The Rough Guide to World Jazz

For a long time, the Rough Guide series was indispensable for world music fans. Within one CD, they would take you through everything you needed to know about the music of a certain genre, artist, culture or country. They showcased the best and most typical tracks of each subject, as well as throwing in some interesting outliers to highlight the breadth of music on offer. The tracks came from a wide range of sources, even including ones that were difficult to come across.

Those days have passed. For the past few years, the Rough Guides have been including more and more tracks from their sister label, Riverboat Records. Now, we get The Rough Guide to World Jazz, of which all 13 tracks are taken from albums on Riverboat Records. It's very frustrating. The music included is good enough, with a wide range of artists from India, Poland, Tunisia, the US, Bulgaria and more (and including Debashish Bhattacharya's 16-minute epic with John McLaughlin, A Mystical Morning'), but when it boils down to it, this is little more than a label sampler masquerading as an essential, genre-spanning guide. As a former devotee of the series and someone who has learned a great deal from them, this is a disappointing low in the impressive legacy of the Rough Guide series.