The Jazz Base was made possible through a joint project between the Norwegian Jazz Archives and the National Library of Norway, Rana Division. It was funded by Culture Net Norway, Norsk Kassettavgiftsfond and Gramo.
The core of the Jazz Base is the catalogue or discography of jazz recordings by Norwegian musicians. The main source of the database is Johs Bergh: Norwegian Jazz Discography 1905-1998 (Norwegian Jazz Archives 1999). Johs Bergh made his material available, and until his death on May 24, 2001, he contributed his unique and invaluable knowledge to the updating of the discography.
This is an attempt to give all the details about jazz and related recordings by Norwegian musicians, at home or abroad. The first groups using the word jazz about their music emerged in Norway around 1920. As early as 1905 onwards there were recordings of early ragtime tunes, using a little syncopation and played mainly by accordionists. Many of these players toured areas in the US where Norwegian emigrants had settled, and came back with printed ragtime tunes for concerts and recordings. We have included details of these recordings, when known, as a part of the pre-jazz ragtime music in Norway.
Blues recordings are included only when jazz musicians are involved. When Norwegian musicians are playing on part of an album, only the titles with Norwegian participation are included. On albums that have both jazz and other music, only the jazz titles are included.
You will find discographical information for both albums and tracks. The information given on the albums is often insufficient or inaccurate concerning personnel and instruments, especially concerning tracks. This will also be reflected in the database.
The Jazz Base also contains biographies of Norwegian jazz musicians, a historical overview of Norwegian jazz history, photographs, sound clips and various links. We hope this will become a useful knowledge base of Norwegian jazz history.
We hope to update the Jazz Base regularly, but a discography will probably never be complete. We may have to live with some errors, but welcome your corrections and comments !
Copyright © National Library of Norway and The Norwegian Jazz Archives.
All righs reserved in accordance with Norwegian copyright laws. All quotes or extracts must be accompanied by a reference to this source.