Archival Record and Resources Related to Jazz in the New Orleans Area

Jerde, Curtis; Earth Search, Inc.

Research to date has yet to establish definitively where and how jazz originated. However, popular consensus has long held that New Orleans occupies a unique position in that regard. The documentary record underscores the city's preeminence, at least in terms of producing and/or fostering a predominance of performing artists and ensembles in the formative and classic periods of the music's development, as well as in its repertory influence within the same approximate time frame. Moreover, the sociological infrastructure essential to the germination of that music, as well as other kindred forms, found its earliest and strongest manifestation in New Orleans and the surrounding region. The annotated listing that follows focuses upon those resource repositories with holdings that allow serious research regarding the subject at hand and which also provide linkage to the Crescent City and its valuable heritage. For obvious reasons, the listing emphasizes repositories located in or near New Orleans. However, resource repositories exist elsewhere that pertain to jazz generally and that include material related specifically to the New Orleans legacy. These are also included in the listing. The listing begins with a discussion of those repositories available in and around the Crescent City, private and public. A briefer listing of repositories located elsewhere in the country follows, again including both private and public holdings. The listings reflect attention given specifically to bibliographic, discographic, visual, and vital data resources, both retrospective and contemporaneous.