Quick Links: Jazz dictionaries
- Dan Burley's jive / edited by Thomas Aiello; 2009.Contains two works by Dan Burley in one volume: Dan Burley's Original Harlem Jive (1944) and Diggeth Thou? (1959). Burley was a journalist and worked for several African-American publications 1920-1950, including the Chicago Defender, Ebony, and Jet.
AACM and Free Jazz
- AACM Members | Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians : ChicagoOfficial Website for the AACM in Chicago; photo directory of members.
- The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians : New YorkOfficial website of the AACM's New York Chapter; includes a list of members.
- Jazz Institute of Chicago Jamil Figi Papers, SCRCContains AACM newsletters, concert and event flyers, programs, photographs, and ephemera.
- ProQuest Dissertations & Theses This link opens in a new windowThere are several dissertations on the AACM and free jazz.
- 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.
- The freedom principle : jazz after 1958 / John Litweiler; 1984.Intro to modal and free jazz; mentions Chicagoans Sun Ra and members of the AACM.
- 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.
Introduction
Writing a paper on Chicago jazz for a class?
When writing on historic Chicago jazz musicians, start by looking at biographies and musician accounts in the Library's collections, then move on to newspapers and periodical indexes (quick links are under the Home tab on the toolbar above.) When researching more recent jazz musicians, use a search engine to find that person's website; information coming directly from the musician is usually the most reliable. Then check periodical indexes, The Chicago Reader archives, and newspaper indexes.
For most jazz clubs, start with the Nightclubs -- Chicago section of Grove Music, which is part of Oxford Music online; the link is below. Then move to the online Chicago Tribune and Chicago Defender newspapers. For very new clubs, check websites, The Chicago Reader website, and periodical indexes.
The Library's general jazz collection contains resources on major figures, periods, and movements in jazz. These include online resources, books, periodicals, media, and microforms. Selected resources to get started on papers about Chicago jazz are found below; use the Library Catalog to find music and media that augment the print and online sources here. When a CD comes with a book, the call number is noted with the book entry in this LibGuide.
The tabs on Researching Chicago Musicians and Researching Chicago Jazz Venues may prove useful once a paper topic has been chosen. There are quick links to many sources on the Home tab. The Understanding Jazz and Chicago Jazz History and Great Migration tabs can provide important background sources for papers.
Students at all levels working on papers or theses that require extensive use of primary sources may wish to delve into the Chicago Jazz Archive collections in the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC), or examine sources held in other Chicago repositories -- see the Libraries and Archives tab.
- Jazz Discography This link opens in a new windowThe Lord jazz discography. Only 2 users at a time -- please keep sessions short, and remember to log out when you're done! Print discographies can be found in the library catalog and in the Chicago Jazz Archive collections in SCRC. The Jazz Discography covers all categories of jazz and other creative improvised music, including Traditional, Swing, Bop, Modern, Avant-Garde, Fusion, Third Stream, etc. It covers leaders from A to Z and as of January 2008 contains: 34,861 leaders; 181,392 recording sessions; 1,030,109 musician entries and 1,077,503 tune entries. The period covered by TJD Online is from 1896 to 2008 inclusive.
- Jazz Subject Files Collection, SCRCThe Jazz Subject Files Collection documents primarily jazz in Chicago, from the 1990s through the present. The collection is compiled by the Chicago Jazz Archive and contains articles, programs, ticket stubs, calendars, fliers, postcards, photographs, posters, buttons, and other ephemera about musicians, festivals, concerts, performances, venues, organizations, record companies, radio stations, television, film, and other events related to Chicago jazz.
- John Steiner CollectionJohn Steiner's collections contains research files for and photographs of many Chicago jazz and blues musicians.
- Encyclopedia of ChicagoA collaboration between the Chicago History Museum, the Newberry Library, and Northwestern University
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Chicago Defender (1910-2010) This link opens in a new window
- Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new windowGrove Music (which includes Grove Jazz) and the Encyclopedia of Popular Music include biographical info on musicians. Grove Music also has a section on Nightclubs arranged by city, a good place to start researching jazz clubs.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Chicago Tribune (1849-2014) This link opens in a new window
Early Blues Figures
- Chicago Blues Resources - Chicago Public LibraryIncludes a link to the Chicago Blues Archive at Harold Washington Library.
- Ma Rainey and the classic blues singers. Stewart-Baxter, Derrick; 1970.Series editor is blues expert Paul Oliver.
- Paramount's rise and fall : a history of the Wisconsin Chair Company and its recording activities / Alex van der Tuuk; 2003.Paramount was a major blues label 1917-1932; John Steiner bought it and revived it for a time, see the link to the John Steiner Collection in SCRC in this page's Introduction.
They Played Chicago
- Just for a thrill : Lil Hardin Armstrong, first lady of jazz / James L. Dickerson. 2002Lil Hardin Armstrong was a bandleader in Chicago in her own right before she met and married Louis; she was the second of his four wives. She was a major figure on the Chicago jazz scene until her death.
- Jazz from the beginning / by Garvin Bushell as told to Mark Tucker ; 1988.Garvin Bushell toured with Mamie Smith, Ethel Waters, Fletcher Henderson, Cab Calloway, and several traveling musicals. He was in Chicago often on tour and with extended runs of musicals and knew many Chicago musicians.
- Walter Henri Dyett Papers - Chicago Public LibraryMany of Chicago's most celebrated jazz musicians studied with Capt. Walter Henri Dyett at Wendell Phillips or Du Sable High School. The Dyett papers are held at the Vivian Harsh Collection of Afro-American History and Literature.
- Drummin' men : the heartbeat of jazz, the swing years / Burt Korall ; 1990.Includes Chicago musicians Gene Krupa, Sid Catlett, Dave Tough, George Wettling, and Ray Bauduc.
- George Spink Collection, SCRCThe George Spink Collection in the Chicago Jazz Archive contains transcripts and audiotapes of Spink's interviews of Bud Freeman and Richard "Dick" Wang. Located in the Special Collections Research Center.
- Eddie Harris House Of JazzOfficial site for the late, great Chicago tenor man.
- Selections from the gutter : jazz portraits from "The Jazz record" / edited by Art Hodes and Chadwick Hansen; 1977.Articles on many Chicago musicians. No index.
- Really the blues [by] Mezz Mezzrow and Bernard Wolfe; reprint, 1972.Originally published 1946. Best read with a jazz slang dictionary; the Citadel Underground 2001 printing on Amazon.com has a slang glossary included. Otherwise see the Jazz Dictionaries box in the left column.
- Home - JAZZ MUSIC BY AHMAD SALAHELDEENWebsite honoring the late Ahmad Salaheldeen. Contains a bio, pictures, and other information on this important Chicago musician.
- Jess Stacy, the quiet man of jazz : a biography and discography / by Derek Coller; 1997.Accompanying CD is in the Recordings Collection under
call number ML417.S82C65 1997. - It wasn't all velvet : an autobiography / by Mel Tormé; 1988.Mel went to Hyde Park High School.
- Lost chords : white musicians and their contribution to jazz, 1915-1945 / Richard M. Sudhalter ; 1999,Call number for the CD is AudCD Retriev 2
Subject Guide
Louis Armstrong
- Louis Armstrong : the life, music, and screen career / Scott Allen Nollen; 2004.Focus is on Armstrong's film and TV career.
Sun Ra (Herman "Sonny" Blount)
- Sounds from Tomorrow's World : Sun Ra and the Chicago Years 1946-1961Online exhibit of materials from the Alton Abraham Papers of Sun Ra, held in SCRC.
- Francis Davis: Interview with Sun Ra (1990)" - Ra, et al. - Slought FoundationAudio interview took place Monday January 29, 1990 at the Sun Ra house in Philadelphia; runs 129 minutes.
- Omniverse Sun Ra / Harmut Geerken et. al., 1994.Comprehensive pictorial and annotated discography, including record title index, composition index, personnel index, instrument index, Saturn record label and vinyl number index, record label index and essays, photo documents, tapeography, filmography, bibliography / Hartmut Geerken, Bernhard Hefele ; photography by Val Wilmer.
Jelly Roll Morton
- "Oh, Mister Jelly" : a Jelly Roll Morton scrapbook / compiled by William Russell ; 1999.Contains facsimilies of the handwritten Morton manuscripts held in the William Russel Collection at the Historic New Orleans Collection, see below.
- Jelly Roll Morton and the Frog-I-More Rag from American Treasures of the Library of CongressFrom American Treasures of the Library of Congress.
- Historic New Orleans Collection - William Russell CollectionMaterial on New Orleans musicians, including many who moved to other cities, notably Chicago, New York, and various points in California. Items of note: handwritten manuscripts of Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton; extensive jazz memorabilia and sound materials.