Journals

The National Jazz Archive journal collection is unique and of international importance. It consists of original source material which tells the story of jazz as it happened in a way that no other medium can. We have over 800 titles dating back to the 1920s. They include all English language journals such as Melody Maker, Downbeat, Jazz Journal, Blues World, Jazzwise and Crescendo along with many rare fanzines, newsletters and other treasures.

Our satellite collection in Birmingham holds a comprehensive collection of foreign language journals.

Here you can explore 23 journals, magazines and newsletters published in the UK between 1935 and 2013. These were digitised during the Heritage Lottery Funded Story of British Jazz project. They are accessible in both fully searchable pdf and OCR-text formats . Several other digitised journals can be accessed in the Archive.

Select a journal issue, then you can scroll through the pages using the arrows at each side or search for keywords to find particular names or places.

An inventory of all journals, magazines and newsletters held by the National Jazz Archive  can be viewed in the bibliography section of our online catalogue. 

All reasonable efforts have been made to ensure that any intellectual property rights in the journals and images displayed have not been infringed. If you do not believe this to be the case then please contact us.

Due to copyright restrictions, some digitised items cannot be viewed over the internet: these are indicated by the National Jazz Archive logo. However, you can view them online by visiting the Archive. To arrange a visit call (from the UK) 0208 502 4701, email us directly using the address enquiries@nationaljazzarchive.org.uk, or use our easy-to-use contact enquiry form.