9th edition: The narrowness of this series of Penguin guides is becoming more & more of a problem, both as jazz expands in directions the authors (now author/editor) finds distasteful and as the point of view of the author seems to become more exaggerated with age. Cook is a man dedicated to jazz as high modernist art, and he is prejudiced against jazz as popular music, dance music or youth-oriented music.

To me, this has become a serious defect in the guide. BUT, this is still the best guide to jazz recordings in many respects, especially if you share Cook's predilections or if you are a collector of historic jazz from any era.

Also: the policy of only including CDs in print is self-defeating in a world where the used market makes practically everything available always.

It is probably long since time that the Cook & Morton's reviews over the many editions were collected on DVD. THAT would get a 5-star review from me. ( )