Today on International Jazz Day, April 30, one of the world's premier jazz archives, The Brubeck Collection at Wilton Library (Wilton, CT), announces the launch of its enhanced and interactive digital archive.
This makes the library's 22,000-item collection catalog now globally searchable and browsable by everyone for the first time, also putting online a comprehensive catalog of more than a thousand digitized photos, recordings, scores, and documents.
"Creating an online digital archive for The Brubeck Collection was an essential step in making its broad scope of materials accessible worldwide," said The Brubeck Collection Curator Michael Bellacosa.
About The Brubeck Collection and Its Digitization
The expansive collection, which was established by Brubeck and his wife, Lola, features a host of music history-related items like unreleased music, interactive tour maps, photos, correspondence, concert programs, posters, and song timelines.
It also contains everything from the biggest-selling jazz single of all time: "Take Five," which Dave Brubeck Quartet member Paul Desmond penned six and a half decades ago, to Brubeck's achievements in the classical world, including his oratorios, orchestral works, choral pieces, quartets, ballets, and chamber works.
Now available online in time for this year's International Jazz Day, this incredibly rich resource base abundant with Brubeck's legacy can now be used by everyone, from musicians to plain old jazz aficionados.
Anyone curious about the legendary artist's broad cultural impact and many musical dimensions--from his music and family life to his involvement in the 1950s and 60s Civil Rights Movement and beyond--will now be able to relive such important moments through access to different memorabilia.
The Brubeck Collection's wide-faring scope is only comparable to a handful of collecting institutions in the US, which includes Duke Ellington's at the Smithsonian, Ella Fitzgerald's at the Library of Congress, and Benny Goodman's at Yale University.
"Dave Brubeck was an internationally renowned musical pioneer and we have been honored to steward his legacy, at Wilton Library and now everywhere," expressed Bellacosa. "We hope people will enjoy visiting us online as well as in person, where the full range of this large and important collection can be experienced."
