Downbeat Magazine, an amazing find.

[Hardbopjazz]

Just about every issue is posted in the link below.

https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/DownBeat/

[Dan Gould]

7 minutes ago, Hardbopjazz said:

Just about every issue is posted in the link below.

https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/DownBeat/

I had used that site many times in the past for DB and other music publications but was confused how you had the root directory.  People better grab what they might be interested in quickly:

 

DownBeat Magazine

We have been ordered  by the publisher  to remove DownBeat magazine or we will be contacted by attorneys. So we have closed the DownBeat page. This is the only music magazine in the world that has prohibited the use of older issues on our site, and we had hoped to include their in-depth jazz coverage... a genre not generally covered in depth in other publications. And, further confusing us, issues as recent as 2020 of DownBeat are on Internet Archive! Note: This site had the only searchable index of the magazine on this or any other place on this planet. That resource is now deleted.

Also it sucks that the search feature is gone as I had become curious about pulling and compiling Kenny Dorham's reviews specifically.

[Mark Stryker]

Any way to download these from the root all at once -- or a big group at once, like an entire year, rather -- than having to go through each one individually?

[Gheorghe]

I have lost traces, I was a subscriber when I was very young and DB was my main info who is playin in the wonderful NY, the dream of us jazz playing teenagers.....

[hopkins]

12 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

Also it sucks that the search feature is gone as I had become curious about pulling and compiling Kenny Dorham's reviews specifically.

If someone were to download them, store them in google drive, and share them, you could use the google drive search, which works on pdfs...

[Hardbopjazz]

8 hours ago, Mark Stryker said:

Any way to download these from the root all at once -- or a big group at once, like an entire year, rather -- than having to go through each one individually?

Yes. If you have a browser extension such “down then all,” you can do an entire folder at a time. 

I’ll send you PM. 

[hopkins]

I downloaded all the files and put them in a zip file on google drive (will delete the link in a few weeks): - EDIT see link below.

P.S. Thanks for the "find"!

Edited March 2, 2023 by hopkins

[Mark Stryker]

Thanks all around guys.

[Dan Gould]

Is Hopkins' link working for others? I had a network failure so was curious.

Thanks for your efforts.

[Eric]

Have not tried,  but yes, thanks Hopkins!

[Chuck Nessa]

I've tried twice and both times it "failed" about half way through.

[gvopedz]

So much to read - the review that gave the "Rating: None. All." to Coltrane's Kulu Se Mama album is in the 15 June 1967 issue, page 32; etc.

[Big Beat Steve]

I remember this website was spotlighted in a discussion here in mid-2022. After which I checked it out and finally downloaded a couple of missing 1954-55 issues (of which I have originals of about half of each year).
And now I saw this ...
Having been caught out with one or two similar online archive sites that all of a sudden went bust I now decided to act wholesale and am now on a downloading binge of the years most important to me. I have to download each issue separately but am progressing nicely ... 8 full years done within an hour and a half ...

So thanks for the alert!

Edited March 2, 2023 by Big Beat Steve

[hopkins]

I guess the file size is too large. Here is another link to a folder in which I am loading smaller files (upload in process): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1NRgI5l-XBPHiq9EtHnrpxl8_eVYqC5qG?usp=share_link

P.S. I renamed (in batch) all the individual files DB-NNNN-MM-DD so that once you extract them all they are listed in order.

Edited March 2, 2023 by hopkins

[gmonahan]

Mine failed the first time but succeeded the second. Many thanks to hopkins for this one!!

[scooter_phx]

Thanks for the links and such.  Anyone got a good one for older Jazz Times issues?

[mikeweil]

Thanks for the link. I use Opera as a browser, and with the "download all" function it was a piece of cake. Four parts containing 24 ziped files, which unpack in pdf files. Great to have them all on hard drive.

[Dan Gould]

Worked for me, thank you.

[Eric]

Got 'em, thank-you.

I discovered jazz in 1982 or 1983, while in college.  In fairly short order, I was at the local library, combing though old issues of Downbeat, looking for ideas on records to buy.  Wow - this brings me back!

[HutchFan]

On 3/2/2023 at 1:12 PM, hopkins said:

I guess the file size is too large. Here is another link to a folder in which I am loading smaller files (upload in process): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1NRgI5l-XBPHiq9EtHnrpxl8_eVYqC5qG?usp=share_link

THANKS, hopkins!  I successfully downloaded a few decade's worth. 

 

On 3/2/2023 at 8:53 PM, Eric said:

I discovered jazz in 1982 or 1983, while in college.  In fairly short order, I was at the local library, combing though old issues of Downbeat, looking for ideas on records to buy.  Wow - this brings me back!

I discovered jazz in the Eighties too, Eric.  Many memories of poring through Downbeat back-issues in the basement of the University of Georgia library.   Jazz Times and Jazz Journal (UK) as well.  

In those pre-internet days, it was the only way to keep up with what was happening!  (Or what had happened.)

 

Edited March 5, 2023 by HutchFan

[Gheorghe]

11 hours ago, HutchFan said:

THANKS, hopkins!  I successfully downloaded a few decade's worth. 

 

I discovered jazz in the Eighties too, Eric.  Many memories of poring through Downbeat back-issues in the basement of the University of Georgia library.   Jazz Times and Jazz Journal (UK) as well.  

In those pre-internet days, it was the only way to keep up with what was happening!  (Or what had happened.)

 

Yes, I had one more decade of pre-internet. All that kind of managing to get thru who it was in the 70´s, 80, and the beginning of the 90´s , I mean to call guys to fix a gig, to have to be everywhere for checking the scene: Who´s playin´, whom can I use, who could use me, where is a new venue to play. It was mostly mouth to mouth propaganda, but anyway we jazz musicians and jazz fans were like a family.

Oh, and private live then. To date a girl.....and if she was late or changed her mind......

[Big Beat Steve]

I now downloaded a bunch of the smaller zip files too to complete wha ti had already downloaded individually. Thanks Hopkins! 👍

Does anyone know of any similar online source for the METRONOME magazine?
archive.org doesn't seem to have anything.

 

[sidewinder]

On 3/2/2023 at 6:12 PM, hopkins said:

I guess the file size is too large. Here is another link to a folder in which I am loading smaller files (upload in process): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1NRgI5l-XBPHiq9EtHnrpxl8_eVYqC5qG?usp=share_link

P.S. I renamed (in batch) all the individual files DB-NNNN-MM-DD so that once you extract them all they are listed in order.

Big thanks from me as well - downloading the lot, a great resource to have.

A cursory random scan of 1940s issues has stories with Django Reinhardt reported reputedly killed during WW2, Buddy Rich joining the USMC and a small classified ad from a start-up company called Blue Note Records on Lexington Ave advertising records for sale !  The Petrillo Organisation also gets lots of print space (no surprise I guess).

This gem from Dec 1959:

"During Louis Hayes’ drum solo, Shostakovich and Dankevich leaned forrward and watched the rim shots and rolls with concentration, like a couple of visiting American businessmen. Cannonball’s own quotes from numerous classical composers (in the course of his solos) didn't draw a smile."

Edited March 14, 2023 by sidewinder

[sidewinder]

Just noticed that for some of the later issues, the PDF seems to cut out before the later pages, including the live reviews. A shame. For the earlier years, doesn't seem to be a problem.

Nice that the Yearbooks are included.

Edited March 13, 2023 by sidewinder

[tranemonk]

Thanks... greatly appreciated and great find!