''The Jazz Discography'' is a print, CD-ROM, and online
discography
Discography is the study and cataloging of published sound recordings, often by specified artists or within identified music genres. The exact information included varies depending on the type and scope of the discography, but a discography entry ...
and sessionography of all categories of recorded jazz — and directly relevant precursors of recorded jazz from 1896. The publisher, Lord Music Reference Inc., a British Columbia company, is headed by Tom Lord and is based in
Chilliwack, British Columbia
Chilliwack ( )( hur, Ts'elxwéyeqw) is a city in the province of British Columbia, Canada. Chilliwack is surrounded by mountains and home to recreational areas such as Cultus Lake, British Columbia, Cultus Lake and Chilliwack Lake Provincial Park ...
, Canada. The initial 26 of 35 print volumes, which comprise the discography, were issued from 1992 to 2001 in alphabetic order.
In 2002, ''The Jazz Discography'' became the first comprehensive jazz discography on
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...
.
Scope
''The Jazz Discography'' covers all categories of jazz and other creative improvised music, including
traditional
A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...
,
swing,
bebop
Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early-to-mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo, complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerous changes of key, instrumen ...
, modern,
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
,
fusion
Fusion, or synthesis, is the process of combining two or more distinct entities into a new whole.
Fusion may also refer to:
Science and technology Physics
*Nuclear fusion, multiple atomic nuclei combining to form one or more different atomic nucl ...
,
third stream
Third stream is a music genre that is a fusion of jazz and classical music. The term was coined in 1957 by composer Gunther Schuller in a lecture at Brandeis University. Improvisation is generally seen as a vital component of third stream.
Schu ...
, and others. As of January 2008, the database contained 34,861 leaders, 181,392 recording sessions, 1,030,109 musician entries, and 1,077,503 tune entries.
Early listings
There is an ongoing debate over when and where the word "jazz" became a common, commercial reference for the jazz genre, a genre that predates the word.
Bert Kelly
Charles Robert "Bert" Kelly CMG (22 June 1912 – 17 January 1997), was an Australian politician and government minister. He was influential in moving Australian political parties away from support for high-tariff policies.
Early life
Kelly ...
(1882–1968), a banjoist and jazz club owner from Chicago, is known for having used the word "jass," on his Chicago venue marquee in 1914.
To resolve such vagaries, ''TJD Online'' allows users to search by year, beginning 1896. The two listings of 1896 are the compositions of
Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin ( 1868 – April 1, 1917) was an American composer and pianist. Because of the fame achieved for his ragtime compositions, he was dubbed the "King of Ragtime." During his career, he wrote over 40 original ragtime pieces, one ra ...
, preserved on piano rolls — not performed by Joplin — but subsequently recorded many times.
There is a prevailing consensus that the first commercially released jazz recording was the "
Livery Stable Blues
"Livery Stable Blues" is a jazz composition copyrighted by Ray Lopez ''(né'' Raymond Edward Lopez; 1889–1979) and Alcide Nunez in 1917. It was recorded by the Original Dixieland Jass Band on February 26, 1917, and, with the A side " Dixieland ...
" (third take), recorded on February 26, 1917, by the
Original Dixieland Jass Band
The Original Dixieland Jass Band (ODJB) was a Dixieland jazz band that made the first jazz recordings in early 1917. Their "Livery Stable Blues" became the first jazz record ever issued. The group composed and recorded many jazz standards, the m ...
of
.
Sources
Numerous data sources comprise the database. They include existing general and individual jazz discographies and international jazz periodicals. With initial mixed sentiment over some sources, reviewers observed that Lord borrowed heavily from, but expanded upon, the major comprehensive jazz discography work of
Walter Bruyninckx, whose research was, and still is (as of 2013), ongoing.
Sentiment grew mostly positive after the 26th printed volume was published. Additional input has, and still is being received from recording companies and their catalogs and the issues of ''
Cadence
In Western musical theory, a cadence (Latin ''cadentia'', "a falling") is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards.Don Michael Randel (1999) ...
'' magazine covering many recordings not listed in other discographies. Individuals — particularly record collectors, musicologists, and jazz historians — have, and continue to provide data.
Discography format and categories
The project is organized alphabetically by bandleader, and within each individual entry, chronologically by
recording session The term studio recording means any recording made in a studio, as opposed to a live recording, which is usually made in a concert venue or a theatre, with an audience attending the performance.
Studio cast recordings
In the case of Broadway m ...
. For each session, it identifies track and album titles, personnel and instrumentation, location and date, and recording label and numbers. Indexes are organized alphabetically by musician and by tune title.
The discography includes recording dates but excludes release dates.
Limited data for
cassette
Cassette may refer to:
Technology
* Cassette tape (or ''musicassette'', ''audio cassette'', ''cassette tape'', or ''tape''), a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback
** Cassette single (or "Cassingle"), a music single in th ...
releases
Some commercially available
cassette
Cassette may refer to:
Technology
* Cassette tape (or ''musicassette'', ''audio cassette'', ''cassette tape'', or ''tape''), a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback
** Cassette single (or "Cassingle"), a music single in th ...
releases have been included in ''The Jazz Discography,'' but the publisher makes no claim to completeness.
Publication sets
''The Jazz Discography'' (print)
About Tom Lord
Before embarking on ''The Jazz Discography'', Tom Lord had been a mechanical engineer and, later, an executive at a shipping container company. Lord, together with
Bob Rusch
Robert D. "Bob" Rusch (born April 3, 1943 in New York City) is an American jazz critic and record producer. Rusch has also been accused of allegedly sexual abusing students when he worked as a teacher.
Biography
Rusch studied clarinet and drums ...
, founded
Cadence Jazz Records
Cadence Jazz is an American record company and label specializing in noncommercial modern jazz. It is associated with ''Cadence Magazine''.
Cadence Jazz was founded by Bob Rusch in Redwood, New York in 1980.
By 2000 the label had issued more t ...
in 1980, an offshoot of ''
Cadence
In Western musical theory, a cadence (Latin ''cadentia'', "a falling") is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards.Don Michael Randel (1999) ...
'' magazine. Lord financed the record label launch and was a silent partner. In the 1990s, Lord also indexed back issues of ''Cadence''.
References
{{Reflist, 30em, refs=
[Tom Lord, ''The Jazz Discography Online'', Lord Music, (accessed 10 December 2013; subscription required; accessible at many libraries); {{OCLC, 690104143 (subscription fee required; accessible at many libraries)]
Letters: Discography An Enormous Task
'' by Tom Lord, ''Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'', February 21, 1998, pg. 5
['']Coda
Coda or CODA may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* Movie coda, a post-credits scene
* ''Coda'' (1987 film), an Australian horror film about a serial killer, made for television
*''Coda'', a 2017 American experimental film from Na ...
,'' Issues 247–252, pg. 32
[Review: ''Comprehensive Discographies of Jazz, Blues, and Gospel'', by ]Barry Kernfeld
Barry Dean Kernfeld (born August 11, 1950) is an American musicologist and jazz saxophonist who has researched and published extensively about the history of jazz and the biographies of its musicians.
Education
In 1968, Kernfeld enrolled at U ...
and Howard Rye, ''Notes
Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to:
Music and entertainment
* Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music
* Notes (album), ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian
* ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) sho ...
'', March 1995, pps. 865–891
{{Indent, 3Response: ''Communications,'' by Tom Lord, ''Notes
Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to:
Music and entertainment
* Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music
* Notes (album), ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian
* ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) sho ...
'', December 1995, pps. 662–666
[Review: ''The Jazz Discography, Version 4.4 D-ROMby Tom Lord; 85 Years of Recorded Jazz (1917-2002, A-Z Complete) D-ROMby Walter Bruyninckx; Domi Truffandier,'' by Eric S. Charry, '']Notes
Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to:
Music and entertainment
* Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music
* Notes (album), ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian
* ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) sho ...
'', March 2005, pps. 833–837
Lord of the Files: His Jazz Discography Rocks
'' by John McDonough, ''Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
,'' September 12, 2007
More Important Than the Music: A History of Jazz Discography
'' by Bruce D. Epperson, University of Chicago Press
The University of Chicago Press is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including ''The Chicago Manual of Style'', ...
(2013) {{OCLC, 842307572
[''Bert Kelly’s Stables](_blank)
'' posted May 30, 2012, ''Special Collections News,'' The University of Chicago Library, Retrieved 13 August 2013
Encyclopedic Discography of Victor Records
'' Matrix No: B-19332, Label/Number: Victor 18255, University of California, Santa Barbara Libraries, Special Collections
Jazz Discography, The