SAM DeVINCENT COLLECTION OF ILLUSTRATED AMERICAN SHEET MUSIC, ca. 1790 - 1987
#300

Series 3: AFRICAN-AMERICAN MUSIC, ca. 1828-1980

by: Karen Linn, 1989

Finding Aid to Jazz Sheet Music and Ephemera

Researchers of jazz music using the DeVincent Collection will find the materials they seek in several different categories; there is no one file for jazz. This finding aid is intended to help you, the jazz researcher, to locate what you want and also to tell you something about the kinds of materials that are in the collection.

Sam DeVincent did not group together his jazz music as he did his ragtime music. He did group together songs about jazz--these are in the African-American Music Series, subseries 3.7. Rather, Mr. DeVincent organized most of the jazz music by the name of performer, composer, or band. He then placed many jazz musicians with similar performers who generally are not included in the jazz category. For example, the Boswell Sisters, accepted as a jazz singing group, are placed with other sister vocal haromony groups who are not jazz singers. We have chosen to maintain the basic organization of Sam DeVincent and not to go through the collection pulling out those musicians that we consider to fit the term "jazz." However, a search by name of musician is easily done in the series 3 register index and the index to the container list for the entire collection.

A note about the organization of the collection. The DeVincent collection is only partially processed. The Archives Center received the collection in 795 cartons. The container list and index detail the organization of topics in these boxes. They are open to researchers and many people have successfully found what they wanted using the index to the container list. Section by section, the Archives staff will be going through the collection, organizing series, rehousing the material in acid-free containers and writing descriptions and indexes for the series. At the time of this writing, three series have been completed. The third, African-American Music, has material of interest to the jazz scholar. Other jazz items remain in the unprocessed part of the collection, but in the future they too will be rehoused. When they are moved, they will be indexed in a new series description.

The collection's jazz holdings consist mostly of sheet music and ephemera. Almost all of the sheet music is simplified piano or piano/vocal arrangements. There are no jazz orchestrations in the DeVincent collection; however there is a handful of ragtime and society orchestra arrangements. There is very little music for instruments other than the piano. In addition to the sheet music, there are music folios, including many piano folios with more complex jazz arrangements. These can be found in series 3, African-American Music, by name of pianist (for example, Theodore "Teddy" Wilson). In the unprocessed part of the collection, search the index by name of the jazz pianist, or try "piano." and "novelty piano." There is a large holding of novelty piano solos and folios and some works that lay between novelty and jazz may be found here.

For some, the ephemera files may be the most valuable portion of the collection. Because Mr. DeVincent worked at a radio station, he received, and kept, a great deal of promotional material and UPI news service printouts. He also clipped articles from newspapers and magazines. The ephemera from the fully processed section of the collection is kept in separate boxes labled with the same series and subseries number as the sheet music folders. The ephemera from the unprocessed section of the collection remains in the cartons with the music.

The DeVincent collection is strong on the big bands of the 1930s and 1940s. In addition to the jazz bands of musicians like Benny Goodman, popular dance band leaders such as Guy Lombardo and Wayne King are included to create a wide-angle view of the big band era. For early jazz, again check indexes by name and also see subseries 3.7 in the African-American Music Series. There is almost nothing in the collection on post-World War II jazz idioms.

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Below is a list of jazz musicians whose work has been placed in series 3, African-American Music. Check the index of the register to Series 3 for the exact location of their materials. Those musicians with separate ephemera folders are noted; ephemera on other musicians is in the miscellaneous folder.

Armstrong, Lillian Hardin, ca. 3 items
Armstrong, Louis, 62 items, ephemera folder with 24 items
Austin, Lovie, 3 items
Basie, William ("Count"), 5 items
Calloway, Cabell ("Cab"), 27 items
Cole, Nat ("King"), 57 items
Ellington, Edward Kennedy ("Duke"), 72 items, ephemera folder with 49 items
Ellington, Mercer, ca. 3 items
Europe, James Reese, 9 items
Fitzgerald, Ella, 8 items
Fuller, Earl, 1 item
Hampton, Lionel, 3 items
Handy, W. C., 77 items, ephemera folder with 8 items
Heywood, Edward ("Eddie"), 1 item
Hines, Earl, 5 items
Hunter, Alberta, ca. 3 items
Johnson, James Price, 27 items
Jordan, Louis, 6 items
Morton, Ferdinand ("Jelly Roll"), 13 items
Piron, Armand John, 2 items
Rainey, Gertrude Pridgett ("Ma"), 1 item
Rushing, Jimmy, 1 item
Smith, Bessie, ca. 3 items
Strayhorn, William ("Billy"), ca. 3 items
Sweatman, Wilber C., 9 items
Tatum, Arthur ("Art"), 1 item
Tyers, William H., 11 items
Waller, Thomas ("Fats"), 85 items
Waters, Ethel, ca. 6 items
Williams, Clarence, ca. 55 items
Wilson, Theodore ("Teddy"), 2 items

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Other jazz materials remain in the unprocessed part of the collection and it should be noted that the index to the container list is not as complete as the index to the registers. Additional material may be found with some educated guessing. Below is a list of musicians whose material is in the unprocessed part of the collection. The list includes those musicians who appear in The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. In addition to these individuals, there are 13 boxes of miscellaneous dance and swing bands of the 1920s to the 1940s and one box of miscellaneous female big band singers and leaders. See the index to the container list for specific locations of materials.

In the unprocessed part of the collection, the material is placed in large cartons. Most of the cartons have 3 or 4 inner boxes and often some loose material. To give you an idea of the amount of material for each individual, the following list includes the number of inner boxes (averaging 3 inches deep) and folders (from just a few to approximately 40 items in a folder) that their material occupies. These boxes and folders contain sheet music, folios, and ephemera.

Bailey, Mildred, 1 box
Bellson, Louis, 1 folder
Boswell Sisters, 2 folders, some just of Connie Boswell
Brewer, Teresa, 1 box
Carmichael, Hoagy, 3 boxes, 4.2 in the Composers Series
Clooney, Rosemary, 1 box
Crosby, Bing, 16 boxes, 2 folders
Dorsey, Jimmy, 1 box
Dorsey, Tommy, 1 box
Ford, Mary, 2 boxes with Les Paul
Goodman, Benny, 1 box
Herman, Woody, 1 box, 1 folder
Hunt, Pee Wee, 1 box
Jones, Isham, 2 boxes
Kenton, Stan, 1 folder
Krupa, Gene, 1 folder
Lang, Eddie, 1 box
Lee, Peggy, 2 boxes
Lewis, Ted, 1 box
Miller, Glenn, 1 box
Nichols, Red, 1 folder
Paul, Les, 2 boxes with Mary Ford
Reser, Harry, 1 folder
Rich, Buddy, 1 folder
Sanders, Joe (Coon-Sanders Orchestra), 1 box, 1 folder
Sinatra, Frank, 4 boxes
Torme, Mel, 1 box
Venuti, Joe, 1 box
Whiteman, Paul, 1 box

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