Jazz scholarship is among the younger humanistic disciplines. It began to gain traction only in the 1970s with the advent of the first jazz history textbooks, a few scholarly papers and articles, and, most important, The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz (1973), a compilation of recorded performances selected almost exclusively by jazz critic Martin Williams. The conjunction of this publication activity, together with the American bicentennial celebration in 1976, however, gave a noticeable impetus to academic jazz studies. As university courses in the area proliferated in the ‘70s and ‘80s, The Smithsonian Collection took on the aura of a canon, and over time, its performances, reflecting essentially one aficionado's views, became the basis of a settled jazz history narrative. That narrative was inherently incomplete, excluding numerous recordings, unissued as well as issued. Its work-centered approach also overlooked such crucial variables as the ways in which performers conceived, shared, taught, and transmitted their music; evolving performance environments; audience responses; and the impact of sociocultural and political factors on the music's meaning and reception.