Albert McCarthy was an English discographer and historian

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 study of all history in time. If the individual is...

 of jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

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McCarthy began listening to jazz in his teens, and edited publications of the Jazz Sociological Society in the 1940s. He edited the journal Jazz Forum until publication ceased in 1947.

McCarthy, along with Dave Carey 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 complete, 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 did some work as a record producer

Record producer

A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

 for Black Lion

Black Lion Records

Black Lion Records was a jazz record label based in London, England.Black Lion was founded by Alan Bates in 1968. The label had two series of releases, one for British jazz musicians and one for international musicians...

, Atlantic

Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...

, and RCA

RCA Records

RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...

.

Publications

• Nat Hentoff
  Nat Hentoff
  Nathan Irving "Nat" Hentoff is an American historian, novelist, jazz and country music critic, and syndicated columnist for United Media and writes regularly on jazz and country music for The Wall Street Journal....
  
   and Albert J. McCarthy, eds. „Jazz: New Perspectives On The history of jazz by twelve of the worlds foremost Jazz Critics and Scholars‘‘, New York, Rinehart 1959, Da Capo Press, 1975
• McCarthy, Alun Morgan, Paul Oliver
  Paul Oliver
  -Biography:Oliver was a researcher at the Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development , and from 1978-88 was Associate Head of the School of Architecture. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Gloucestershire...
  
  , Max Harrison. „Jazz on record: a critical guide to the first 50 years“, London: Hanover, 1968 and New York 1968, Oak Publications.
• McCarthy „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.
• McCarthy „Louis Armstrong“, London: Cassell, 1960, New York, Barnes 1961
• McCarthy „The dance band era: the dancing decades from ragtime to swing 1910 -1950‘‘, Chilton, Philadelphia 1971, rev. ed. 1982.
• McCarthy, Dave Carey, Ralph Venables „Jazz Directory – The Directory of recorded Jazz and Swing Music“, several volumes (unfinished), from 1949 (Discography)
• McCarthy „The Trumpet in Jazz“, London, Dent 1967