rock to pop, jazz to blues, these are all artistically, stylistically, and culturally significant in their own way, and will undoubtedly spark a debate with fans around the world.

2008-2009 Annual Supplement to The Piano Book: Buying & Owning a New or Used Piano (Annual Supplement to the Piano Book)

Larry Fine

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Piano Bood Supplement 2008-09 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Great book if you are shopping for a Piano. It gives you a wealth of information regarding pianos, piano manufacturers and the whole industry. This is the supplement to The Piano Book - so it has the updates on manufacturer reviews (lots of changes in the last 5 years due to Asian manufacturing, company mergers, and ones that are no longer in bus).

Editorial Review:

Supplying list prices for more than 2,500 currently made piano brands and models, as well as advice on how to estimate actual street prices to help negotiate the lowest possible price, this annual complement to The Piano Book offers the information necessary to differentiate between a good deal and a great deal when buying a piano. Anyone in the market for a new or used piano—including teachers, technicians, students, and aficionados—can make a more informed purchase using this definitive and singular guide. Completely updated information on piano manufacturers, instrument models, prices, and current trends and conditions in the piano market is also included.

1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die

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Total reviews: 38 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

MOVE OUT OF THE 1960s, PLEASE. 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Fun reading, covering the decades from the 1950s into the 21st century, but I have some serious disagreements with many of the LPs listed here.

The editors and authors are obviously baby-boomers who never got past the Summer of Love mentality. There are WAY TOO MANY releases from the late 60s that are fawned over. The Electric Prunes! Come On! And NOTHING by Ravi Shankar is a "must hear". Ravi's best release was the sperm that created Norah Jones.

However, I do have to make this sobering observation: I have listened to more of the 1950s releases than I have the 1990s releases.

Editorial Review:

1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die is a highly readable list of the best, the most important, and the most influential pop albums from 1955 through 2003. Carefully selected by a team of international critics, each album is a groundbreaking work seminal to the understanding and appreciation of music from the 1950s to the present. Included with each entry are production details and credits as well as reproductions of original album cover art. Perhaps most important of all, each album featured comes with an authoritative description of its importance and influence. Among the critics involved in selecting the list are some of the best known music reviewers and commentators, including Theunis Bates (music writer for Time and urban editor at worldpop.com), Jon Harrington (staff writer at MTV), Seth Jacobson (writer for Dazed & Confused), as well as many others.

The Billy Joel Keyboard Book: Note-for-Note Keyboard Transcriptions

Billy Joel

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Total reviews: 25 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Something for everyone, and yet... 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

The editors of this Keyboard Book deserve the applause supplied by reviewers here. The transcriptions are neat and reasonably comprehensive.

However, as pointed out by another reviewer, there are anomalies, minor though they may be (pardon the pun). For example page 126 bar 3, the first bar of the bridge of Always A Woman has arpeggiated right-hand notes which, if compared closely with the studio recording, are at odds with those recorded. Not radically, but different nevertheless.

This volume has 16 songs in it, representing a fair cross-section of Joel's well-known and lesser-known works. Quite a few piano players may be disappointed by the editors' choices, but there's no way you could do justice to the weight and variety of his output in one volume, so leave some space on your shelf for Vols II and III and maybe more...

The Book represents good value. On another note (gotta stop doing that), as an Australian purchaser of goods from Amazon I feel the company deserves a pat on the back for speed and efficiency when it comes to processing and delivering products to "out-of-town" destinations.

Editorial Review:

15 keyboard transcriptions from the piano man himself, including: Allentown, And So It Goes, Captain Jack, Honesty, Just The Way You Are, Movin' Out (Anthony's Song), My Life, New York State Of Mind, Piano Man, Pressure, Scenes From An Italian Restaurant, She's Always A Woman, She's Got A Way, Streetlife Serenader, The Stranger.

The Definitive Christmas Collection 3rd Edition

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Comprehensive collection of holiday music 4 out of 5 stars.
20 of 21 people found this review helpful.

This book contains 126 songs (sheet music) for the December holiday season (predominantly Christmas). Although it lacks a few of the ones I was looking for, it contains not only the most popular songs, but some I'm not familiar with. The arrangement of the music in this book appears to be the originally written version instead of a chopped up, simplified, or edited version that is presented in some sheet music books. Presented for piano, vocal, and guitar.

Good basic collection of solid traditional arrangements. Good mix of popular and traditional sacred 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.

While no single collection of Christmas music is going to have everything you want in it, at least I have not found one, this is pretty darn fine for several reasons. It has a broad selection of the popular and traditional, with some lesser known numbers of each. The arrangements are interesting, but easy enough to play for someone of moderate ability and sight readable for someone who is skilled. Also, the arrangements are pretty traditional. So many arrangers feel the need of adding more colorful chords and changing rhythms. Many of us merely want good rich traditional arrangements where the harmonies of the original come through and the part writing for the for singing around a piano, and there are guitar chords and the fingering boxes provided as well.

The book is arranged alphabetically, so you can quickly find the piece you are looking for. However, if you don't know the name, it takes awhile because the book is so big. My advice for using this book to play for any occasion is to use post it notes to mark the tunes you intend to play so you can flip to them quickly.

The binding is good and strong, so it will stand up to use. While spiral binding might be preferred by some because it will lay flat, I find that they often break, get bent, or have other problems.

I like this collection a lot and recommend it.

Editorial Review:

Over 110 classics: An Old Fashioned Christmas · Away in a Manger · Blue Christmas · The Chipmunk Song · Christmas Is · The Christmas Waltz · Do They Know It's Christmas · Feliz Navidad · The First Noel · The Greatest Gift of All · Happy Holiday · A Holly Jolly Christmas · Jingle-Bell Rock · Mister Santa · My Favorite Things · O Holy Night · Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer · Santa, Bring My Baby Back (To Me) · Silent Night · We Need a Little Christmas · more.

The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection : The 350 Essential Works

Ted Libbey

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 40 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Excellent attempt at the most difficult of tasks 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

It takes guts to write a book that attempts to identify the 350-or-so most important works and their best recordings out of the entire canon of classical music. On top of that, Libbey includes a countless number of interesting, informative, and entertaining commentaries of the pieces and their recordings as well as a number of lists to provide the reader with some ideas on how to start their classical music collection. Libbey does an excellent job of providing the information in a way that will neither intimidate the classical novice, nor insult the more experienced listener. As someone who considers himself somewhere in the middle between those two extremes, I appreciated Libbey's descriptions of the pieces as a guide to "what to listen for".

As a result of this book, I discovered a wide range of composers and compositions that I was not familiar with, and deepened my appreciation and understanding of the composers and works that I already knew. Some reviewers have criticized this book for spending too much time on X and leaving out Y, or for having a skimpy section of Z. While the comments are valid, one must recognize that they miss the forest for the trees. This book could be picked apart on the details, but that would miss the thoroughness and helpfulness of this book as a whole. I would give this book 4.5 stars if allowed, but given the difficult nature of the task before Libbey, I will round up and give him 5 stars. For the approximate price of one CD, this book contains an enormous wealth of information. My hat is off to Libbey's accomplishment!

One final note, while Amazon (and other sources) have the majority of the recordings listed in this book (if not all of them), don't forget that your local library often will have many of them as well. It does not hurt to sample some of the music first to see what suits your taste before spending money on the CD.

Editorial Review:

Berlioz. Vaughan Williams. Schubert and Schumann. Mozart after the Jupiter Symphony, Bach beyond the Brandenburg Concertos, opera after The Magic Flute. In his informed and indispensible guide with over 157,000 copies in print, National Public Radio's Ted Libbey takes listeners by the hand through the classical repertory to build a music library. For the second edition, with five years of new performances to consider, five years of new releases to review, and five years of reissues to re-evaluate-the author has completely revised and updated the book.

While sticking to the essential 300 works, there are now one-third new selections and reviews, and a 50% change in discography to keep all suggested CDs up to date. The NPR Guide tp Building a Classical CD Collection will make every music lover's core collection complete.