Brian Rust | Jazz discographer, 88

Brian Rust, 88, a discographic detective who compiled comprehensive guides to recorded jazz and other popular music, in the process setting the standard for the modern field, died Jan. 5 in Swanage, England.

The cause was complications of prostate cancer, said his son, Victor, who was named for the RCA Victor record label, based in Camden.

Often described as the father of contemporary discography, Mr. Rust embarked in the 1940s on a rigorous, deeply personal project that continued long afterward as he haunted archives and hunted down artists to reconstitute long-vanished recording sessions on paper.

He was best known for Jazz Records, first published in 1952 and reissued many times since. It is available in a two-volume, 1,971-page version titled Jazz and Ragtime Records, 1897-1942.

For decades, Jazz Records - known to jazz mavens simply as JR - has been the de facto standard reference work in the field, furnishing meticulous information on session dates, personnel, and much else for tens of thousands of recordings.

- N.Y. Times News Service