The Canadian Jazz Discography, 1916-1980

J.V. Rahilly was an engineering librarian in Ontario.

Through the good graces of the University of Toronto Press and jazz collector-CBC radio engineer Jack Litchfield, Canadian jazz fans now have access to the listings of the prime jazz records laid down by “Canadian” jazz performers. Litchfield’s wide-ranging criteria include 1) all jazz records recorded in Canada; 2) all jazz records recorded outside Canada by those who were Canadian residents at the time of recording; 3) piano rolls by Canadian jazz artists (6 pages); and 4) Canadian films containing jazz (23 pages). Thus, Paul Bley and Moe Koffman are covered, as well as Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong, who recorded in Canada, but not Maynard Ferguson, since he neither recorded here nor is a resident. The section on Oscar Peterson is 89 pages long, or 15 percent of the entire discographic coverage. For each artist there is a short biography and a listing by title of the tunes recorded, with standard discographic elements (personnel, instruments, dates and places of recordings, matrix numbers where applicable, label names and serial numbers, tune titles, and composers). Litchfield considers only issued recordings — that is, tunes that were available for sale and distribution as they are (there are, of course, thousands of alternate takes and unissued items, many of them lost forever). There is an index of tune titles, musicians, CBC recordings, and small labels. A remarkable resource tool that many libraries should own, if not for the discographic material then for the valuable biographies.