Penguin Disappointments

[Reid]

The Penguin Jazz Guide to CDs is a great resource. If an album receives a four stars or higher, I usually like the album, at the very least. However, there have been times when I had to scratch my head on some of the picks. What are some of the ratings that you really disagreed with?

Here's one that comes to mind. Recently I picked up Wayne Peet's Fully Engulfed. They really liked the album, and their comparison to Lifetime convinced me to pick this up. Well, I find the album to be kinda slow and lifeless, myself.

Another album I didn't care for was Position Alpha's crown winning album. (I can't remember the title right now.) I'm not a big fan of all-saxophone groups, but this album was far from the best I've heard, and as far as I know, this is the only all-saxophone group to receive a crown in the guide.

Here's another disagreement I had: Corea's Now He Sings, Now He Sobs. Man, they're pretty dismissive of that album, although maybe in the new edition they give the album four stars. I think the older editions either left this album out or gave it only 3 stars.

[Reid]

Here's another one:

Franck Amsallen--Another Time ****
Amsallen--piano; Gary Peacock-bass; Bill Stewart-drums

I never heard of Amsallen until I read the review of this album in the Penguin Guide. Here are some of their comments:
"The writing is exquisite;..." "...among the finest piano trio we have heard in a long time..." and "we're in danger of gushing and embarassing ourselves. Sample this wonderful recod at all costs." They also assured the reader that the original printing of this album would be a collector's item.

Anyway, based on their "gushing" I picked this one up. It's not a bad album at all, but I fail to see what the gush was based on. He reminded the most of Chick Corea, whom I like, but still, I don't what all the fuss was about.

[stonemonkts]

I'm sure everyone who has purchased CDs based on the Penguin guide have had disappointments, but this is certainly to be expected. I happen to like the Amsallem CD, but I'll offer a few that I wish Penguin did a better job with description:

Alex Cline - Constant Flame
This is beautiful music with moments to be savored BUT it is very far from what I was expecting based on Penguin. I've sold my copy (but taped it first...I'm not knocking the music, but I wasn't looking for this type of thing when I purchased it).

Kurt Elling - The Messenger
Eh. 4 stars? Not in my book.

Blakey/Monk -The one they awarded the crown. An ok session but far from my favorite Monk. In fact I would have awarded it 3 stars. (I have my collection on a spreadsheet and just for fun I have the Penguin rating along with my own personal one).

Hamiet Bluiett - Live at Carlos 1
At the risk of being flamed...I have to say between the terrible sound and tepid playing I was surprised the label released it. I like Bluiett very much but sold this CD after 2 listens (disliked it MORE the second time).

Chick Corea - Music Forever and Beyond
80% of this box set is cheesy smooth-sounding stuff which makes the hair on my neck stand.

I'd better stop here since I've barely scratched the surface. I still love the Penguin guides!

[Gary Sisco]

My only major disappointment with the newest edition, so far, is that there isn't an entry for Bill Dixon.

[Nate Dorward]

The main disappointment in the current edition is that it's got a recurring "bug": the majority of **(*) rankings in previous editions have by accident been promoted to ***(*) rankings. They seem to have made a hasty last-minute attempt to get rid of the rogue rankings--although not very accurately: most memorably, they accidentally switched the ratings between two Azimuth discs, so that the ***(*) becomes **(*) & vice versa.

I can't think of too many gross errors in there, though there are a few doozies (in particular, the low ranking for Nabatov's The Master and Margarita). There's a few bizarre judgments--for instance, that Saxophone Solos forms an ideal introduction to Evan Parker (though an important disc, it's one of his most abrasive & least approachable), or that the mediocre You Are #6 is one of Don Byron's finest moments. Their enthusiasm for even the cheesiest DD Jackson disc (cf Sigame) is also peculiar. But on the whole it's about as useful a reference-book as you can get.

[moneyp]

I've yet to warm up to FREE FALL...

And although I wouldn't stoop to "disappointment," I don't understand what's so great about the crowned Al Haig and Howard Riley discs, either.

[Uli]

Cook & Morton are the biggest penguin diappointments for me.