Albert McCarthy

Who was Albert McCarthy?

Albert McCarthy was an English jazz and blues discographer, critic, historian, and editor.

McCarthy began listening to jazz in his teens, and edited publications of the Jazz Sociological Society in the 1940s. He edited the journal Jazz Forum until publication ceased in 1947.

McCarthy, along with Dave Carey and Ralph Venables, attempted to catalogue all jazz artists in alphabetical order in the publication Jazz Directory. The first volume was published in 1949, and after several subsequent volumes, the editors found that so much had happened in the intervening years that they needed to revise the volumes already in print before continuing. Because of the size of this task, McCarthy's discography was never complete, though he worked on it for over 20 years.

McCarthy edited Jazz Monthly magazine from 1955 to 1972, then started his own magazine, Mainstream, later in the decade. McCarthy also did some work as a record producer for Black Lion, Atlantic, and RCA.