Mary Lou Williams is an important part of the region's jazz history, which is being captured in Duke's Jazz Archive.

Durham, NC - There's the sound of swing coming out of Duke's Special Collections Library, and it's the result of the work of jazz archivist Jeremy Smith.

There's bebop, big band and other genres as well in the collection of letters, photographs, music, charts, oral histories and other material. The Jazz Archive, founded in 2008, is meant to both provide resources for classrooms and scholars and to shine a light on North Carolina's and Duke's contribution to jazz.

"There's a tremendous amount of activity around jazz at Duke now, and we want this archive to be part of that," Smith said.

While not thought of as a major center of jazz, North Carolina is the birthplace of jazz greats such as John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk and Nina Simone. Other jazz greats who once called North Carolina home include Dizzy Gillespie, composer Billy Strayhorn, drummer and bandleader Max Roach, and Percy Heath.

Likewise, Duke has a long and strong history in jazz, dating back to renowned big band leader Les Brown and more recently Mary Lou Williams and Paul Jeffrey, who played with just about every major jazz figure.

"In the last 10 to 15 years, jazz at Duke has really stepped up," Smith said. "You have faculty members such as (Jazz Ensemble Director) John Brown and music professors Paul Berliner and Thomas Brothers. Aaron Greenwald has made jazz a key part of Duke Performances, Chandra Guinn supports jazz through programming at the Mary Lou Williams Center, and in documentary studies, you have Sam Stephenson's Jazz Loft Project."

There are a small number of jazz archives around the country, but Smith said Duke's will have a special focus that isn't duplicated elsewhere. It builds upon established materials, including the papers of Duke alumnus Les Brown, that were previously in the Special Collections Library.

Smith said there are three areas of focus, which relate to existing strengths in other Duke collections or the history of jazz here:

* Women in Jazz: A natural for Duke, with its respected program in women's studies, the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture and history with Mary Lou Williams, a major jazz pianist and a former director of jazz at Duke.

* Materials related to jazz artists affiliated with North Carolina, particularly the Piedmont.

* Big Band Scores: Smith said many big band scores were never published, and some are lost forever. The priority is to track down "lost" arrangements and make them available to scholars and performers.

Smith said he made some significant finds, including works by Pee Wee Moore, a Raleigh native who played saxophone in Dizzy Gillespie's big band; Frank Foster, an arranger for Count Basie; and Rosetta Reitz, a feminist jazz historian and music producer who promoted women artists including Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday. Reitz also produced a noted collection of recordings by "forgotten" women jazz artists.

The community of jazz archivists is an intimate one, Smith said. As with most, he started as a performer, specializing on guitar. He was drawn to jazz studies as a student at the University of South Carolina. "Although my focus is on the archives, I find time to do some research of my own," he said. "The study of post-1950s jazz is still a hobby of mine."

Smith sees his job as promoting the collection as well and works with other jazz archivists to publicize the holdings. . On campus, he's collaborated on a regular lecture series with John Brown, presented as a part of the Wednesday evening "Jazz at the Mary Lou" events directed by Chandra Guinn, and worked with Aaron Greenwald to organize an informal listening session with jazz drummer Brian Blade as a part of Blade's recent residency at Duke. In October, he curated an exhibit of materials from the collection displayed outside of the Rare Book Room.

With jazz at Duke on the rise, Smith pointed to the similarly strong programs at North Carolina Central University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a positive sign that jazz music and jazz studies will be strong in the area for some time.

"We're all hopeful that we have a critical mass of activity that will bring significant attention to jazz in this region," Smith said.