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Music quick guide: Jazz: Home

Online and print resources

About this guide

This is the jazz quick guide for finding books, e-books, scores, journals, magazines, newspaper articles, streaming audio and video recordings. 

Use the above tabs to help navigate this guide; don't hesitate to schedule an appointment or chat with a librarian if you need assistance.

If you are looking for a general guide to music research at MIT, click here. 

Tips for Searching our Collections

Browsing the stacks in the Lewis Music Library is a great way to visually assess our collection in order to locate the materials best suited for your needs. Because the books are presented according to the Library of Congress classification system, they are ordered by subject and therefore you will likely find several books related to your topic of interest in the same section. 

To read more about music call number classification, click here. 

For quick reference, here are some helpful call number ranges relating to jazz music:

- General works on jazz: ML3506
- Biographies of jazz composers: ML410
- Biographies of jazz performers: ML421-ML422
- Jazz instruction, improvisation & accompaniment: MT68

Searching by subject

Searching the catalog using subject headings is a great way to refine your search to a specific topic range. 

To search by subject in the catalog:

  1. In the library catalog, open the Advanced Search tab.
  2. Under "Search Filters", change "Any Field" to "Subject" using the dropdown menu.
  3. Search with a subject heading, such as the examples below.
  4. After finding relevant books in the catalog, try using additional subject headings in the catalog record to find books on similar topics.

Recommended Subject Headings

  • Jazz
  • Jazz Dance
  • Jazz in motion pictures
  • Jazz in literature
  • Jazz in art
  • Cool jazz
  • Women jazz musicians 
  • African American women jazz singers
  • Studies and exercises (Jazz)
  • Guitar music (jazz)
    *    note: swap the instrument in the above heading to match your search interests, such as:
    piano music (jazz) or saxophone music (jazz).

Reference Materials

Oxford Music Online (includes Grove's Dictionary of Music)

Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Grove Music Online, Oxford Dictionary of Music, and Oxford Companion to Music.

Many print-only encyclopedias and bibliographies are available in the library; see especially Ref ML102.J3 and Ref ML128.J3.

Lewis Music Library Department Head

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Avery Boddie
he/him
Contact:

Jazz at MIT

Music at MIT Oral History Collection

Includes interviews with MIT jazz musicians

MIT Music and Theater Arts Section

History of the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble

MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble

Learn more about MIT's Big Band Ensemble

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