Introduction
The Music & Performing Arts Library has thousands of recordings available to stream online or play on DVD, CD, and LP!
To search for audio and video in the catalog, start with a keyword search for a specific performer, composer, style, or song title in the library catalog and use the "Material Type" filter on the advanced search screen to restrict your search to "Sound Recordings" or "Video/Film" depending on your needs.
When you click into the item records for different materials, check the material's location and format information to see if it is available to stream or if it exists in physical form on DVD, CD, or LP. For more help distinguishing identifying format information, see our Introduction to Audio & Video Formats.
If you're hoping to browse, see the streaming services and recommended discographies listed below!
Streaming Audio & Video Databases
The Library subscribes to a variety of streaming services for the performing arts. We are linking several online collections below to give you a place to browse, but be sure to also check out our full list of audio and video platforms on our Streaming Media guide!
- Jazz Music Library This link opens in a new windowJazz Music Library is the largest and most comprehensive collection of streaming jazz available online — with thousands of jazz artists, ensembles, albums, and genres.
- DRAM Online This link opens in a new windowA scholarly resource of recordings, including CD quality audio, liner notes and essays from New World, Composers Recordings (formerly Composers Recordings Inc./CRI) and other important labels. The basis for the collection is the diverse catalog of American music recordings by New World Records. Other contributing sources include the CRI, Albany, innova, Cedille, XI, Pogus, Deep Listening and Mutable Music labels.
- Kanopy This link opens in a new windowKanopy is an on-demand streaming video service for educational institutions that provides students and faculty access to more than 26,000 films. Kanopy provides students access to one of the largest collections of films in the world – including award-winning documentaries, training films and theatrical releases – on every topic imaginable.
Discographies
Discographies are helpful for researching recordings. They are typically focused on a genre, instrument, record label, or performer. You can find print discographies by looking for 'jazz--discography' as a subject search in the library catalog. We've listed a few resources below to help you get started.
Online Tools
- Jazz Discography This link opens in a new windowWith TJD you have access to information on over 400,000 jazz recording sessions from 1896 to today. Includes over 42,800 leaders, over 212,600 recording sessions, over 1,200,000 musician entries, over 1,300,000 tune entries and over 400,000 record releases.
Books
- The Blue Note Label byCall Number: MPAL Reference Non-circulating ; ML156.4.J3 C872001
- The Chess labels : a discography byCall Number: MPAL Reference Non-circulating ; ML156.2 R784C4
The Gerry Mulligan discography by Call Number: MPAL Reference Non-circulating ; ML156.7.M84 A87- Jazz records, 1942-1965 : a discography byCall Number: MPAL Reference Non-circulating ; ML156.4.J3 J46
- The Prestige label : a discography byCall Number: MPAL ML156.2R784 P73
- Sarah Vaughan : a discography byCall Number: MPAL Reference Non-circulating ; ML156.7.V4 B76
- Women in jazz : a discography of instrumentalists, 1913-1968 byCall Number: MPAL Reference Non-circulating ; ML156.4.J3 L32
