A New York music writer has donated his enormous collection of jazz records to a new music museum.

Jazz writer and critic Will Friedwald and his late father had built a collection of about 14,000 albums which will soon be housed in two public archives.

He claims it is the largest collection of jazz records in New York:

“This is a collection that my dad starting putting together around 50, 60 years ago when he was a kid and I just kept going with it.

So it’s just grown exponentially to the point where its just too big for one person to have. As far as I know, it is the largest collection of jazz and popular standards albums in New York City.”

Friedwald’s collection currently occupies a large chunk of his apartment in East Harlem and covers all aspects of the Great American Songbook and jazz.

The jazz albums are going to an archive in Washington, D.C., but the popular music and show tunes are going to the Michael Feinstein Foundation for the Preservation of the Great American Songbook, founded by the city composer of the same name.

Feinstein has said:

“I decided to create a foundation to create a place for young people to learn about this music.

We’re creating educational programs, and concerts, and there will be a museum and an archive. And all of this is simply to preserve what I think is the greatest music that America ever produced.”

Feinstein’s music museum, which opens in Carmel, Indiana sometime next year, will be part of a brand new performing arts space.

After spending years developing his collection, Friedwald is glad it will be appreciated in its new homes.

The eclectic music collection also includes novelty albums like “Shorty Rogers meets Tarzan” which shows the 1950s composer and trumpet player in the arms of Tarzan of the Apes.

By donating his music gems, Friedwald will also be getting back the parts of his apartment that has been given over to records for years.

However, although he will be saving physical space his computer’s hard drive is not so lucky.

In a 2007 interview he revealed that his iTunes collection consists of over 172,150 tracks on 11,561 albums from 2,935 artists, taking up an enormous 849 GB on his Mac. (More details on the collection can be found here.)

For more information on the Michael Feinstein Foundation for the Preservation of the Great American Songbook, visit www.michaelfeinsteinfoundation.org