THE JAZZ CENTRE UK LIBRARY
RESEARCH, LEARN, LISTEN, WATCH, ENJOY
Alongside the National Jazz Archive (NJA) in Loughton, we are a rare resource in Britain. Within our Jazz Library you are able to explore a huge collection from beginnings of Jazz to the present day on everything from 78 to vinyl, CD, tape, video, books, periodicals, letters, pictures and rare heritage artefacts.
One of our founding aims was to provide a 'Research Centre' and enquiry service for jazz in collaboration with the NJA. Since 2016, we have exceeded our aims and expanded year-on-year archiving new and rare collections from The 100 Club, Peter Vacher, Humphrey Lyttelton and more.
RESEARCH RESOURCES
Are you a student, teacher, researcher or jazz enthusiast? We invite you to make use of our collections and resources within our Research Centre; the collective name for our archived materials and resources available to the public.
Our research collections house over 160 English language titles dating back to a 1927 issue of Melody Maker. There are large collections of all the wide circulation music magazines of the 20th century: American magazines Downbeat (from 1938 to 2012) and Mississippi Rag from 1973 to 2005; UK titles such as Melody Maker (1927 to 1960), Jazz Journal (1948 to date), and Crescendo (1962 to 2009); and the Canadian magazine, Coda (1958 to 2008).
We also have heritage collections of Louis Armstrong, Humphrey Lyttelton, Sir John Dankworth, Spike Robinson and many more on display within our on-site Museum.
MEDIA ROOM
Our 'Media Centre' is the collective name for our vast audio and visual collections available to the public. Jazz enthusiast heaven with a collection of over 7000 jazz vinyl records, a CD collection, digital resources and the audio and video equipment necessary to access our library of digital and analogue jazz recordings. We also have rare audio formats within our heritage collections including tape, 16" WW2 transcription disks and wax cylinders.
We have Vinyl players set up with headphones for private listening or musicians who wish to sit and transcribe. These vinyl players are USB connectable so students can transfer the audio from vinyl onto a laptop for private research if they wish.
Listen In
The best way to experience our music collection is to attend one of our weekly listening club sessions 'Listen In' commonly hosted on Fridays at 1 PM. Learn more about Listen In on our 'Join a Club' page or check our events listing for upcoming meetings.
LIBRARY EVENTS - CLUBS, TALKS, WORKSHOPS & LECTURES
The Media Centre is one of our key venues for hosting book launches, talks, clubs, workshops and lectures. We bring in weekly crowds for our community-driven activities centred around music and film.
Our past events have included book launches, talks on personal recounts of jazz history, documentary launches and studies of jazz history.
ONLINE RESOURCES
