From the roisterous jazz invention of Louis Armstrong to the cranky clockwork of Thelonious Monk, to the sleek transcontinental fusion of Pat Metheny, 'The Playboy Guide to Jazz' evokes the living rhythm, exuberance, and complexity of the world's most original and varied music tradition. Selecting and analysing 250 of the best jazz CDs, Playboy columnist and noted jazz critic Neil Tesser provides a hands-on history of recorded jazz, placing such key artists as Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Stan Getz, Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughan, Wynton Marsalis, and Dave Brubeck, and their seminal recordings into context. This is the most insightful and indispensable guide available.