The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz

Since gaining a Ph.D. in musicology at Cornell University in 1981, Barry Kernfeld has made a career of writing about jazz. A native of San Francisco, he was the first musicologist to win a grant-in-aid from the Martha Baird Rockerfeller Fund for Music (1980-81) for a topic in American music: a study of improvisation in Miles Davis's sextet (Ph.D., Cornell University, 1981). In addition to serving as editor of Grove Jazz, he has written What to Listen for in Jazz (Yale University Press), and for many years he has been playing saxophone in jazz groups in cafes in State College, Pennsylvania, where he lives.

7750 revised & updated articles of which 2750 are new entries; 2250 new biographies, of which 1500 cover musicians who came to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s; articles on jazz in it cultural context; selected films and videos section lists performances or interviews of artists; 2500 venues in the nightclub catalogue cover international performance spaces; coverage of international musicians including unprecedented new entries on Caribbean, South African and Japanese musicians; over 300 entries on record companies and labels; article on jazz - etymology; examination of jazz's relationship to diverse styles such as acid jazz, salsa, hip-hop and ska; individual entries on 20 of the most important festivals and a concise catalogue of over 450 festivals; entry types include - biographies, performers, venues, instruments, record labels/companies, festivals, terms, styles, genres, concepts.