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Jazz Music

Jazz Music was effectively published in two undeclared series: first, as the bulletin of the Jazz Sociological Society from 1943 to 1944, edited by Albert J. McCarthy and Max Jones; and from 1946 to 1960, edited by Max Jones (to 1950), Tony Starke and Reg Cooper (1950-1952), and Steve Lane (1953-1960). Initially, issues bore the title Bulletin of the Sociological Society for Students of Hot JAZZ MUSIC; in the second series, “The International Jazz Magazine.”  The first three issues were originally printed as pamphlets and reissued as a combined issue 1-3. A total of 76 issues appear to have been published, monthly in the first series and somewhat irregularly in the second until postwar paper availability allowed for regular printing.

1943-1944

The Jazz Sociological Society was founded by McCarthy and Jones in 1942 to “delve into the social significance of jazz,” its origins, and the influence of economic conditions upon the creation and creators of jazz.1 McCarthy and Jones saw these issues through a racial lens—“the urge to create jazz was inherently coloured”—at a time when issues surrounding race and color were sharply contested in wartime England, then serving as a base for allied troops of various colors and nationalities.2 Based in Neasden, a northwest suburb of London, the Society was formed around political beliefs which tended anarchist.

In this first series, McCarthy and Jones focus predominantly on issues of discrimination. Racism in the southern United States, music in Harlem (New York), Black persons in Hollywood films, portraits of Black musicians, a serialized history of slavery, sexism in segregation and jazz, these are recurring themes, presented empathetically if somewhat categorical and structural in approach. Langston Hughes’s articles in the Chicago Defender are frequently reprinted. Jones, who would spend most of his career researching the blues, wrote regularly on blues musicians and the sociological milieu in which the blues developed. Both editors contribute record recommendations; information for record collectors and poetry are regular features. Other contributors include Stanley Dance, Graham Boatfield, Charles Fox, Jeff Aldam, Peter Tanner, Charles Wilford, James Asman, Ken Hawkes, Bill Kinnell, Claude Lipscombe, John Vyse, George Duffield, Ken Brown, Nicholas Moore, and R. G. V. Venables.

Between June 1944 and June 1946, the period of paper rationing at the end of the war, the Society was allowed to publish short books or pamphlets in lieu of proper issues of Jazz Music.  As such, ten booklets on aspects of jazz appeared:  Chicago Documentary: Portrait of a Jazz Era, Jazz Folio, Jazz Miscellany, Piano Jazz (in two parts), This is Jazz, Jazz Review, and A Tribute to Huddie Ledbetter.  These booklets effectively served as defacto “issues” for Jazz Music until its resumption.

1946-1960

In 1946, Jazz Tempo and Discography, both publications for record collectors, were merged into Jazz Music. Thus the “new” Jazz Music introduced an expanded discography section, including a serialized study of the Okeh record catalog and an “Investigation Department” for record collectors.  From 1946 to 1952 under the editorships of Jones, Starke, and Cooper, the expanded Jazz Music became a more professionally-produced journal, averaging 32 pages per issue, illustrated with well-reproduced photography.

The general themes of the earlier series, especially the attempts to address and understand issues of race and jazz’s socio-economic beginnings, continue although the topics and musicians discussed veer towards traditional, New Orleans and hot jazz idioms. Critical and probing essays, analytical discographies, record reviews, and advertisements comprise each issue’s content.

In 1953, production costs became unsustainable and the new editor Steve Lane was forced to change to a typescript-reproduction format, with little to no illustrations and with a growing influence of record collectors and discographers. As the self-described “International Jazz Magazine,” reports on jazz in Belgium, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, the Netherlands, Poland, and the United States are a regular feature. Jazz Music ceased with the July-August 1960 issue (vol. 11 no. 7/8).

1 “Editorial.” Jazz Music 1, no. 1 (1943): 2.

2 See J. P. Robinson, “Hot Jazz and Air Raids.” Medium.com, 20 December 2016. URL.

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