The Jazz Discography

The Jazz Discography
Editor-in-chief Tom Lord
Categories Jazz music
Publisher Lord Music Reference Inc.
Founder Tom Lord
Country Canada
Based in Chilliwack, British Columbia
Language English
Website www.lordisco.com
ISSN 1700-439X
OCLC number 48027258

The Jazz Discography is a print, CD-ROM, and online discography and sessionography of all categories of recorded jazz — and direct 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, Canada. The initial 26 of 35 print volumes, which comprise the discography, were released from 1992 to 2001 in alphabetic order.[1][2][3][4] In 2002, The Jazz Discography became the first comprehensive jazz discography on CD-ROM.[5][6][7]

Scope

The Jazz Discography covers all categories of jazz and other creative improvised music, including traditional, swing, bebop, modern, avant-garde, fusion, third stream, and the like. 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.[1]

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 (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.[8] That said, TJD Online allows users to search by year, beginning 1896. The two listings of 1896 are the compositions of Scott Joplin, 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" (third take), recorded on February 26, 1917, by the Original Dixieland Jass Band of New Orleans.[9]

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 had noted 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.[7] 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 archives of Cadence magazine covering many recordings not listed in other discographies. Individuals — particularly record collectors, musicologists, and jazz historians — have, and continue to provide data.[1]

Discography format and categories

The project is organized alphabetically by bandleader, and within each individual entry, chronologically by recording session. 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.[4]

Limited data for cassette releases

Some commercially available cassette releases have been included in The Jazz Discography, but the publisher makes no claim to completeness.[1]

Publication sets

The Jazz Discography (print)

Volume 1: A – Bankhead (1992) ISBN 1-881993-00-0 OCLC 723506346
Volume 2: Billy BanksChrister Boustedt (1992) ISBN 1-881993-01-9 OCLC 723506344
Volume 3: Boutte – Cathcart (1992) ISBN 1-881993-02-7 OCLC 723506342
Volume 4: Catherine – Dagradi (1992) ISBN 1-881993-03-5 OCLC 723506338
Volume 5: Dahlander – Dutch Dixie Devils (1993) ISBN 1-881993-04-3 OCLC 723506335
Volume 6: Dutch Swing College Band – Fischbacher (1993) ISBN 1-881993-05-1 OCLC 723506332
Volume 7: Clare FischerJános Gonda (1994) ISBN 1-881993-06-X OCLC 723506327
Volume 8: Nat GonellaEverette Harp (1994) ISBN 1-881993-07-8 OCLC 723506325
Volume 9: Billy Harper to Claude Hopkins (1994) ISBN 1-881993-08-6 OCLC 769972678
Volume 10: Duncan HopkinsDoug Jernigan (1994) ISBN 1-881993-09-4 OCLC 769972680
Volume 11: Jeff Jerolamon – Billy Kirsch (1995) ISBN 1-881993-10-8 OCLC 770790833
Volume 12: Kiruna Swingsextett – Mark Lewis (1995) ISBN 1-881993-11-6 OCLC 770790838
Volume 13: Meade Lux Lewis – Steve Masakowski (1995) ISBN 1-881993-12-4 OCLC 770793302
Volume 14: Miya Masaoka – Sid Millward (1996) ISBN 1-881993-13-2 OCLC 770790935
Volume 15: Bob Milne – Martha Nelson (1996) ISBN 1-881993-14-0 OCLC 770793777
Volume 16: Oliver Nelson – Paradise City Jazz Band (1997) ISBN 1-881993-15-9 OCLC 770793757
Volume 17: Paradise Club Band – Roy Powell (1997) ISBN 1-881993-16-7 OCLC 770790931
Volume 18: Seldon Powell – Rimaak (1997) ISBN 1-881993-17-5 OCLC 772017440
Volume 19: Sammy RimingtonJanne Schaffer (1997) ISBN 1-881993-18-3 OCLC 772017478
Volume 20: Wolfgang Schalk – Holly Slater (1998) ISBN 1-881993-19-1 OCLC 772322812
Volume 21: John Slaughter – Straight Line Jazz Ensemble (1999) ISBN 1-881993-20-5 OCLC 772473461
Volume 22: Straight Talk – Ole Thomsen (1999) ISBN 1-881993-21-3 OCLC 772681616
Volume 23: Dawn Thomson – Roy Vaughan (2000) ISBN 1-881993-22-1 OCLC 772908793
Volume 24: Sarah Vaughan – Barry Wedgle (2000) ISBN 1-881993-23-X OCLC 773031438
Volume 25: Wee Big BandTiti Winterstein (2000) ISBN 1-881993-24-8 OCLC 773197201
Volume 26: Jens WintherZzebra (2001) ISBN 1-881993-25-6 OCLC 163345247
Volume 27; Musician Index, Part 1: A – Erich Kunzel (2002) ISBN 1-881993-26-4 OCLC 163317594
Volume 28; Musician Index, Part 2: Fritz Kunzel – Doc Zywan (2002) ISBN 1-881993-27-2 OCLC 163317634
Volume 29; Tune Index, Part 1: 0 (zero) – "The Happy Ones" (2002) ISBN 1-881993-28-0 OCLC 174711185 and 163238553
Volume 30; Tune Index, Part 2: "The Happy Organ" – "Pentatitus" (2002) ISBN 1-881993-29-9 OCLC 163238603 and 174711205
Volume 31; Tune Index, Part 3: "Pentatonia" – "ZZ's Blues" (2002) ISBN 1-881993-30-2 OCLC 163238612
Volume 32; Addendum Vol. 1: A – Lucien Barbarin (2003) ISBN 1-881993-31-0 OCLC 163147004 and 314179184
Volume 33; Addendum Vol. 2: (2002) ISBN 1-881993-32-9 OCLC 163523463 and 314453083
Volume 34; Addendum Vol. 3: Jean-Paul Bourelly – Bob Casanova      (2002) ISBN 1-881993-33-7 OCLC 163523664 and 315094679
Volume 35; Addendum Vol. 4: (2002) ISBN 1-881993-34-5
The Jazz Discography (CD-ROM)
Version 3.3 (same data as Vols. 1–26)                     (2002) OCLC 50259659 and 640537268
Version 4.4 (2005)
Version 5.0: 1992–2004 (2004) OCLC 57377680 and 57518752
Version 6.0: 1992–2005 (2005) OCLC 475546570 and 62894197
Version 7.0: 1992–2007 (2007)
Version 8.0: 1992–2008 (2008)
Version 9.0: 1992–2009 (2009)
Version 10.0: 1992–2010 (2010)
Version 11.0: 1992–2011 (2011)
Version 12.0: 1992–2012 (2012)
Version 13.0: 1992–2013 (2013)
The Jazz Discography (online)
TJD Online (launched 2005) OCLC 182585494 and 690104143

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 was friends with Bob Rusch. Together, they founded Cadence Jazz Records in 1980, an offshoot of Cadence Magazine. Lord financed the record label launch and was a silent partner. In the 1990s, Lord also indexed Cadence Magazine.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 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)
  2. Letters: Discography An Enormous Task, by Tom Lord, Billboard, February 21, 1998, pg. 5
  3. Coda, Issues 247–252, pg. 32
  4. 4.0 4.1 Review: Comprehensive Discographies of Jazz, Blues, and Gospel, by Barry Kernfeld and Howard Rye, Notes, March 1995, pps. 865–891
      Response: Communications, by Tom Lord, Notes, December 1995, pps. 662–666
  5. Review: The Jazz Discography, Version 4.4 [CD-ROM] by Tom Lord; 85 Years of Recorded Jazz (1917-2002, A-Z Complete) [CD-ROM] by Walter Bruyninckx; Domi Truffandier, by Eric S. Charry, Notes, March 2005, pps. 833–837
  6. Lord of the Files: His Jazz Discography Rocks, by John McDonough, Wall Street Journal, September 12, 2007
  7. 7.0 7.1 More Important Than the Music: A History of Jazz Discography, by Bruce D. Epperson, University of Chicago Press (2013) OCLC 842307572
  8. Bert Kelly’s Stables, posted May 30, 2012, Special Collections News, The University of Chicago Library, Retrieved 13 August 2013
  9. Encyclopedic Discography of Victor Records, Matrix No: B-19332, Label/Number: Victor 18255, University of California, Santa Barbara Libraries, Special Collections