Jazz
Subject Guide
Mid-Continent Public Library carries some terrific resources to help discophiles build their collections of music! The Research Databases further one's knowledge of the music world in general and the different types of jazz in particular. Visit the recommended websites and be surprised at our fabulous local resources.
Jazz Books
Links to Research Databases
African American Music Reference contains more than three thousand essays and images that offer coverage of blues, jazz, spirituals, civil rights songs, slave songs, minstrelsy, rhythm and blues, gospel, and other forms of black American musical expression.
American Song contains thousands of tracks that allow people to hear and feel the music from America's past. The database includes songs by and about American Indians, miners, immigrants, slaves, children, pioneers, and cowboys. Included are the songs of Civil Rights, political campaigns, Prohibition, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, anti-war protests, and more. Content from African American Song is now a part of American Song.
Please note: This database has a simultaneous user limit. If you are unable to access it, please try again later. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Contemporary World Music contains tens of thousands of tracks that deliver the sounds of all regions from every continent. The database contains important genres such as reggae, worldbeat, neo-traditional, world fusion, Balkanic jazz, African film, Bollywood, Arab swing and jazz, and other genres such as traditional music -- Indian classical, fado, flamenco, klezmer, zydeco, gospel, gagaku, and more.
Jazz Music Library contains thousands of jazz artists, ensembles, albums, and genres. The collection includes over ten thousand albums and over one hundred thirty thousand tracks licensed from legendary record labels, including Audiophile, Concord Jazz, Contemporary Records, Fantasy, Jazzology, Milestone, Nessa Records, Original Jazz Classics, Pablo, and Prestige.
Learn about musicians, music styles, music terms, and instruments. Explore musician biographies by time period, musical style, geographical area, and more. Includes links to websites containing music, images, and sounds.
Links to Recommended Websites
Located in the Historic 18th & Vine Jazz District, the American Jazz Museum showcases the sights and sounds of a uniquely American art form through interactive exhibits and films, the Changing Gallery, the Blue Room jazz club and the Gem Theater, a 500-seat performing arts center.
"The Marr Sound Archives holds nearly 250,000 sound recordings in formats that include LPs, 78s, 45s, cylinders, transcription discs, instantaneous cut discs and open-reel tapes. The collection has very substantial and significant holdings in the following areas: American popular music, Jazz, Blues, and Country, Historic voices, Vintage radio programs, Authors reading their own works, Historic classical and operatic recordings. The popular collection dates from 1890s up to 1980."
This site offers a look at jazz through audio clips, photos, publications, escriptions of exhibits, and links to other sites.
