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| The Jazz Discography | |
|---|---|
| Title | The Jazz Discography |
| Editor | Tom Lord |
| Discipline | Jazz studies |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Lord Music Reference |
| Firstdate | 1992 (print); 2000s (electronic) |
| Country | United Kingdom / Germany |
The Jazz Discography is a comprehensive discographic reference compiled and edited by Tom Lord documenting jazz recordings, sessions, and personnel worldwide. It serves scholars, librarians, collectors, and performers researching entries for artists, labels, sessions, and recording dates across multiple eras and regions. The work intersects with scholarship on jazz history, record industry studies, and cataloging practices in musicology.
The Jazz Discography provides systematic listings of jazz recording sessions and issued records, drawing connections between artists such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Chet Baker, Art Blakey, Ornette Coleman, Stan Getz, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Gerry Mulligan, Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Pat Metheny, Wynton Marsalis, Charles Mingus, Max Roach, Jack DeJohnette, Paul Chambers, Tony Williams, McCoy Tyner, Lester Young, Ben Webster, Miles Davis Quintet and ensembles, as well as record labels including Blue Note Records, Verve Records, Columbia Records, Prestige Records, Riverside Records, Impulse! Records, ECM Records, Atlantic Records, Decca Records, Capitol Records, Savoy Records, Norgran Records, EmArcy Records, Clef Records, Concord Records, RCA Victor.
Initiated by editor Tom Lord, the project emerged amid bibliographic efforts like those of Giovanni Perotti, Jørgen Grunnet Jepsen, Leo Walker, and discographers such as Benny Goodman researchers and Lord's contemporaries tied to institutions like British Library, Library of Congress, National Sound Archive (United Kingdom), New York Public Library, Smithsonian Institution, Institute of Jazz Studies and archives at Rutgers University. Initial print editions were issued in multiple volumes during the 1990s, followed by CD-ROM and online editions aligning with digital cataloguing trends at organizations like OCLC, RISM, WorldCat and university libraries in Oxford, Cambridge, Berlin, Paris, New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Sydney.
Entries list session dates, personnel, instrumental roles, take numbers, matrix numbers, label issue data, and alternate takes, connecting performers such as Johnny Hodges, Paul Desmond, Gerry Mulligan Quartet, Cannonball Adderley, Nat King Cole, Jimmy Smith, Milt Jackson, Wes Montgomery, Grant Green, Kenny Burrell, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley, Art Pepper, Clifford Brown, Maxine Sullivan, Dinah Washington with technicians, producers and engineers associated with studios like Van Gelder Studio, Capitol Studios, Sun Studio, Abbey Road Studios, CBS Columbia Square, Los Angeles Recording Studio, Motown's Hitsville U.S.A. and producers such as Rudy Van Gelder, Alfred Lion, George Avakian, Norman Granz, Creed Taylor, Orrin Keepnews, Teo Macero, Bob Thiele. Geographic scope spans North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and Oceania, covering major festivals like Newport Jazz Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival and broadcasting sessions for broadcasters like BBC, NPR, NHK.
The discography employs primary-source verification through session logs, label catalogs, matrix listings, union session reports, oral histories from figures such as Sidney Bechet scholars and archives including The Institute of Jazz Studies and private collections associated with collectors like Bill Kirchner and bibliographers such as Tom Lord. Editorial practice cross-checks liner notes of releases from Blue Note Records, Verve Records, Impulse! Records, ECM Records and independent labels, contemporary periodicals such as DownBeat, JazzTimes, The New York Times, Melody Maker, The Guardian (London), and discographical standards employed by catalogers at Library of Congress and national bibliographic agencies.
Originally published in multi-volume print form, later issued on CD-ROM and as a searchable online database distributed by Lord Music Reference and affiliated distributors, the work follows metadata conventions akin to those used in MARC 21, Dublin Core and integrated library systems at institutions including Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, University of Michigan and University of California. Editions include indexes for artists, labels, and sessions and are used by curators at museums such as The Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History and archives like Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Scholars and critics in journals like Journal of Jazz Studies, Jazz Research Journal, The Black Perspective in Music, Ethnomusicology and periodicals including DownBeat, JazzTimes, All About Jazz have cited the discography for research on artists like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald and for cataloguing projects at libraries including British Library, Library of Congress and university special collections. The discography influenced discographical practice alongside works by Tom Lord contemporaries and contributed to exhibition catalogues at museums such as Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and archival releases coordinated with labels like Blue Note Records and Verve Records.
Related initiatives include discographies and databases such as The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings, AllMusic, Discogs, Jazz Discography Project, the Institute of Jazz Studies archives, and specialist bibliographies by Richard Cook, Brian Morton, J. C. G. Grünewald and other cataloguers. The work continues to inform digital humanities projects, cataloguing efforts at OCLC, restoration projects by National Recording Preservation Board and scholarship connected to festivals and archives like Newport Jazz Festival and Montreux Jazz Festival, sustaining legacy research for generations of researchers, librarians, collectors and performers.
Category:Jazz discographies