Brian Rust was 81 this year. As the originator of present-day jazz, dance band and label discography, his works are revered world-wide. He became interested in popular music from the age of 7, listening to broadcasts from radio station 2LO, in London, England. One night a week, Christopher Stone, one of the first disc-jockeys, played the latest selections from the new Parlophone Rhythm-Style record series. The Rhythm-Styles featured music that was a little peppier than the standard dance-band offerings; genuine jazz music from the great bands of the time, with a heavy infusion of black bands; Ellington, Armstrong, Earl Hines, Fats Waller, alongside the Dorseys, Bix Beiderbecke, Red Nichols and Joe Venuti. That got him started.

At the beginning of World War II, Brian started a banking career. After a couple of years of being confined behind a desk, he got a job at the BBC Gramophone Library. In the immediate post-war period, jazz discography was in its infancy. Charles Delaunay and Hugues Pannassié were the pioneers, but the work was sketchy and anecdotal. Brian saw the need to talk to original performers and recording personnel, before the knowledge died away.

In October of 1951, he visited the USA, talked with important artists, and made himself known to the major record companies. It was done on a shoestring. Brian traveled by Greyhound bus across the continent. His contacts with musicians from the golden age, black and white, were in the dozens of dozens, and he went back to the United Kingdom armed with sufficient knowledge to publish a slim “Jazz Records” as a one-volume loose-leaf discography, with recording dates and personnels, the first of its kind.

The book immediately became and has remained the Delphic Oracle of jazz discography for enthusiasts, both in Europe and the USA. It took ten years and another trip to the USA, to publish an expanded, this time, bound volume. 1972 brought a third edition, which established the present two-volume format. By 2002, with a new title to reflect the increased amount of new ragtime research, the book was in its sixth edition.

With the continuing work built on Brian’s seminal research since 1952, this is still, within the context Brian originated, the most thoroughgoing account of who created America’s own music, from its beginnings to the recording hiatus of 1942 with the Petrillo ban. The American Association of Recorded Sound Collections saw fit to confirm this sentiment with a Lifetime Award, three years ago.

Apart from this, his best-known and most widely-used work, Brian has also compiled other discographical works like: “American Dance Bands,” “The Complete Entertainment Discography,” “British Music Hall on Record,” “British Dance Bands on Record;” biographies of famous jazz musicians, and a variety of works on the labels, history and output of many American record companies. We have plans to publish new editions of several of these in the future. Keep an eye on the site for announcements.