Indexing of Musica Jazz
The Polillo Archive is the only Italian public library where the whole series of the most important and oldest Italian jazz magazine, "Musica Jazz", founded by Giancarlo Testoni in 1945 as "Musica & Jazz" and directed by Arrigo Polillo for many years, is kept and can be consulted.
"Musica Jazz", a major European jazz magazine, documents the establishment and development of jazz in Italy and Europe.
The service offered by the Polillo Archive is much more than simple consultation. The whole collection of the magazine has been indexed in detail for more than ten years: all names, places, festivals and discs mentioned in every issue are entered in a database that can be consulted online. The database is a unique resource for research into Italian jazz and jazz in Italy.
Of the many requests received, we were particularly honoured to help Maxine Gordon, widow of Dexter Gordon, in her research for information on concerts and recordings of the great saxophonist in Europe.
The project called for enormous investments of time, energy and resources, but is nearing completion. The years so far indexed are about two thirds of the 60 years of publication of the magazine. The issues already indexed are shown in the table below, and contain a total of 39207 articles.
In the database, articles can be searched by date, author or musician, and also by key words to facilitate searches on specific topics: instruments, styles, relationship with other arts and types of music, recordings, concert promotion, and so forth.
Once the articles of interest have been found, users can obtain them in other private or public libraries. Indeed, many enthusiasts use the site as a "virtual" index of their own collections of the magazine!
The Centre also offers the possibility of consulting literature or scanning and delivery by email, at a small fee per page. For further information and instructions, contact the Centre by email or telephone.
The index of "Musica Jazz" magazine currently includes the years indicated in the following table:
1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 | 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 | 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 | 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 |