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The online component of the Phil Schaap Jazz Collection continues to expand.
As of March 5, 2026, there are nearly 5800 recordings available in Vanderbilt’s instance of the media platform Aviary. These include the following:
- Schaap’s regular radio shows over decades, mostly on Columbia University radio station WKCR, including his weekday morning program on Charlie Parker titled Bird Flight (2400+ shows and counting), his Saturday evening program Traditions in Swing (630+ shows and counting), his Monday afternoon program Out to Lunch (480+ shows and counting), and his Wednesday evening program Jazz Alternatives (190+ programs and counting), which often featured guest musician hosts.
- Schaap’s birthday broadcasts for jazz artists both past and present, scattered throughout the year
- Hundreds of unique, live recordings from venues such as The West End, The Third Phase, and Birdland
- 1300+ interviews conducted by Schaap with various artists themselves, or their friends and family members
This large collection can be navigated not just through keyword searches, but also through the facets in the left-hand menu. These narrowing options include names of interviewees/performers (Agent facet), subjects (Subject facet), and series (Relation facet). We are also in process of adding and editing transcripts for many of these resources.
Also part of the Schaap Collection are his personal papers, personal jazz library (consisting of both 25 boxes of books and 20,000+ published recordings on 78, 45, and 33 1/3 rpm records, cassette tapes, and compact discs), research materials, numerous ephemera, classroom materials, textiles and even … rocks. These are in process of being described and will be made available through a finding aid (MSS.1070, for unpublished items) and/or through the regular library catalog (for published items).
Our work on adding and cleaning up metadata continues with the help of library staff, students, and even some outside individuals.
Stay tuned for further developments, but much is already available to be explored now!