Albert J. McCarthy (1920 – 3 November 1987

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

jazz and blues

discographer Discography is the study and cataloging of published sound recordings, often by specified artists or within identified music genres. The exact information included varies depending on the type and scope of the discography, but a discography entry ...

, critic,

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

, and editor. McCarthy began listening to jazz in his teens, and edited publications of the Jazz Sociological Society in the 1940s. He edited the short-lived journal ''

Jazz Forum ''Jazz Forum'' is a European jazz magazine based in Warsaw. It was established as a quarterly in 1964 by jazz bassist Jan A. Byrczek, who served as its editor-in-chief. It was the first jazz magazine published behind the Iron Curtain and allowe ...

'' until publication ceased in 1947. McCarthy, along with (1914–1999) and Ralph Venables, attempted to catalogue all jazz artists in alphabetical order in the publication ''Jazz Directory''. The first volume was published in 1949, and after several subsequent volumes, the editors found that so much had happened in the intervening years that they needed to revise the volumes already in print before continuing. Because of the size of this task, McCarthy's discography was never completed, though he worked on it for over 20 years. McCarthy edited ''Jazz Monthly'' magazine (later ''Jazz and Blues'') from 1955 to 1972, then started his own magazine, ''Mainstream'', later in the decade. McCarthy also worked as a

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure. Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

for Black Lion,

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

, and

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westin ...

Publications

* with

Nat Hentoff Nathan Irving Hentoff (June 10, 1925 – January 7, 2017) was an American historian, novelist, jazz and country music critic, and syndicated columnist for United Media. Hentoff was a columnist for ''The Village Voice'' from 1958 to 2009. Fo ...

(eds.) ''Jazz: New Perspectives On The history of Jazz by twelve of the world's foremost Jazz Critics and Scholars,'' New York, Rinehart 1959, Da Capo Press, 1975 * with Alun Morgan,

Paul Oliver Paul Hereford Oliver MBE (25 May 1927 – 15 August 2017) was an English architectural historian and writer on the blues and other forms of African-American music. He was equally distinguished in both fields, although it is likely that aficiona ...

, Max Harrison (eds). ''Jazz on Record: a critical guide to the first 50 years,'' London: Hanover, 1968; and New York: Oak Publications, 1968. * ''Big Band Jazz — The Definitive History of the Origins, Progress, Influence, and Decline of Big Jazz Bands,'' New York: Putnam's Sons, 1974, New York: Exeter Books, 1983. * ''Louis Armstrong,'' London: Cassell, 1960; New York: Barnes 1961 * ''The Dance Band Era: the dancing decades from ragtime to swing 1910-1950,'' Radnor, Philadelphia: Chilton, 1971, rev. ed. 1982. * with Dave Carey, Ralph Venables (eds). ''Jazz Directory – The Directory of Recorded Jazz and Swing Music'', several volumes (unfinished), from 1949 (Discography) * ''The Trumpet in Jazz,'' London: Dent, 1967.

References

* Albert McCarthyat

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCarthy, Albert 1920 births 1987 deaths British music critics English musicologists Jazz record producers Jazz writers Discographers 20th-century British musicologists