Explore the evolution of jazz with Qwest TV titles from ProQuest

By Jodi Johnson, Associate Product Marketing Manager

The evolution of jazz is a story of musical innovation and cultural exchange, with roots in blues and ragtime that have evolved into a diverse and constantly transcending genre over the decades. For music scholars and students, it’s an essential area of research and learning. The Qwest TV Collection and Qwest TV EDU, available from ProQuest^™, part of Clarivate^™, are exciting new collections that allow researchers to explore the evolution of jazz through streaming video — experiencing the power of live performances again and again from anyplace, at any time.

Building an owned collection

Available via perpetual access license, the Qwest TV Collections, Volumes I and II offer new windows into the evolution of jazz and today’s modern interpretations through their focus on rare recorded live performances by renowned artists. Drawing from 20th and 21st century performances from around the world, these two volumes represent diverse artists in a wide range of genres, including jazz, soul, funk, hip-hop, rock, folk, electronic music and global music.

Expanding access with subscription content

Qwest TV EDU is a subscription that provides access to a vast and growing archive of Black music and global sounds through live performances, documentaries, and interviews spanning diverse musical genres, from around the world. This extensive collection serves as a rich resource for academic exploration, offering rare recordings, historical footage, and expert commentary that shed light on the evolution of music and its cultural significance. This unique collection makes timeless concerts and global music accessible for research, teaching and learning.

Supporting the study of icons and emerging artists

The Qwest TV Collections feature an array of rare recorded live performances, including those from iconic artists like Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and John Coltrane, as well as enthralling performances from unique musicians like Aziz Sahmaoui, who blends traditional African music with jazz influences and describes his music as "played like jazz and listened to like rock." Students and researchers can also watch performances from Baba Zula, who blends traditional Anatolian instruments such as the saz, darbouka, davul and a customized oud with rock and psychedelic elements, including distortion, wah-wah, echo and reverb. Additionally, the collections includes classic recordings from the Legends in Concert series, featuring live performances by Benny Goodman, Nat King Cole, The Temptations and others.

Bringing the live experience

With the advent of new technology, video is becoming an even more important tool for researchers, educators and music lovers. The emphasis on live performance recordings is a crucial aspect of these collections. While studio recordings are important, they don't have the same unbridled energy and feeling of a live performance. Live performances provide a more authentic and immersive experience; they allow listeners to not only hear the music, but also see and feel the energy, passion and raw emotion that artists put into their performance. The Qwest TV Collections’ live performances allow you to experience James Brown's commanding stage presence and Chaka Khan's impassioned vocals to name a few, as well as gain important cultural insights from unique world artists who are breaking the boundaries of jazz, blues, soul and rock today at global music festivals.

Video recordings of live performances allow researchers to study the interactions between musicians and the audience, the visual elements of a performance, such as stage presence and gestures, and the emotional and expressive aspects of music. This type of performance information can provide valuable insights into the evolution of music and the cultural context in which it was created, as well as the influence of music on society. This makes live recordings invaluable for music researchers who want to truly understand and appreciate the art of music. This collection, complete at launch, will help preserve access to 150 video titles representing hundreds of gifted artists.

A platform designed for academia<>/h3

These collections are fully accessible on a platform built for teaching and learning, enabling the creation and sharing of video clips with notations, integration with classroom workflows via Learning Management Systems, easy shareperma and embedded links. Users can even make personalized playlists to reference and share. The full MARC records and compatibility with discovery systems such as Primo and Summon allow for easy discovery. The collection also allows for the gauging of usage with COUNTER-compliant statistics and impactful user engagement metrics, with easy-to-understand visuals — making it an insightful resource for academic libraries and institutions.

Today’s researchers demand the power of video in academic music studies. With hard-to-find recordings of legends as well as unique world music, there are plenty of new and exciting titles to discover. The collection is a testament to the value of video in academic music studies, providing a window into the magic of live music. Whether you are an educator looking to bring live performances into your classroom, or a music student looking to deepen your understanding of jazz and its evolution, Music Online: The Qwest TV Collection is the perfect resource for experiencing the magic of live music.

Let your researchers and students take The Qwest TV Collections out for a spin with a free trial. Request it here.

Jodi Johnson

Product Marketing Manager for History and Social Change, Social Science and Performing Arts portfolios. With a profound appreciation for history and a background steeped in the arts, she fuses creativity and scholarly insight to offer compelling narratives and to delve into the historical significance behind them.