The Center for Black Music Research Collection contains materials that reflect many areas of Black music including collections from composers, ethnomusicologists, music researchers, music journalists, and also scores, published music, and audiovisual collections across all genres. These collection guides, or finding aids, provide access to materials held in archival special collections. The guide describes the organization and offers content information so researchers can discover relevant information.
Many musical works listed in these guides are handwritten; those listed with a publisher's name are printed. Please check the guides for more information.
Additional guides will be added as they are completed..
Please contact archives@colum.edu with questions.
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Guide to the Herbert Zane Knauss Collection
Columbia College Chicago
Herbert Zane Knauss served as the University of South Carolina's Director of Information Services and was a jazz enthusiast who combined his musical passion with local history by creating a documentary about South Carolina native Dizzy Gillespie titled Cheraw for Dizzy. The collection holds radio broadcasts Zane Knauss produced about jazz artists and the original soundtrack for his documentary film about Dizzy Gillespie.
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Guide to the Irene Britton Smith Collection
Columbia College Chicago
Irene Britton Smith taught in the Chicago Public Schools and during summer vacations, studied music, earning a MM from DePaul University. The collection contain her compositions for orchestra, solo violin, and piano and choral works and spiritual arrangements as well as books and works by other composers.
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Guide to the James Furman Collection
Columbia College Chicago
The James Furman Collection contains materials relating to several genres of music, writings, including his unpublished book on gospel music, personal papers, and original and copies of musical compositions; most was collected while he taught at Western Connecticut State University in Connecticut.
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Guide to the Jean Stor Collection
Columbia College Chicago
Jean Stor was the pseudonym of William Astor Morgan, a composer, choral conductor, and playwright, who worked mainly in New York City. The collection contains manuscripts and scores for a number of symphonies, tone poems, concertos and other classical works, along with choral works, spiritual arrangements, art songs, popular songs, and theatrical numbers as well as several play scripts, short stories, and photographs.
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Guide to the Kenneth M. Bilby Oral History Collection on Foundations of Jamaican Popular Music
Columbia College Chicago
Sound recordings and accompanying logs of oral history interviews conducted by Dr. Kenneth M. Bilby with studio musicians and arrangers active in the creation of Jamaican popular music during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. The collection is open for on-site research use only and cannot be copied or distributed without the permission of Kenneth M. Bilby.