The Jazz Institute of Chicago Archives at the University of Chicago

The Archives of the Jazz Institute of Chicago is a rich source of primary materials for the study and enjoyment, as well as preservation, of the city's unique musical and cultural history.

Housed at the Regenstein Library of the University of Chicago and (when the Covid-19-related campus closure ends) freely accessible to the general public, Archives materials are indexed online for anyone to search.

Inventories include:

• The Jazz Institute of Chicago Records 1959 - 2008, including administrative material, publications, photographs, audio-visual material, articles, ephemera, and audio material which document the organization's events, board meetings, and involvement in the Chicago jazz community.

• The Jazz Institute of Chicago Oral Histories 1977 - 2016 contains drafts, transcripts and audio and video recordings of interviews with Chicago musicians and jazz activists ranging from "Banjo Ikey" Robinson, who recorded with Jelly Roll Morton, to Muhal Richard Abrams, eminence of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) and a co-founder of the Jazz Institute. Don DeMicheal, a drummer, DownBeat editor and activist Jazz Institute president in the 1970s, and John Steiner, the foremost authority on early jazz in Chicago whose vast holdings are also represented elsewhere in the Library's special collections.

• Related collections: University of Chicago Library Chicago Jazz Archive Exhibits Records 1954-2006, including assets regarding the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians), “From Dreamland to Showcase: Jazz in Chicago, 1912-1996,” and “Jazz-The Chicago Scene: The Art of Stephen Longstreet.”

The Archive Committee of the Jazz Institute of Chicago continues to produce oral histories (currently via Zoom) and consider donations of collections -- with the exception of commercial recordings -- focused on Chicago jazz. To contact the Committee, email jazzmandel@gmail.com.