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The Jazz Discography, Version 4.4 [CD-ROM].

Article Excerpt
For information regarding the scope of this column, consult the headnote in the September 2004 issue (p. 194 of this volume). All Web sites were accessed 24 November 2004.

The Jazz Discography, Version 4.4 [CD-ROM]. Tom Lord. West Vancouver, B.C.: Lord Music Reference Inc., 2004. [Contact: http://www.lordisco.com; lord@lordisco.com; fax/phone: (604) 926-9822. $330. Purchasers of version 3.3 are eligible for 50 percent discount on 4.4. Requires: Windows 95 or higher, or Macintosh OS 9 or higher (OS X required for printing); 300 Mhz CPU speed; 15 MB drive space (or 650 MB if data copies to hard drive); 64 MB RAM (124 MB preferred); 16X CD-ROM speed (or 2X if data copied to hard drive).]

85 Years of Recorded Jazz (1917-2002, A-Z Complete) [CD-ROM]. Walter Bruyninckx and Domi Truffandier, 2004. [Contact: lucien.bruyninckx@telenet.be; Walter Bruyninckx, 121 Lange Nieuwstraat, BE-2800 Mechelen, Belgium. Orders received in U.S. by Barb Hauser, 328 Andover St., San Francisco, CA, 94110, barb@girlrep.com. $350. Requires: Adobe Acrobat version 4.0 or higher.]

The recent release of two comprehensive discographies on CD-ROM covering all or most of the recorded history of jazz marks a watershed in music research. Despite some problems and controversies, they are essential for any school in which jazz research takes place.

The first complete comprehensive jazz discography on CD-ROM came from Tom Lord in 2002 (version 3.3), about a decade after he began publishing his print volumes. Version 4.4 is his first updated edition. Lord's Web site promises progressive updates for future versions. Bruyninckx began publishing discographies in the 1960s, lending his name a legendary iconic status. After four CD-ROM releases covering different sections of the alphabet, a fifth release (the first complete edition) was published by Bruyninckx and Truffandier (hereafter referred to as just Bruyninckx), and is the one reviewed here. A letter accompanying the Bruyninckx CD-ROM indicates that one final installment eliminating typographical and other errors and updating it to December 2006 is targeted for release in mid-2007.

Unlike record label and artist discographies (e.g., Cuscuna and Ruppli 2001, Sheridan 2001), which enjoy solid authoritative publications on reputable academic presses, comprehensive discographies (sometimes called "metadiscographies") have had to fend for themselves in the thankless world of do-it-yourself publications. Questions of accuracy, copying (less charitably called plagiarism), and citation of sources plague them, perhaps an inevitable...