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Jazz

Last Updated: 25-Mar-2015

Find recordings, printed music, books, and articles on all aspects of jazz.

Subject Librarians

Ray Heigemeir, Music Library
Ray Heigemeir
Public Services Librarian for Music
Music Library
(650) 384-9985

Subjects

Music
Jazz

Around Stanford

Stanford Jazz Workshop

Media

Streaming audio

These databases provide access to thousands of jazz releases.  Note that a small number of tracks are not available in the United States.

Naxos music library. Jazz [electronic resource].
[S.l.] : Naxos Digital Services Ltd.
Stanford University Libraries » Online resource » (no call number)

A mobile app is available for this database.

Jazz music library [electronic resource].
[Alexandria, VA] : Alexander Street Press
Stanford University Libraries » Online resource » (no call number)

The Mosaic series

Mosaic records released over 100 CD sets of classic jazz recordings. Browse them here:

› See all 134 results
  1. The complete Arista recordings of Anthony Braxton [sound recording].
  2. The Reprise studio recordings [sound recording]

    Duke Ellington. 1999

  3. The complete Candid recordings of Charles Mingus [sound recording].

On DVD

Jazz DVDs in the Music LIbrary include the Jazz Icons series, as well as other performances. See also, Ken Burns:

Jazz [videorecording] / a Florentine Films production ; produced by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick ; a film [directed] by Ken Burns ; written by Geoffrey C. Ward.
[Washington, D.C.?] : PBS DVD ; Burbank, CA : distributed by Warner Home Video, c2000.
Music Library » Recordings » MDVD 3 EPISODE 1

Jazz discographies

The jazz discography [electronic resource] / Tom Lord.
West Vancouver, B.C. : Lord Music Reference, c2006.
Stanford University Libraries » Online resource » (no call number)

General discography of all categories of recorded jazz, from 1896 to today. Covers all categories of jazz and other creative improvised music, including Traditional, Swing, Bop, Modern, Avant-Garde, Fusion, Third Stream, etc.

Many jazz discographies are available in print in the Archve of Recorded Sound.  A few are also available onlline. Search in SearchWorks, or browse titles here:

› See all 482 results
  1. Rigler-Deutsch Index Magnetic Tape Recovery Project data set
  2. The jazz discography [electronic resource]

    Tom Lord. 2004

  3. 85 years of recorded jazz [electronic resource] : A-Z complete : (1897), 1917-2002

    Walter Bruyninckx ; Domi Truffandier. 2003

Jazz CDs--new arrivals

All circulating jazz recordings may be searched in the SearchWorks catalog.

› See all 1947 results
  1. Complete Commodore & Decca Eddie Condon & Bud Freeman sessions
  2. Columbia and RCA Victor live recordings of Louis Armstrong and the All Stars [sound recording].
  3. The complete Dial modern jazz sessions
  4. Offering : live at Temple University

    John Coltrane. 2014

  5. The Rosemary Clooney CBS radio recordings 1955-61 [sound recording]

    Rosemary Clooney. 2014

  6. The rough guide to Arabic jazz [sound recording].
  7. The complete Chick Webb & Ella Fitzgerald Decca sessions (1934-1941) [sound recording].
  8. The complete Clifford Jordan Strata-East sessions
  9. The complete Muse sessions [sound recording].
  10. The original mono recordings [sound recording]

    Miles Davis. 2013

Printed music

Note that scores for jazz solos are shelved with other solo repertoire for individual instruments.

 

Browse the stacks:

M 1366 Jazz ensembles
M 1630.18 Jazz fake books
MT 68 .A334 Jamey Aebersold Play-A-Long series

 

The Aebersold Play-A-Long series numbers over 100 volumes, and have an accompanying CD.

 

Reference works

Oxford music online [electronic resource].
[Oxford, England] : Oxford University Press
Stanford University Libraries » Online resource » (no call number)

Begin your research by reading the article on JAZZ in the New Grove Dictionary, part of Oxford Music Online.

In the Reference Room:

The new Grove dictionary of jazz / edited by Barry Kernfeld.
2nd ed. New York : Grove's Dictionaries Inc., 2002.
Music Library » Reference (non-circulating) » ML102 .J3 N53 2002 V.1
The Virgin encyclopedia of jazz / compiled and edited by Colin Larkin.
Rev. and updated [ed.]. London : Virgin in association with Muze UK Ltd., 2004.
Music Library » Reference (non-circulating) » ML102 .J3 V57 2004
Jazz scholarship and pedagogy : a research and information guide / Eddie S. Meadows.
3rd ed. New York : Routledge, 2006.
Music Library » Reference (non-circulating) » ML128 .J3 M34 2005
The Penguin jazz guide : the history of the music in the 1,001 best albums / Brian Morton and Richard Cook.
London ; New York : Penguin Books, 2010.
Archive of Recorded Sound » Reference (non-circulating) » ML156.4 .J3 M67 2010
A biographical guide to the great jazz and pop singers / Will Friedwald.
1st ed. New York : Pantheon Books, c2010.
Music Library » Reference (non-circulating) » ML102 .J3 F75 2010
Free jazz and free improvisation : an encyclopedia / Todd S. Jenkins.
Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 2004.
Music Library » Reference (non-circulating) » ML102 .J3 J46 2004 V.1

Many jazz discographies are available in print in the Archve of Recorded Sound.  A few are also available onlline. Search in SearchWorks, or browse titles here:

› See all 482 results
  1. Rigler-Deutsch Index Magnetic Tape Recovery Project data set
  2. The jazz discography [electronic resource]

    Tom Lord. 2004

  3. 85 years of recorded jazz [electronic resource] : A-Z complete : (1897), 1917-2002

    Walter Bruyninckx ; Domi Truffandier. 2003

Books and articles

Browse the stacks:

ML 3505- General histories
ML3518 Big bands, dance bands
ML 3561 Jazz in America
MT 68 Improvisation and arrangement


Use the indexes listed on the databases and indexes page to find articles on jazz.

Browse a list of jazz periodicals here. 

Browse new jazz books:

› See all 2595 results
  1. After Django : making jazz in postwar France

    Tom Perchard. 2015

  2. Als der Jazz nach Kassel kam : Streifzüge durch die Szene der ersten Nachkriegsjahrzehnte

    Ullrich Riedler. 2015

  3. Big Boy : the life and music of Frank Goudie

    Dan Vernhettes with Christine Goudie and Tony Baldwin. 2015

  4. Charles Lloyd : a wild, blatant truth

    Josef Woodard. 2015

  5. Civic jazz : American music and Kenneth Burke on the art of getting along

    Gregory Clark. 2015

Archival collections

Most collections are located in the Archive of Recorded Sound.

Monterey Jazz Festival logo

The Monterey Jazz Festival Collection

Recordings of live performances throughout the history of this enduring American cultural institution.

The Williams Quartette

Bob Arnold Collection

Bob Arnold was a popular music historian and collector in Albany, California.

Riverwalk Jazz logo

Riverwalk Jazz Collection

Riverwalk Jazz: Live At The Landing educated and entertained public radio listeners with a program devoted to celebrating traditional jazz and popular music of the pre-war era.

l to r: Jim Cullum Sr., Willson Davis, Louis Armstrong, Harvey Kindervater, and Jim Cullum Jr., 1965.

Jim Cullum Collection

The Happy Jazz Band was formed in 1962 by Jim Cullum with his son, Jim Cullum, Jr. in San Antonio, Texas.

Richard Hadlock

Richard Hadlock Annals of Jazz Collection

Open reel tape recordings of the “Annals of Jazz” radio program produced and hosted by historian and educator Richard Hadlock, broadcast on KCSM, San Mateo between 1982 and 1991.

Earl Hines, New York, ca. Mar. 1947

Ken Ackerman Collection

The Ken Ackerman Collection consists of broadcast recordings of live jazz performances from the 1950s and 60s, captured at various clubs in San Francisco, particularly Club Hangover.

Web resources

Smithsonian Jazz
The Smithsonian Institution has a long record of leadership in preserving and promoting the historical legacy of jazz, presenting diverse jazz programs, and jazz education.
Jazz: a film by Ken Burns
This site accompanies the PBS series, available on DVD at both Music and Green libraries. Check SearchWorks for call number and availability.
Jazz online
Reviews, FAQs, video interviews, bulletin board, audio and video clips, artist interviews, archives.
Jazz.com
Jazz.com covers the world of jazz music with reviews, interviews, forums, jazz art galleries, the jazz.com blog and the latest jazz news.
Red Hot Jazz Archive
Jazz history to 1930.
Jazz pronunciation guide
From the New England Jazz Radio Cooperative
Jazz on the screen
This searchable filmography documents the work of some 1,000 major jazz and blues figures in over 20,000 cinema, television and video productions (Library of Congress)
The National Jukebox
Early sound recordings online (Library of Congress)
Harlem.org
Explore jazz history through one photograph.

Archives and organizations

San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation

Preserving the San Francisco traditional jazz legacy with RealAudio clips of vintage recordings, live performances, and historic photos and articles.

The Brubeck Institute (University of the Pacific)

The Brubeck Institute advances the multi-disciplinary study, performance and perpetuation of Dave Brubeck's musical compositions, recordings, performances, career, times, influence and influences, with emphasis on, but not limited to, jazz.

Institute of Jazz Studies (Rutgers University)

The Institute of Jazz Studies is the largest and most comprehensive library and archive of jazz and jazz-related materials in the world.

Chicago Jazz Archive (University of Chicago)

Founded in 1976 to preserve materials on the birth and early growth of Chicago jazz.

Hogan Jazz Archive (Tulane University)

The Hogan Jazz Archive is a renowned resource for New Orleans Jazz research. The collection includes oral histories, recorded music, photographs and film, and sheet music and orchestrations. It also maintains files of manuscripts, clippings, and bibliographic references; vintage and contemporary books and periodicals; and discographies and encyclopedias.

Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz

An essential forum for identifying the music's new voices, honoring its present and past masters, and making the jazz aesthetic available and comprehensible in concert halls and classrooms around the world.

National Jazz Archive (UK)

We are the UK’s repository and research centre for printed material, photographs and memorabilia concerning jazz, blues and related music. We aim to inspire and tell the story of jazz in the UK.

Jazz-Institut Darmstadt

Europe's largest public research archive on jazz.