What will you listen to, analyze, or interpret to write your research paper? What have other jazz scholars investigated, studied, and interpreted to make their arguments? Evidence sources--also known as primary resources--can be things like sheet music, sound recordings, reviews, interviews, art, letters, and more!
Jazz Journals and Magazines
- RIPM Jazz Periodicals
This link opens in a new window
Full text access to 20th Century American jazz periodicals reproduced from originals in various conditions and formats. Produced in collaboration with the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University.
Scores and Recordings available at IU
- IUCAT This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
Search IUCAT to view the scores, recordings, and videos owned by the library
- Music Online: Jazz Music Library
- This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive collection of streaming jazz, including thousands of artists, ensembles, albums, and genres.
Jazz Archives Collections Outside of IU
Hogan Archive Oral Histories Collection at Tulane
The Hogan Archive oral history collection consists of several hundred interviews, culled from over 2,000 reels of taped oral history recordings, with musicians, family members, and observers that document stories surrounding the emergence of jazz and its related music and culture in New Orleans from the late 19th century forward. It is the largest collection of jazz oral history extant, and the recordings are from 1948-1997, with the majority from the 1950s and 1960s.
Laurraine Goreau Interviews and Recordings
The interviews from the Laurraine Goreau collection were recorded by Goreau from 1971 to 1975 during her research into the life of Mahalia Jackson for her 1975 authorized biography of Jackson, Just Mahalia, Baby. The interviews chronicle the life of Mahalia Jackson, the popular New Orleans-born vocalist and civil rights activist known worldwide as the “Queen of Gospel.” The interviews include details about Jackson’s life, including her childhood, marriage, health, singing and music career, religious engagement, political engagement, and accomplishments up until her death in 1972.
Institute of Jazz at Rutgers:
https://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/newark/visit-study/institute-jazz-studies
Outstanding collection that includes oral histories and other special items. There are several mini-collections they have digitized for your free access in their Digital Portal.
Library of congress: you can do a search for jazz (or other keywords) and limit results in a number of ways, including the facet “manuscript/mixed material”:
https://www.loc.gov/
Newspapers
- New York Times with Index (1851-2010)
- This link opens in a new window
Full text of New York Times articles from 1851-2010, plus searching using the Times Index 1851-1993. - African American Newspapers
- This link opens in a new window
This collection of African American newspapers contains a wealth of information about cultural life and history, with first-hand reports of major events and issues of the day. Includes complete text of articles published in the United States.
- African American Newspapers (1827-1998)
- This link opens in a new window
Provides searchable, online access to more than 350 U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African-American experience. Includes newspapers from more than 35 states covering life in the Antebellum South, growth of the Black church, the Jim Crow Era, the Great Migration, Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights movement, political and economic empowerment, and more.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers
- This link opens in a new window
Digital archive of historical newspapers. Each issue of each title includes the complete paper, cover-to-cover, with full-page and article images.
Even More to Explore
- Filmakers Library Online
- This link opens in a new window
Search for jazz, or use any other keywrods to view documentaries. Presents points of view and historical and current experiences from diverse cultures and traditions worldwide. - African American Experience: the American Mosaic
- This link opens in a new window
Primary and secondary resources on African American history and culture.
- Black Thought and Culture
- This link opens in a new window
Collection of approximately 100,000 pages of non-fiction writings by major American black leaders—teachers, artists, politicians, religious leaders, athletes, war veterans, entertainers, and other figures—covering 250 years of history. In addition to the most familiar works, Black Thought and Culture presents previously inaccessible material, including letters, speeches, prefatory essays, political leaflets, interviews, periodicals, and trial transcripts. The ideas of over 1,000 authors present an evolving and complex view of what it is to be black in America.
- American History in Video
- This link opens in a new window
American History in Video provides a collection of documentaries, newsreels and archival and public affairs footage.