The Newark Experience

IJS Home

The Institute of Jazz Studies, located on the 4th floor of the Dana Library, is the largest and most comprehensive library and archive of jazz and jazz-related materials in the world. The collection includes material relating to the history of jazz in Newark. Newark Jazz Materials [From the Newark Archives Project]

"A Photo Gallery: The Institute of Jazz Studies Celebrates Its First Fifty Years," Annual Review of Jazz Studies 12, 2002, pp.117-134. Available?

World's Largest Jazz Archive Housed at Rutgers. Short video.

Newark's jazz radio station. Listen Now

"WBGO Hits 25 Years On Air" Jennifer Odell. Downbeat 71(5), May 2004, p. 16. Available?

Swing City : Newark Nightlife, 1925-50.

Barbara J. Kukla. Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 1991.

Discusses Newark as a center for African American music and entertainment in the the first half of the 20th century. Based on interviews with musicians, singers, dancers, comedians, bartenders, waitresses and nightclub owners and their families. Available? 2002 Available?

America's Music: Jazz in Newark

Barbara J. Kukla. West Orange, NJ, Swing City Press, 2014

Jazz in Newark from the 1920s to the present. Includes the stories of locally know artists as well as nationally celebrated Newark musicians. Available?

Newark's Lost Jazz Shrines [Videorecording]

"Short biographical documentary on ragtime/stride/early jazz pianist and composer Willie 'The Lion' Smith, with special focus on the Newark, New Jersey music scene in the early part of the century." Available?

[The Early Years of Savoy Records]. [Videorecording] 1998

The early history of Newark-based Savoy Records, one of the most important record labels in the history of jazz and gospel. Available?

"Newark & Music in the 1950s: Oral History,"

Blue Newark Culture 1990, 46-73.

Special section consists of: Heard, Nathan C. "Remembrances of Little Jimmy Scott in Newark in the 1950s," pp.46-55. Mendelsohn, Fred. "Maybelle, Freddie, & Herman," pp.56-65. ["Big Maybelle", Fred Mendelsohn, and Herman Lubinsky] Candena, Ozzie. "Jimmy, Ozzie, & Herman," pp.66-73. [Ozzie Candena, Jimmy Scott, and Herman Lubinsky] Available?

"Spirit and Redemption: The Soul of Jimmy Scott,"

Gary Jardim. Blue Newark Culture 1990, 74-93. Available?

Faith in Time: The Life of Jimmy Scott

David Ritz. Cambridge, MA, Da Capo Press, 2002. Available?

"Blue Coda: The Triumph of Jimmy Scott, "

Gary Jardim. Blue Newark Culture 1993, 156-160. Available?

Footprints: The Life and Work of Wayne Shorter

Michelle Mercer. New York, J.P.Tarcher/Penguin, 2007.

Biography of the Newark saxophonist. Available?

Shorter Stories: The Music and LIfe of Wayne Shorter.

Jason Andrew Mitchell. Thesis (M.A.), Rutgers University, Newark, 2014.

Wayne Shorter: The Final Interview

Michael Jackson and Phillip Lutz. Down Beat 90(5), May 2023, pp. 22-30. Rutgers-restricted Access

JJ's Theme: Newark Jazz Clubs of the 1960s and 70s.

Leo Johnson. Thesis (M.A.), Rutgers University, 2005. Available?

Newark Songbirds: Jazz Through the Years

Newark, N.J., 2010

Calendar featuring women jazz singers from Newark. Available?

"Conversation with Hal Mitchell: Jazz Patriarch of Newark," Rutgers-restricted access

Gary Carner. Black Perspective in Music 17(1/2), 1989, 109-134. Available?

"The Soul of Trombone--Grachan Moncur III,"

Sean Singer. Cerise Press: A Journal of Literature, Arts & Culture 4(10), Summer 2012.

Oral history interview conducted with Newark trombonist Grachan Moncur III on October 19, 2011.

The Brick: Newark's Artistic Inquiry Into Urban Crisis

Sean Daniel Singer. Thesis (Ph.D.). Rutgers University, 2013.

Focuses on five Newark-born artists to show how close attentive readings of their work can reveal fresh thinking about urban problems. Looks at poet Amiri Baraka and novelist Philip Roth; jazz trombonist Grachan Moncur III; poet Lynda Hull; and photographer Helen Stummer. Available?