Chicago Jazz Archive Quick Links
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Chicago Jazz Archive Finding AidsSearchable contents listings of Chicago Jazz Archive collections.
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University of Chicago Library: Finding AidsSearch all Special Collections online finding aids.
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Contact Special Collections Reference StaffAsk Special Collections Reference Staff for assistance with CJA materials. They can help to arrange a research visit and answer questions about CJA collections and materials.
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Guidelines for Use of Special CollectionsProcedures for using CJA material in the Special Collections Research Center Reading Room
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How to set up an account in the SCRC request system (pdf)Online user accounts let researchers request materials materials prior to a visit.
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SCRC Permission request for printed materialForm to request permission to reproduce or publish printed materials from the Special Collections Research Center.
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SCRC Permission request - archival and manuscript materialForm to request permission to reproduce or publish archival and manuscript material from the Special Collections Research Center.
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UChicago Maps | Parking: North CampusNorth Campus Parking map has links to Hyde Park and city maps.
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Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research CenterHome page for the Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, where Chicago Jazz Archive materials are housed and used. Email Special Collections
Selected Historical Works on Chicago Jazz
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Jazz from the beginning / by Garvin Bushell as told to Mark Tucker ; 1998.Lots of Chicago stories, mentions specific venues.
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Riffs & choruses : a new jazz anthology / edited by Andrew Clark; 2001.Pulls together some contemporary accounts that can be difficult to find. Different structure and focus from Keeping Time, below. Chapters on Jazz and Myth, and Jazz and Literature.
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Destination Chicago jazz / Sandor Demlinger and John Steiner; 2003.Great photos but errors in captions; cross-check with other sources.
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Black beauty, white heat : a pictorial history of classic jazz, 1920-1950 / by Frank Driggs & Harris Lewine ; 1995 DaCapo reprint.Photos from one of the finest privately-held jazz photo collections in the U.S. Entire chapter on Chicago.
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Pioneers of jazz : the story of the Creole Band / Lawrence Gushee; 2005.Several important Chicago jazz figures worked with the Original Creole Band; Lil Hardin Armstrong's first gig was with them.
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From jazz to swing : African-American jazz musicians and their music, 1890-1935 / Thomas J. Hennessey; 1994A chapter on Chicago plus a nice discussion of territory bands.
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Chicago jazz : a cultural history, 1904-1930 / William Howland KenneyTHE place to start understanding the Great Migration and its effect on jazz in Chicago.
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A power stronger than itself : the AACM and American experimental music / George E. Lewis; 2008.The official history of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), which began in Hyde Park, near the University of Chicago.
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The freedom principle : jazz after 1958 / John Litweiler; 1984.Intro to modal and free jazz; mentions Chicagoans Sun Ra and members of the AACM.
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The Velvet Lounge : on late Chicago jazz / Gerald Majer; 2005.Fred Anderson's Velvet Lounge, www.velvetlounge.net
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That toddlin' town : Chicago's white dance bands and orchestras, 1900-1950 / Charles A. Sengstock Jr.; 2004.Also mentions relationships between various musicians unions.
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John Steiner, "Chicago." In Jazz; new perspectives on the history of jazz by twelve of the world's foremost jazz critics and scholars. Edited by Nat Hentoff and Albert J. McCarthy; reprint 1974.John Steiner grew up with Chicago jazz; his vast collection is in the Chicago Jazz Archive, Special Collections Research Center. See SCRC links in left column of this LibGuide tab.
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That moaning saxophone : the Six Brown Brothers and the dawning of a musical craze / Bruce Vermazen; 2004.The six Brown Brothers are widely believed to be the first New Orleans group to come to Chicago c. 1915.
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Keeping time : readings in jazz history / edited by Robert Walser; 1999.Different structure and focus that "Riffs and Choruses," above. Covers free jazz and the AACM.
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Bronzeville conversations : the tempo of the times : the struggle for an integrated musician's union / Charles E. Walton; 1993.Chicago was one of the cities that had segregated musicians' unions. Charles Walton was a member of Chicago's Local 208; Local 208 together with members of Local 10 fought for an integrated Chicago Federation of Musicians, now known as Local 10-208.
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Esquire's jazz book / edited by Paul Eduard Miller ; introd. by Arnold Gingrich3 vols.: 1944 theme "Hot Jazz 1934-44"; 1945 is "New Orleans"; 1946 is "Chicago." Maps on endpapers. Paul Eduard Miller's papers are at the Center for Black Music Research Library and Archives.
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Encyclopedia of ChicagoA collaboration between the Chicago History Museum, the Newberry Library, and Northwestern University
AACM and Free Jazz
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AACM Members | Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians : ChicagoOfficial Website for the AACM in Chicago; photo directory of members.
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The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians : New YorkOfficial website of the AACM's New York Chapter; includes a list of members.
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Jazz Institute of Chicago Jamil Figi Papers, SCRCContains AACM newsletters, concert and event flyers, programs, photographs, and ephemera.
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ProQuest Dissertations & Theses This link opens in a new windowThere are several dissertations on the AACM and free jazz.
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A power stronger than itself : the AACM and American experimental music / George E. Lewis; 2008.The official history of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), which began in Hyde Park, near the University of Chicago.
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The freedom principle : jazz after 1958 / John Litweiler; 1984.Intro to modal and free jazz; mentions Chicagoans Sun Ra and members of the AACM.
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Keeping time : readings in jazz history / edited by Robert Walser; 1999.Different structure and focus that "Riffs and Choruses," above. Covers free jazz and the AACM.
Subject Guide
Sources for Understanding the Nature of Jazz
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What to listen for in jazz / Barry Kernfeld; 1995.Kernfeld is the editor of the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz 2nd Ed., now part of Grove Online in Oxford Music Online.
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What jazz is : an insider's guide to understanding and listening to jazz / Jonny King; 1997.Guide to what happens on the bandstand.
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Saying something : jazz improvisation and interaction / Ingrid Monson; 1996.Improvisation as conversation.
1920's Jazz at the University of Chicago
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[University of Chicago Jazz Band entirely composed of women, playing their instruments in a room].From the Library of Congress
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[Unidentified member of the University of Chicago Jazz Band, sitting on a piano and playing banjo].From the Library of Congress, Chicago Daily News.
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[University of Chicago Jazz Band members, playing saxophone and banjo].From the Library of Congress, Chicago Daily News.
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[University of Chicago Jazz Band entirely composed of women, playing their instruments in a room, looking toward the camera].From the Library of Congress, Chicago Daily News.
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[University of Chicago Jazz Band members, playing the piano, saxophone, and banjo].From the Library of Congress, Chicago Daily News.