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Research Resources:
Subject Research Guides:
Jazz:
Research
A. Collections & Archives
I. North America
II. Rest of the World
B. Bibliographies
There is no comprehensive, reasonably current jazz bibliography. The following
works may prove useful, however:
- Gregor, Carl, Duke of Mecklenburg. International Jazz Bibliography: Jazz Books from 1919 to 1968. (Universal Edition, 1969+ ; supplements for 1970-73).
- Thorough listing of jazz books from 1919 onwards. [JAZZ ML 55 .B34 and MUSIC ML 128 .J3 C4] The same author also compiled the International Bibliography Of Jazz Books, Vol. I: 1921-1949, a chronological listing of jazz books by decade, but no subsequent volumes seem to have appeared.
- Meadows, Eddie S. Jazz Research and Performance Materials: A Select Annotated Bibliography, 2nd ed. (Garland, 1995).
- Contains a wealth of material but usefulness is greatly hampered by redundancy, illogical organization, poor indexing, and sloppy editing.
[MUSIC REF, ALEXANDER ML 128 .J3 M33]
- Gray, John. Fire Music: A Bibliography of the New Jazz, 1959-1990. (Greenwood Press, 1991).
- Exhaustive listing of books, dissertations. articles, films, and videos pertaining to the musics variously labeled "avant-garde," "free jazz," "the new thing," etc.
[KILMER, MUSIC REF ML 128 .J3 G7]
- De Lerma, Dominque-Rene. Bibliography of Black Music. 4 vols. (Greenwood Press, 1981- ). [DANA, MUSIC REF ML 128 .B45 D44]
- Floyd, Samuel A., and Marsha J. Reisser. Black Music in the United States: An Annotated Bibliography of Selected Reference and Research Materials. (Kraus, 1983). [DANA, KILMER, MUSIC REF ML 128 .B45 F6]
- Floyd, Samuel A., and Marsha J. Reisser. Black Music Biography: An Annotated Bibliography. (Kraus, 1987).
- De Lerma's and the Floyd/Reisser books are valuable tools, but do not purport to be jazz bibliographies exclusively; they deal with the full range of black music. De Lerma's is an exhaustive work, documenting many rare sources, including much material on jazz. Its vast scope and lack of indexes will likely prove daunting to many students. Floyd and Reisser's works are more accessible but, again, cover the full spectrum of black music. Their jazz component, while well-chosen, is highly selective. [CAMDEN REF, MUSIC ML 128 .B3 F6]
- Skowronski, JoAnn. Black Music In America: A Bibliography (Scarecrow Press, 1981).
- Covers a wide range of musical genres. Of some 90 individual performers included, about a third are jazz artists. Although many of the listings are derivative (apparently the author relied heavily on the Music Index), the work can be useful in locating articles, provided users are aware of its shortcomings. [CAMDEN, DANA, DOUGLASS, MUSIC REF ML 128 .B45 S6]
C. Discographies
I. Library Resources
The general jazz discographies attempt to cover all jazz recordings made within a certain period. They are arranged alphabetically by the leader under whose name the recording was originally issued. Within each artist, the arrangement is chronological by recording session. Information typically supplied includes: date of recording, place of recording, titles of songs, personnel and instruments, matrix and take numbers, and label and catalog numbers. The basic general discographies are:
- Lord, Tom. The Jazz Discography. (in progress)
- Coverage varies by volume; most extend to mid-1990s. Vols 1-25 available from Cadence/Northcountry. Later volumes and CD-ROM version available directly from Tom Lord.
- Bruyninckx, Walter. 70 Years Of Recorded Jazz. (in progress)
- Coverage varies by volume; some extend to mid-1990s. In addition, Bruyninckx (pronounced "BROYNICKS") has published a version of his discography divided by style (e.g. Modern Jazz : Be-Bop, Hard Bop, West Coast [JAZZ ML 156.4 .J3 B82 1985; 6 vols.], Progressive Jazz : Free--Third Stream Fusion [JAZZ ML 156.4 .J3 B83 1984; 5 vols.], etc.). A useful feature of this compilation is an artist index which includes sidemen. Also available on CD-ROM.
- Raben, Erik. Jazz Records, 1942-80: A Discography. (in progress)
- A very accurate and comprehensive revision of Jepsen's Jazz Records. Each volume contains an artist index. Unfortunately, only five volumes (to letter EL) have appeared since its inception in 1987.
These works have, to a great extent, incorporated the following pioneering works:
- Rust, Brian. Jazz Records, 1897-1942.
- This work is still valuable because it has both an artist and song title index; it does not, however, list LP or CD reissues.
[ALEXANDER, KILMER, MUSIC REF ML 156.4 .J3 R9 1978; 2 vols.]
- Jepsen, Jorgen Grunnet. Jazz Records: A Discography. (Knudsen, 1963- )
- Termination date varies between 1963 and 1970 depending upon the volume. [KILMER ML 156.4 .J3 J41]
Many jazz discographies and other jazz books are available from the following jazz book specialists:
- Norbert Ruecker
- http://www.jazz-book.com
- Arthur Newman Jazz Books
- 10325 Elk River
- Fountain Valley, CA 92708
- (714) 968-3706 phone
- (714) 968-3921 fax
- artnewman@earthlink.net
II. Online Jazz Discography Sites
Tetsuro Kubo's
Blues And Jazz Discography Links Page contains an extensive list of discographical sites.
Michael Fitzgerald's Jazz Research Site is a valuable clearinghouse for jazz research projects and has a useful section of links.
III. Other Internet Sources of Discographical Information
The huge All Music Guide database can be a valuable first stop for a quick discographical overview of an artist’s work. It contains out of print material (including some LPs) as well as new releases. AMG will search by artist, album title, song title, label, and (of lesser use) by “style.” An Artist search yields a biography, a list of albums as leader, a list of albums as sideman, and a unique feature: a “songs appear on” list which provides information on other recordings containing compositions by a particular artist.
The commercial internet CD vendors’ websites contain a wealth of discographical data. The advantage of these sites is that the listings are constantly updated and are, by their very nature, far more current than any printed discographical source. For that reason, they concentrate on currently available recordings. Also, one must keep in mind that these are commercial sites whose purpose is to sell CDs — not to provide scholarly reference citations. Song titles, label names, and even artists are not always listed consistently. Some sites do not even list labels and/or issue numbers; they rely on their own internal identification system for ordering a particular item. Given these limitations, these sites can prove an invaluable and easily accessible tool to compiling a discography or researching an artist.
Some of the sites have search features which typically allow access by artist, album title, and song title. Some will produce a listing by label as well. All provide soundbites in RealAudio for selected tracks. Many provide basic biographical information on an artist and selected reviews (some are linked to the All Music Guide for this information). Examples are:
D. Other Research Materials
- New Grove Dictionary Of Jazz. 2nd ed. (Macmillan, 2002).
- The basic source for beginning research. Contains biographical and some topical entries. Particularly useful are the bibliographies at the end of each article which are often quite extensive. [CAMDEN, DANA, JAZZ, KILMER, MUSIC REF ML 102 .J3 N48] Much of the material is now online as part of the Grove Music Online. (Rutgers-restricted Access)
- Oxford Companion to Jazz, edited by Bill Kirchner. (Oxford University Press, 2000)
- A collection of essays on developments in jazz musicianship, instruments, and scholarship, as well as biographies of several of the greats.
[DANA REF ML 3507 .O94]
- Leonard Feather, Encyclopedia Of Jazz series; 3 Volumes: The New Edition of the Encyclopedia of Jazz (1962); The Encyclopedia of Jazz in the Sixties (1966); The Encyclopedia of Jazz in the Seventies (1976).
- Largely superseded by the New Grove. Major portion consists of biographical entries. Volumes are not cumulative; earlier editions must be consulted for fullest details of an artist's career.
- Feather, Leonard G., and Ira Gitler. The Biographical Dictionary of Jazz. (Oxford University Press, 1999).
- An update to Feather's 3-volume Encyclopedia of Jazz series from the 60's and 70's, which included much biographical material.DANA, JAZZ, MUSIC REF ML 102 .J3 F4]
- Many other jazz-related reference books are housed at the
Institute of Jazz Studies in Newark. Other sites with jazz-related materials include:
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