New Media Review

Since the announcement of RIPM Jazz Periodicals as a work-in-progress, as early as the 2015 IAML/IMS meeting in New York, music librarians and researchers have eagerly anticipated this next step for the esteemed "R-projects" (i.e., RIPM, RILM, RISM, RIdIM). Available as of May 2019, this searchable, full-text collection of over 100 American jazz journals and magazines will almost certainly not disappoint those who have been awaiting their chance to dig into it. RIPM Jazz has fundamental differences from its older siblings, but it maintains the high standard of quality that has come to be expected from RIPM, a standard that inspires excitement for the future of RIPM Jazz.

Content

The mission of RIPM Jazz Periodicals (RJP), to preserve and provide access to hard-to-find jazz periodical literature, should come as no surprise to readers of this journal and anyone familiar with the RIPM Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text 1760–1966 (RIPM FT) database (initially reviewed by Stephen L. Mantz under the title "RIPM Online Archive of Music Periodicals (Full-Text)" in Notes 66, no. 4 [June 2010]: 836–9). As advertised, RJP contains the full text of 105 journals covering the period from 1914–2006. A closer look reveals two journals with content between 1914–1918 including Christensen's Ragtime Review, which is also available in the RIPM Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text (this is the only overlap between RIPM FT and RJP). After 1918, the earliest publication in RJP is Metronome, beginning in 1932 when it shifted focus to jazz.

Looking at coverage of the ensuing decades, I counted the number of different publication titles for each year in RJP. Although this is an imperfect measurement due to variation in periodicity and page count among journals, counting the number of unique titles in a particular year gives a sense of the variety of results and perspectives to expect when performing various searches in RJP. It suggests that coverage in RJP peaks in the mid-1940s, with 16 different publications representing 1944 and 18 for 1945 and 1946. Another high point occurs about a decade later, with 16 and 15 titles representing 1956 and 1957, respectively. A complete inventory showing the number of unique titles per year can be seen in figure 1.

For many readers, a primary consideration will be coverage of Down Beat. RIPM has done us all a huge favor by including the full text of the first 30 years of this title (1934–1963). Many will wish for even more coverage, and RIPM hopes to add more volumes in future updates. Another major selling point is the inclusion of Cadence from its beginning in 1976 through 2000. Cadence's many in-depth interviews and oral histories stand as one of the towering

Fig 1.

Number of unique titles by year in RIPM Jazz Periodicals

achievements of jazz periodical literature; hopefully all the print years of Cadence can be included eventually. In terms of sheer issue quantity, the only publications to rival these two are Metronome (with coverage through its final issue in 1961) and Mississippi Rag (a few 21^st-century volumes of which are the only thing allowing RJP to advertise coverage to 2006).

The less prolific periodicals run the gamut from trade publications like Tempo (about 90 issues spanning 1933–1940) and record company organs (including Capitol and RCA) to tiny independent "rags" consisting of a few typewritten pages such as Floy Floy (a single, four-page issue from 1938) and The Jass Beat (one six-page issue from 1950). Included are publications of jazz-enthusiast clubs (The Second Line, 1950–63; Jazz Notes, 1957–65), record collectors (The Needle, 1944–45; Music Memories, 1961–65), discographers (Record Research, 1955–77; Disc'ribe, 1980–82; 78 Quarterly, 12 volumes between 1967–2002), and various chronicles of local urban jazz...