Let's be honest, any book called, 'The Knowledge. Jazz', is going to suffer from one big problem: you can't write the feeling that music gives. The only true way to appreciate any music, is to listen to it. The difficulty there is that when, like me, one has so little knowledge of the subject, it is almost impossible to know where to start, and this often leads to one not bothering.

This book oozes wisdom and knowledge upon the topic of Jazz music and gives the reader a structure against which to build their understanding, and collection of jazz recordings. I suspect that the depth of detail would make this a useful addition to a jazz aficionado's bookshelf: I thoroughly recommend it to anyone wishing to gain access to the world of jazz music. ( )