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Special Collections and Archives
CHARLIE BARNET
researched by Music Librarian Christopher Popa
Two repositories have Charlie Barnet materials, each from different time periods.
The primary institution is the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, with its "Charlie Barnet Collection" which includes "Arrangements for approximately 660 songs and instrumentals for big band, mostly full scores or short scores, but 35 include parts, and 40 titles are represented by parts only."
The bulk of the items are from the 1940s.
A small community college, The College of the Desert in Palm Springs, CA (43500 Monterey Ave, 92260, 760-346-8041) also holds Barnet music which was donated in 1979.
The College's Char Whitaker acknowledged to me in 2002 that they have "some of Charlie Barnet's music" but their items are not accessible and "will not be available for some time."
The scores are likely from Barnet's bands of the 1950s and '60s.
Other memorabilia, such as the image of Barnet and his big band shown below, rehearsing Symphony in Swing, with composer Otto Cesana present, photographed on August 19, 1940 by Jimmy Sunshine, is in the hands of private collectors.
sources:
Charlie Barnet Collection, http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.scdb.200033555/
default.html.
Dan Mather. Charlie Barnet: An Illustrated Biography and Discography (Jefferson, NC:
McFarland & Company, Inc., 2002),
Char Whitaker. E-mail to the author, "RE: Charlie Barnet holdings," Apr. 15, 2002.
