Review of "The Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music" by Paul du Noyer

This is a huge book that measures 10-1/4 x 11-3/4". Its a hefty tome filled with the wonderful history of all the types of music that we love. The genre runs from Rock, Pop, Jazz, Blues and Hip-Hop all the way to Classical, Folk and more. You can just wander through the information, or look up your favorite genre or musical era.

I turned to the pages on jazz and found a wealth of information about my favorite type of music. All of the sections are filed with pictures both in color and black and white. Sometimes the picture is a cover of an album. You will find an explanation of the Chicago style of jazz. There is great picture of King Oliver and his band that shows a youngster named Louis Armstrong. Louie's band had just become famous and was moving up. One special touch that I enjoyed is a small printing of about four bars of music. This sample can give you a touch of the sound of this music.

As the book moves on into the Swing era section there is a "riff" for the drums printed and pictures of Gene Krupa and Count Basie. I still love all this music.

"Folk" music gets a large section that covers all types of folk music. The "Traditional" folk section covers all of those famous players of this special type of music and moves on "Political Folk and Protest Songs." Then there is Irish Folk and Contemporary Folk. You can move in the "Classic" music with "Baroque" and "Late Romantic" where you will find a lot of information.

There is no way you could cover the information in this superb book all at once. Go slowly. Enjoy carefully and save for future tours into this astounding collection of "The Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music."