The musical adventure of a lifetime. The most exciting book on music in years. A book of treasure, a book of discovery, a book to open your ears to new worlds of pleasure. Doing for music what Patricia Schultzauthor of the phenomenal 1,000 Places to See Before You Diedoes for travel, Tom Moon recommends 1,000 recordings guaranteed to give listeners the joy, the mystery, the revelation, the sheer fun of great music. This is a book both broad and deep, drawing from the diverse worlds of classical, jazz, rock, pop, blues, country, folk, musicals, hip-hop, world, opera, soundtracks, and more. It's arranged alphabetically by artist to create the kind of unexpected juxtapositions that break down genre bias and broaden listeners horizons it makes every listener a seeker, actively pursuing new artists and new sounds, and reconfirming the greatness of the classics. Flanking J. S. Bach and his six entries, for example, are the little-known R&B singer Baby Huey and the '80s Rastafarian hard-core punk band Bad Brains. Farther down the list: The Band, Samuel Barber, Cecelia Bartoli, Count Basie, and Afropop star Waldemer Bastos. Each entry is passionately written, with expert listening notes, fascinating anecdotes, and the occasional perfect quoteYour collection could be filled with nothing but music from Ray Charles, said Tom Waits, and you'd have a completely balanced diet. Every entry identifies key tracks, additional works by the artist, and where to go next. And in the back, indexes and playlists for different moods and occasions.

A ABBA to Albert AylerB Baby Huey and the Babysitters to David Byrne and Brian EnoC Café Tacuba to Cypress HillD I.K. Dairo and His Blue Spots to Bob DylanE The Eagles to Cesaria EvoraF John Fahey to FunkadelicG Peter Gabriel to Buddy GuyH Charlie Haden to Huun-Huur-TuI, J Abdullah Ibrahim Trio to Joy DivisionK Henry Kaiser and David Lindley with Musicians from Madagascar to Fela Kuti and the Afrika 70 L Steve Lacy and Mal Waldron to Lynyrd SkynyrdM Baaba Maal with Mansour Seck to My Morning JacketN, O Nas to Buck OwensP Augustus Pablo to Tito Puente and His OrchestraQ, R Queen to Mitch Ryder and the Detroit WheelsS Kaija Saariaho to System of a DownT Taj Mahal to McCoy TynerU, V Francisco Ulloa to Kevin VolansW Richard Wagner to Tammy WynetteX, Y, Z X to ZZ Top