All Music Guide to Soul: The Definitive Guide to R&B and Soul

by Vladimir Bogdanov

This comprehensive guide is a must-have for the legions of fans of the beloved and perennially popular music known as soul and rhythm & blues. A member of the definitive All Music Guide series, the All Music Guide to Soul offers nearly 8 500 entertaining and informative reviews that lead readers to the best recordings by more than 1 500 artists and help them find new music to explore. Informative biographies, essays and "music maps" trace R&B's...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0879307447
• ISBN13: 9780879307448
• Release Date: June 2003
• Publisher: Backbeat Books
• Length: 914 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.1" x 7.5" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

love this book

this is a great book,anything u ever wanted to know about any r & b singer,group,that ever created u will find in this book.

All The Soul Info You'll Need From Brother Ray To Beyonce'

Only one thing needs to be said here-there have been some tremendous innovations in R & B since this book was written (John Legend for example arrived just a year too late for a mention in this book)but it is wonderful to see R & B get the press that All Music Guide as given to classical,rock,blues and jazz music over the years.This covers everything from the early jump blues R & B of the late 1940's all the way up to the first CD's by Alicia Keyes,Jill Scott and Justin Timberlate-treating all genres with a great degree of respect.Even disco-albums by the genre's greatest innovators Chic,Giorgio Moroder,Donna Summer and Sylvester all get glowing,respectful reviews that showcase their gigantic musical influence.By explainging contemporary R & B in context with more classic material this volume has actually helped me great to flush out my collection of newer music such as the final album by Aaliyah.There are a few flaws in this volume-the print is small yes but forgivable.But as with all All Music Guide volumes,to save space some albums are listed but considered too insignificant to merrit a review so are presented only as an item in an artists discography.The other flaw is the critics-Stephan Thomas Erlwhine seems to have more rock expertise and refers to P-Funk,the most anti disco of the classic funk bands as,you got it:a disco funk group.Ron Wynn obviously has far more knowledge and experience with R & B,soul,funk and other styles.Those little foibles aside the All Music Guide to R & B presents a genuinely non biased primer to those who want to start collecting or expand there R & B collection.It should also be noted that some older albums in here,even if they got excellent reviews and come highly recommended are out of print will take some time to locate in used record stores (some of Heatwave's and Motown's late 70's material for example)but this book often points that out and trust me:in all these cases it's well worth the search.