Date Developments in Jazz Historical Events

1619 The first Africans are sold into slavery in America.

1817 New Orleans city council establishes "Congo Square"
as an official site for slave music and dance.
1865 Slavery is abolished in the US by the 13th
Amendment to the US Constitution.
1892 Pianist Tommy Turpin writes Harlem Rag, the first
known ragtime composition.
1895 Pianist Scott Joplin publishes his first two rags. Cinema is born.
Cornetist Buddy Bolden forms his band.
1896 Racial segregation is upheld by the Supreme Court.
Radio technology is introduced.
1897 The first piano rags appear in print. Ragtime grows in
popularity.
1898 The US goes to war with Spain.
1899 Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag is published and sells
over 100,000 copies.
1900 A cutting contest (a colloquial term for music
competition) for ragtime pianists is held at New York's
Tammany Hall. Louis Armstrong is born.
1901 Charles Booth's performance of J. Bodewalt Lange's US President William McKinley is assassinated.
Creole Blues is recorded for the new Victor label. Painter Pablo Picasso's first exhibit is held in Paris.
This is the first acoustic recording of ragtime to be Theodore Roosevelt becomes president.
made commercially available. The American
Federation of Musicians (the musicians union) votes
to suppress ragtime.
1902 The John Philip Sousa Band records the ragtime
piece, Trombone Sneeze, written by Arthur Pryor.
Lincoln Park is opened in New Orleans, as a center
for ragtime and early jazz performances. Scott Joplin
publishes The Entertainer: a Ragtime Two-Step,
which would become a popular hit nearly 70 years
later. Pianist Jelly Roll Morton claims to have
invented jazz in this year.
1903 Pianist and composer Eubie Blake publishes his first The Wright brothers make their first successful flight.
piano rags.
1904 Cornetist Buddy Bolden begins to develop a
reputation in New Orleans for playing music that
fuses elements of blues and ragtime.
1905 A black newspaper in Indianapolis releases a Scientist Albert Einstein presents his special theory of
statement in reaction to racist songs popular during relativity. Pizza is introduced at Lombardi's in New
this period: "Composers should not set music to a set York.
of words that are a direct insult to the colored race."
1906 Jelly Roll Morton composes King Porter Stomp.
1907 Cornetist Buddy Bolden is committed to a mental The first wireless broadcast of classical music is
institution without having ever recorded any music. produced in New York.
Scott Joplin moves to New York.
1908 Alcohol is banned in North Carolina and Georgia.
1909 The US Marine band records Joplin's Maple Leaf Alcohol is banned in Tennessee. Robert Peary
Rag. reaches the North Pole. William Howard Taft becomes
president.
Date Developments in Jazz
1910 The Original Dixieland Jass Band performs in
London. Will Marion Cook tours Europe with his
Southern Syncopated Orchestra which includes
clarinetist Sidney Bechet. After the tour Bechet stays
in Europe. New Orleans trombonist Kid Ory moves to
Los Angeles and forms a band, bringing jazz to new
ears.
1911 Pianist Scott Joplin publishes his opera Treeemoisha.
Irving Berlin records Alexander's Ragtime Band,
which becomes a hit but is scorned by ragtime
purists.
1912
1913 The word "jazz" first appears in print. James Reese
Europe records ragtime arrangements in New York
with the first black ensemble to be recorded.
1914 Pianist W.C. Handy writes St. Louis Blues.
1915 Trumpeter King Oliver forms a band in New Orleans
with clarinetist Sidney Bechet.
1916
1917 Scott Joplin dies. The classic era of ragtime ends.
The Original Dixieland Jass Band (an all white group)
makes the first jazz recording, Livery Stable Blues,
and also becomes the first jazz group to appear on
film in the movie, The Good for Nothing. The US
Navy closes New Orleans's Storyville red-light district.
Jazz musicians begin to leave the city for the North.
1918 Trumpeter King Oliver leaves New Orleans for
Chicago. Tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins tours
with blues singer Mamie Smith and begins to develop
a unique style of playing.
1919 The Original Dixieland Jass Band performs in
London. Will Marion Cook tours Europe with his
Southern Syncopated Orchestra which includes
clarinetist Sidney Bechet. After the tour Bechet stays
in Europe. New Orleans trombonist Kid Ory moves to
Los Angeles and forms a band, bringing jazz to new
ears.
1920 Blues singer Mamie Smith records Crazy Blues,
making it the first blues recording by a black singer.
Pianist and composer Duke Ellington forms a dance
band in Washington DC with drummer Sonny Greer.
Charlie Parker is born.
1921 The town of Zion, Illinois bans jazz performances,
labeling them "sinful." Pianist James P. Johnson
records The Harlem Strut and Carolina Shout, the
earliest stride piano recordings, in New York.
Historical Events
The NAACP is founded. Mark Twain dies. Marie
Curie isolates radium.
Raold Amundsen reaches the South Pole. Civil War
occurs in Mexico.
The Titanic sinks.
60-floor Woolworth Building is completed, making it
the largest building in the world. Woodrow Wilson
becomes president.
World War I begins in Europe. The Panama Canal
opens to commercial traffic.
Albert Einstein presents his general theory of relativity.
Revolution occurs in Russia.
The US enters World War I.
World War I ends. A flu epidemic kills an estimated
20 million people worldwide. Singer, actor, and civil
rights activist Paul Robeson graduates first in his class
from Rutgers University.
Race riots break out in Chicago. The first airplane
crosses the Atlantic Ocean, piloted by John Alcock &
Arthur Whitten Brown. Mexican rebel leader Emilio
Zapata is ambushed and murdered by government
forces. Physicist Ernest Rutherford discovers a way
to split the atom.
Prohibition is instated in the US. The 19th
Amendment is passed in the US, guaranteeing
woman the right to vote.
A crisis occurs surrounding German war reparations.
Adolf Hitler is elected leader of the Nazi Party. Russia
is refused entry to the League of Nations. The first
Miss America contest is held. Warren G. Hardin
becomes president.
Date Developments in Jazz
1924 Duke Ellington makes his first recordings as leader of
the Washingtonians. George Gershwin debuts
Rhapsody in Blue along with Paul Whiteman's band.
Cornetist Bix Beiderbecke and his band, the
Wolverines, make their first recordings.
1925 Blues singer Bessie Smith and trumpeter Louis
Armstrong record the classic version of W.C. Handy's
St. Louis Blues for Columbia Records. Louis
Armstrong makes his first recordings with his group,
the Hot Five. James P. Johnson records Charleston,
which becomes a huge hit and gives rise to a dance
of the same name. Electrical recordings are
introduced. The Original Dixieland Jass Band
disbands. Pianist Fats Waller gives lessons to pianist
Count Basie.
1926 Trumpeter Louis Armstrong has a huge hit and
pioneers scat singing with his first recorded original
composition, Heebie Jeebies, featuring his Hot Five.
Pianist Jelly Roll Morton's group the Red Hot
Peppers records in Chicago. Bandleader Fletcher
Henderson's group records with saxophonist
Coleman Hawkins.
1927 Louis Armstrong makes his first recordings with his
Hot Seven, which was the Hot Five plus drums and
tuba. Jean Goldkette's Orchestra is dissolved.
Cornetist Bix Beiderbecke joins Paul Whiteman's
band. Pianist and bandleader Duke Ellington begins
his residency at the Cotton Club in Harlem,
increasing the band from six to eleven members.
1928 Clarinetist Benny Goodman makes his first
recordings.
1929 Pianist Fats Waller participates in a mixed-race
recording session in which he is forced to play behind
a screen to separate him from the white musicians.
The film St. Louis Blues about the life of pianist W.C.
Handy is released, featuring blues singer Bessie
Smith, Handy as musical director, and pianist James
P. Johnson's band.
Historical Events
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, leader of the Communist
Revolution, dies. Stalin becomes dictator of Russia.
The Fascist Party wins the Italian elections.
Italian leader Benito Mussolini commences his
dictatorship. The first electrical recording of classical
music is made in the US. The Ku Klux Klan marches
in Washington DC. Tennessee teacher John Thomas
Scopes is convicted for teaching Darwin's theories of
evolution to high school students. American labor
leader A. Philip Randolph organizes the Brotherhood
of Sleeping Car Porters to help bring American blacks
into the mainstream of the American labor movement.
Frisbee is played for the first time by a group of
students using empty Frisbie Baking Company pie
plates.
The first television is introduced. Painter Claude
Monet dies. The Harlem Globetrotters basketball
team is organized by Abe Saperstein in Chicago.
The US and Britain use military force in China.
Charles Lindbergh makes the first solo flight across
the Atlantic Ocean. Columbia Broadcast System
(CBS) is inaugurated. The first "talkie" film is
released, The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson.
Japanese troops enter China.
Yugoslavia is formed under King Alexander. The Wall
Street stock market crashes. The St. Valentine's Day
Massacre occurs in Chicago. The first Academy
Awards are held in Hollywood. Herbert Hoover
becomes president.
Date Developments in Jazz Historical Events

1930 Trumpeter Louis Armstrong records Body and Soul. The planet Pluto is discovered. The jet engine is
In a recording session with Armstrong, percussionist invented.
Lionel Hampton plays his first vibraphone solo and
decides to make that his main instrument.
Bandleader Paul Whiteman and his orchestra star in
the movie The King of Jazz. Bandleader Cab
Calloway becomes a regular at the Cotton Club.
1931 Cornetist Bix Beiderbecke dies of pneumonia at age The Empire State building is opened in New York.
38. Cornetist Buddy Bolden dies. Pianist Lil Hardin Spain becomes a Republic. Japan invades
separates from her husband Louis Armstrong and Manchuria. There is massive worldwide
forms an all-female band. RCA demonstrates the unemployment.
first 33 1/3 rpm long-playing disc.
1932 Duke Ellington records It Don't Mean a Thing (If it John Cockcroft splits the atom in Cambridge, UK.
Ain't' Got That Swing,the first jazz composition to use Japan forms a Manchurian Republic and later attacks
swing in the title. Shanghai. Radio City Music Hall opens in New York.
Aviator Charles Lindbergh's son is kidnapped.
1933 With the rise of the Nazi party in Germany, Berlin Adolph Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany,
radio station Funkstunde bans jazz broadcasts. followed by the creation of the Dachau concentration
Pianist Art Tatum records his first piano solo, Tiger camp, political arrests, and the appropriation of
Rag, which is thought by many to be a duet. Duke Jewish finances by the government. President
Ellington and his orchestra begin their first tour of Franklin Roosevelt initiates economic recovery in the
Europe. Singer Bessie Smith makes her last US. Mahatma Ghandi is imprisoned. Prohibition
recordings. Singer Billie Holiday makes her first ends in the US. The first photographs of the Loch
recording. Ness monster are published in Britain's Daily Mail.
Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes president.
1934 Fletcher Henderson's band folds due to financial Outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are shot
difficulties and Henderson sells some of his dead. Italian troops invade Albania. The Nazi coup
arrangements to clarinetist Benny Goodman, who fails in Austria. Adolf Hitler begins his dictatorship in
performs with his band at Billy Rose's Music Hall in Germany. Blues singer Leadbelly is released from
New York. The journal Down Beat: the prison in Louisiana after writing a song to the
Contemporary Music Magazine is launched in governor asking for a pardon. The first cheeseburger
Chicago. The Quintette du Hot Club de France, is served in Louisville, Kentucky.
featuring guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist
Stephane Grappelli, gives its first public performance
at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris. Jimmie
Lunceford's band replaces Cab Calloways at the
Cotton Club in Harlem. Clarinetist Jimmy Dorsey and
trombonist Tommy Dorsey form the Dorsey Brothers
Orchestra. Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday appear
in the film Symphony in Black.
1935 Pianist and bandleader Bennie Moten dies. Pianist Italy invades Ethiopia. The first paperback books are
Count Basie forms the Barons of Rhythm with published. The electric guitar is invented.
members of Moten's band. Vocalist Ella Fitzgerald
makes her first recordings. Clarinetist Benny
Goodman records Fletcher Henderson's
arrangement of Jelly Roll Morton's King Porter
Stomp. Goodman begins recording with a racially
integrated trio that includes pianist Teddy Wilson and
drummer Gene Krupa. Billie Holiday makes several
recordings with pianist Teddy Wilson, including What
a Little Moonlight Can Do. George Gershwin's three-
act opera Porgy and Bess opens at the Alvin Theater
in New York.
Date Developments in Jazz Historical Events

1938 Benny Goodman's band hosts a sold out concert at Germany annexes Austria and Sudetenland.
Carnegie Hall which features a jazz history element Shopping carts are introduced for the first time in
and a jam session with members of Duke Ellingtons Oklahoma. Actor Orson Welles broadcasts War of
and Count Basie's bands. After the Goodman the Worlds, a radio science-fiction drama about a
concert, Count Basie's band and Chick Webb's band Martian invasion, and causes a nationwide panic.
have an informal competition at the Savoy Ballroom.
Cornetist King Oliver dies after years in poverty
working as a pool-room janitor. Goodman's band
records Bach Goes to Town: Prelude and Fugue in
Swing, which combines elements of classical music
and swing.
1939 A new band led by trombonist Glenn Miller gains World War II breaks out in Europe. Germany
notoriety through regular radio broadcasts. Billie occupies Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, and Lithuania
Holiday records Strange Fruit, with controversial and invades Poland. Military conscription is
lyrics regarding lynchings which causes it to be introduced in Britain. Hitler and Mussolini agree to a
banned from several radio stations. Chick Webb dies "Pact of Steel." The Spanish Civil War ends.
and Ella Fitzgerald takes over his band. Glenn Miller
records the hugely successful In The Mood. Benny
Goodman hires guitarist Charlie Christian. Lester
Young records Lester Leaps In with Count Basie.
Coleman Hawkins records Body and Soul, setting a
new standard for improvisational sophistication on
the saxophone. Artie Shaw retires. Singer Ma
Rainey dies. Blue Note records is founded.
1940 Composer and bandleader Duke Ellington hires The Soviet Union attacks Finland. Germany invades
saxophonist Ben Webster and records Ko-Ko, Norway and Denmark. Winston Churchill becomes
Concerto for Cootie, and Cottontail. Trumpeter Prime Minister of Britain. Holland and Belgium fall to
Cootie Williams leaves Ellington's band and is Germany. Italy declares war on Britain and France.
replaced by trumpeter and violinist Ray Nance. Germany occupies Paris. African Americans and
Vibraphonist Lionel Hampton's big band records Puerto Ricans begin moving to northern cities.
Flying Home. Nat King Cole's trio records the timely
piece, Gone with the Draft. Minton's Playhouse in
New York becomes a hot spot for jazz, where
musicians such as pianist Thelonious Monk,
trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, and drummer Kenny
Clarke are featured. The American Society of
Composer, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) issues
a broadcast ban of ASCAP works, resulting in the
growth of rival organization Broadcast Music
Incorporated (BMI).
Date Developments in Jazz Historical Events

1941 Duke Ellington's band records composer Billy Germany invades Yugoslavia, Russia and send
Strayhorn's Take the 'A' Train, which becomes the troops to North Africa. The British army goes to
band's signature tune. Trumpeter Roy Eldridge joins Libya and Ethiopia. Japan bombs Pearl Harbor,
drummer Gene Krupa's orchestra as featured soloist. Hawaii. The US and Britain declare war on Japan.
Clarinetist Sidney Bechet plays five different The US declares war on Germany and Italy.
instruments on The Sheik of Araby and Blues of
Bechet, using some of the earliest overdubbing
techniques. Saxophonist Charlie Parker makes his
first recordings with Jay McShann and begins
participating in the famous Minton's Playhouse jam
sessions where bebop is created. ASCAP's
broadcasting boycott ends. Jelly Roll Morton dies.
Date Developments in Jazz Historical Events

1940 Composer and bandleader Duke Ellington hires The Soviet Union attacks Finland. Germany invades
saxophonist Ben Webster and records Ko-Ko, Norway and Denmark. Winston Churchill becomes
Concerto for Cootie, and Cottontail. Trumpeter Prime Minister of Britain. Holland and Belgium fall to
Cootie Williams leaves Ellington's band and is Germany. Italy declares war on Britain and France.
replaced by trumpeter and violinist Ray Nance. Germany occupies Paris. African Americans and
Vibraphonist Lionel Hampton's big band records Puerto Ricans begin moving to northern cities.
Flying Home. Nat King Cole's trio records the timely
piece, Gone with the Draft. Minton's Playhouse in
New York becomes a hot spot for jazz, where
musicians such as pianist Thelonious Monk,
trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, and drummer Kenny
Clarke are featured. The American Society of
Composer, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) issues
a broadcast ban of ASCAP works, resulting in the
growth of rival organization Broadcast Music
Incorporated (BMI).
1941 Duke Ellington's band records composer Billy Germany invades Yugoslavia, Russia, and sends
Strayhorn's Take the 'A' Train, which becomes the troops to North Africa. The British army goes to
band's signature tune. Trumpeter Roy Eldridge joins Libya and Ethiopia. Japan bombs Pearl Harbor,
drummer Gene Krupa's orchestra as featured soloist. Hawaii. The US and Britain declare war on Japan.
Clarinetist Sidney Bechet plays five different The US declares war on Germany and Italy.
instruments on The Sheik of Araby and Blues of
Bechet, using some of the earliest overdubbing
techniques. Saxophonist Charlie Parker makes his
first recordings with Jay McShanns band and begins
participating in the famous Minton's Playhouse jam
sessions where bebop is created. ASCAP's
broadcasting boycott ends. Jelly Roll Morton dies.
1942 Pianist Fats Waller appears at Carnegie Hall. The US bombs Germany. Germany attacks
Composer Leonard Bernstein performs in Boston as Stalingrad, USSR. Japan wages campaigns in East
a jazz pianist. The American Federation of Indies, Malaya, and Burma.
Musicians bans its members from participating in
studio recordings for record companies that fail to
pay royalties to performers. Trombonist Glenn Miller
dissolves his band and enlists in the Air Force where
he forms a new band. Eighteen-year-old singer
Sarah Vaughan wins a talent competition at Harlem's
Apollo Theater. Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie
join pianist Earl Hines band. Eddie Condon's
integrated band appears on CBS television.
Billboard magazine publishes the first black record
chart under the title "Harlem Hit Parade."
1943 Duke Ellington's Orchestra performs Black, Brown, Britain captures Tripoli. Germany surrenders at
and Beige and New World AComin' at Carnegie Hall. Stalingrad and Tunisia. Italian leader Benito
Pianist Art Tatum establishes a trio with guitarist Tiny Mussolini resigns after the Allied invasion of Sicily.
Grimes and bassist Slam Stewart. Glenn Miller The Allies land on mainland Italy. Italy turns against
publishes a text-book for arranging music. Germany. The jitterbug dance becomes popular in
the US.
Date Developments in Jazz Historical Events

1944 Producer Norman Granz initiates the series, "Jazz at The siege of Leningrad ends. The Allies land on
the Philharmonic" in Los Angeles. Trumpeter Cootie Normandy beaches on what becomes "D-Day." An
Williams makes the first recording of pianist unsuccessful assassination attempt is made on
Thelonious Monk's 'Round About Midnight. Monk Adolph Hitler. Paris and Brussels are liberated. The
makes his first recordings with the Coleman Hawkins US Army crosses the German border. The United
Quartet. Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie leave Negro College Fund is established.
Billy Eckstine's band. Trumpeter Miles Davis arrives
in New York to study at Juilliard School of Music and
begins playing with Parker and Gillespie. Lester
Young is drafted into the army, is voted most popular
saxophonist by Down Beat magazine, and appears in
the film Jammin' the Blues. The American
Federation of Musicians lifts the recording ban.
Glenn Miller disappears in an Air Force flight from
London to Paris.
1945 Dizzy Gillespie records Be-Bop. Charlie Parker hires Warsaw and Budapest fall to the USSR. Cologne
Miles Davis to replace Dizzy Gillespie at the Three falls to the Allies. President Franklin Roosevelt dies.
Deuces on 52nd Street, leading Davis to quit school. Italian leader Benito Mussolini is lynched. Adolph
Parker records Now's The Time, his first session as a Hitler commits suicide. Berlin is captured by Russian
leader, with Dizzy Gillespie on piano, Miles Davis on troops. German forces surrender. The US drops
trumpet, and Max Roach on drums. Parker and atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan
Gillespie play in Los Angeles, helping to establish an surrenders. Composer Anton Webern is accidentally
interest in bebop. Pianist Mary Lou Williams gives shot to death by US military policeman in Austria.
the first performance of her Zodiac Suite at New Composer Bela Bartok dies. The United Nations is
York's Town Hall. founded. Ebony Magazine is founded. Harry S.
Truman becomes president.
1946 Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie perform at "Jazz Hungary becomes a republic. President Juan Peron
at the Philharmonic" in Los Angeles. Parker assumes power in Argentina. Italy becomes a
performs with Miles Davis in Little Tokyo, Los republic. Mao Tse-Tung revives the Chinese Civil
Angeles. Davis records Ornithology and Night in War. The bikini is introduced.
Tunisia with Parker in Los Angeles and then rejoins
Billy Eckstine's band. Guitarist Django Reinhardt
and violinist Stephane Grappelli are reunited after
their wartime separation. Dizzy Gillespie forms a big
band that includes pianist John Lewis and drummer
Kenny Clarke. Billie Holiday performs at Town Hall in
New York.
Date Developments in Jazz Historical Events

1947 Louis Armstrong appears at Carnegie Hall with Billie Crisis occurs in Palestine. India and Pakistan gain
Holiday. Miles Davis continues to perform with independence from Britain. Communists assume
Charlie Parker at the Three Deuces and makes a power in Hungary. Jackie Robinson becomes the
series of recordings with Parker. Davis makes his first African American in major league baseball. The
first recordings as a leader, featuring Parker, pianist sound barrier is broken in the US. The Central
John Lewis, and drummer Max Roach. Parker Intelligence Agency is created by President Harry
records numerous tracks for the Dial and Savoy Truman. The House Un-American Activities
labels. Billie Holiday is convicted for possession of Committee begins investigating communism in
heroin. Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie appear at Hollywood, leading to the blacklisting of ten
a sold out concert at Carnegie Hall, where Gillespie filmmakers. The first microwave oven is introduced.
performs Cubana Be/Cubana Bop. Gillespie records
Manteca bringing attention to his Afro-Cuban jazz.
Thelonious Monk records several compositions.
Drummer Art Blakey forms group. The Atlantic label
is founded. Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday
appear in the film New Orleans. Chano Pozo
introduces Afro-Cuban jazz in New York.
1948 Dizzy Gillespie brings bebop to Europe, performing at Mahatma Ghandi is assassinated in New Delhi.
the Nice Jazz Festival in France along with Louis Communists gain control of Czechoslovakia. Britain
Armstrong and others. Gillespie's Cuban drummer, abandons Palestine. Israel is founded. The USSR
Chano Pozo, is shot dead in Harlem. Billie Holiday isolates Berlin. Writer George Orwell's 1984 is
performs twice at Carnegie Hall, both times breaking published. South Africa establishes the apartheid
box-office records. Columbia Records introduces the system. In the US, a judge rules that it is illegal for
first long-playing vinyl discs. Miles Davis forms a homeowners to refuse to sell to black buyers.
nonet which appears for two weeks at the Royal
Roost as a replacement for pianist Count Basie's
band. Saxophonist Ben Webster rejoins Duke
Ellington's band.
1949 Miles Davis and composer/arranger Gil Evans record The Republic of Erie is established. The West
Birth of the Cool. The first Festival International de German Federal Republic is established. The first
Jazz is held in Paris, featuring Charlie Parker, Dizzy passenger jet aircraft makes a flight. The People's
Gillespie, Sidney Bechet, Miles Davis, Kenny Clark, Republic of China is founded by Chairman Mao Tse-
and others. Pianist Lennie Tristano records early Tung. The East German Democratic Republic is
examples of free jazz improvisation. Norman Granz established. Civil War ends in Greece. Vietnam
pairs Canadian pianist Oscar Peterson with bassist achieves independence from France.
Ray Brown at a "Jazz at the Philharmonic" concert at
Carnegie Hall. Pianist Dave Brubeck records in San
Francisco with his piano trio. The club Birdland,
named after Charlie "Bird" Parker, opens on
Broadway. Parker appears at Carnegie Hall. Stan
Kenton performs progressive jazz at Carnegie Hall
with a 25-piece orchestra.
Date Developments in Jazz Historical Events

1950 Pianist Oscar Peterson makes his first recordings. Writer George Orwell (1984) dies. The Soviet Union
Vocalist Sarah Vaughan records in NY with trumpeter declares its nuclear weaponry. The Korean War
Miles Davis. Saxophonist Charlie Parker and pianist begins. China invades Tibet.
Thelonious Monk record together. Monk is arrested
for possession of drugs and banned from performing
in NY nightclubs for six years. Pianist Errol Garner
composes Misty. Pianist Ahmad Jamal forms his first
piano trio. Pianist Count Basie and trumpeter Dizzy
Gillespie both disband their big bands due to financial
constraints.
1951 The Miles Davis All Stars record their first long- United Nations troops take Seoul. Writer J.D.
playing album for Prestige. Pianist Dave Brubeck Salinger publishes The Catcher in the Rye. NATO is
forms his first quartet with saxophonist Paul formed.
Desmond. Pianist John Lewis forms the Milt Jackson
Quartet with vibraphonist Milt Jackson, bassist Ray
Brown, and drummer Kenny Clarke.
1952 Charlie Parker records sessions with strings and Writer Samuel Beckett's publishes Waiting for Godot.
Latin repertoire for Mercury. Bassist Charles Mingus The Immigration and Naturalization Act is passed,
and drummer Max Roach form the Debut label. removing the last racial and ethnic barriers to
Carnegie Hall presents a concert devoted to naturalization.
California jazz featuring trumpeter Chet Baker and
saxophonists Gerry Mulligan and Paul Desmond.
Milt Jackson and John Lewis rename their group the
Modern Jazz Quartet. Bandleader Fletcher
Henderson dies. Duke Ellington's 25th Anniversary
is celebrated with two concerts at Carnegie Hall
featuring Billie Holiday, saxophonist Stan Getz,
Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie. Gerry Mulligan's
piano-less quartet records My Funny Valentine.
1953 Dave Brubeck's quartet records Jazz at Oberlin Soviet leader Josef Stalin dies. Composer Serge
during a highly acclaimed college tour. Benny Prokofiev dies. Queen Elizabeth II is coronated in
Goodman's band goes on tour with Louis London. The Korean War ends. Dwight
Armstrong's All Stars eventually leading to a fight that D.Eisenhower becomes president.
ends with Goodman having a nervous breakdown.
Trombonist Bob Brookmeyer replaces Chet Baker in
Gerry Mulligan's quartet.
Date Developments in Jazz Historical Events

1954 Miles Davis records Walkin' and Miles Davis and the The US tests the hydrogen bomb on Bikini Atoll.
Modern Jazz Giants, the latter featuring Thelonious American composer Charles Ives dies. Bill Haley
Monk and Milt Jackson. The highly popular Chet and the Comets introduce the hit song Shake, Rattle
Baker Quartet records My Funny Valentine and But and Roll. The Vietnam War begins. The Supreme
Not For Me. The Dave Brubeck Quartet records Jazz Court rules that racial segregation in public schools in
Goes To College. Brubeck appears on the cover of unconstitutional. The first nuclear power is produced
Time magazine. Drummer Shelly Manne records in the Soviet Union.
West Coast Sound. The first American jazz festival
is organized in Newport, Rhode Island by George
Wein. Charlie Parker attempts suicide and is later
admitted to Bellevue Hospital. Bassist Charles
Mingus makes his first recordings with the Jazz
Composers Workshop. The film The Glenn Miller
Story is released, starring Jimmy Stewart and
featuring Louis Armstrong and others. Drummer Max
Roach forms a hard bop quintet with trumpeter
Clifford Brown. Drummer Art Blakey forms the Jazz
Messengers.
1955 Charlie Parker dies. Miles Davis makes his first Scientist Albert Einstein dies. The Warsaw Pact is
recordings with a new quintet featuring saxophonist agreed upon. Disneyland opens in Los Angeles.
John Coltrane, pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Jonas Salk perfects the polio vaccine. Chuck Berry's
Chambers, and drummer Philly Joe Jones. Art Maybelline becomes a hit. Kentucky Fried Chicken
Blakey's Jazz Messengers record live in NY. goes on sale in the US.
Saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley performs
in NY for the first time. Pianist Lennie Tristano
experiments with overdubbing.
1956 Bassist Charlie Mingus records Pithecanthropus Actress Marilyn Monroe marries playwright Arthur
Erectus, breaking new ground in collective Miller. The USSR crushes the Hungarian rebellion.
improvisation. Saxophonist Sonny Rollins records Singer Elvis Presley releases Heartbreak Hotel.
Saxophone Colossus. Trumpeter Clifford Brown dies
in a car accident. Art Blakey records the album Hard
Bop. Pianist Horace Silver leaves the Jazz
Messengers. Duke Ellington's popularity is
resparked by an appearance at the Newport Jazz
Festival and by a cover story in Time Magazine.
Miles Davis records Relaxin', Cookin', and Steamin'
and then tours Europe. Art Tatum dies. NBC
launches the Nat King Cole Show. Trumpeter Lee
Morgan makes his first recordings.
Date Developments in Jazz Historical Events

1957 The Modern Jazz Quartet provides the score for the Composer Arturo Toscanini dies. Composer Jean
film Sait-on jamais, and tours Europe performing the Sibelius dies. The USSR launches the first Sputnik
music. Miles Davis and arranger Gil Evans record satellite. Governor Faubus of Arkansas calls out the
Miles Ahead. Davis records the soundtrack for the National Guard to prevent desegregation. Dr. Seuss'
French film L'Ascenseur pour l'echafaud and children's book The Cat in the Hat becomes a
performs the music in Paris with bassist Pierre bestseller.
Michelot and drummer Kenny Clarke. Thelonious
Monk records with the Jazz Messengers. Clarinetist
Jimmy Dorsey dies. Bassist Charles Mingus records
Tijuana Moods, using elements of Latin music.
Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story opens in
Washington DC. Saxophonist John Coltrane records
the album Blue Trane. Louis Armstrong causes
controversy by speaking out against President
Dwight Eisenhower. Billie Holiday performs Fine and
Mellow in a live TV broadcast. The State Department
sends Benny Goodman on a tour to the Far East.
Pianist and arranger Toshiko Akiyoshi wins a poll in
Down Beat and receives an award from the Berklee
College of Music. Brandies University commissions
Third Stream works by Charles Mingus and others.
1958 Critic Barry Ulanov speaks out against sexism in jazz The European Economic Community is established.
in an article in Down Beat. Sonny Rollins records Painter Pablo Picasso's mural The Fall of Icarus is
Freedom Suite with Oscar Pettiford and Max Roach, unveiled. The Boeing 707 jet revolutionizes air
using the liner notes to attack racism in America. travel. The hovercraft is invented. The first stereo
Dave Brubeck performs in Denmark. Oscar Peterson record is issued. The skateboard is invented in
performs in Amsterdam. Bandleader W.C. Handy California.
dies. The film St. Louis Blues depicts Handy's life
and features Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, and
blues singer Mahalia Jackson. Miles Davis records
Milestones, featuring early modal jazz. Davis records
On Green Dolphin Street with pianist Bill Evans.
Davis and Gil Evans record large-ensemble
arrangements of composer George Gershwin's opera
Porgy and Bess. Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers
record Moanin', a defining album for hard bop.
Composer Antonio Carlos Jobim launches the bossa
nova craze, recording Joao Gilberto's Chega de
Saudade. Bill Evans records Everybody Digs Bill
Evans with the influential modal track Peace Piece.
Blakey records Holiday for Skin with three jazz
drummers and seven Latin percussionists and tours
Europe with the Jazz Messengers.
Date Developments in Jazz
1959 Thelonious Monk appears at Town Hall. Miles Davis
records Kind of Blue, which pioneers modal jazz and
becomes a classic. Saxophonist Lester Young dies.
John Coltrane records Giant Steps. Clarinetist Sidney
Bechet dies. Los Angeles-based saxophonist
Ornette Coleman records The Shape of Jazz to
Come, a free jazz album. Coleman's group performs
free jazz at the Five Spot in New York. Billie Holiday
is arrested for possession of drugs and dies soon
after. Duke Ellington composes the score for the film
Anatomy of a Murder. Dave Brubeck and his quartet
record Time Out, which includes Paul Desmond's hit
Take Five. Pianist Oscar Peterson forms a trio with
bassist Ray Brown and drummer Ed Thigpen.
Historical Events
Fidel Castro assumes power in Cuba. Singer Buddy
Holly dies. Hawaii and Alaska join the US. Architect
Frank Lloyd Wright dies. Panama is invaded by
Cuban forces. China is barred from joining the
United Nations. The first cassette tapes are
introduced in the US. Earth receives its first pictures
of the dark side of the moon. The first Xerox
machines are introduced. Two monkeys are sent
into space by NASA and return safely.
Date Developments in Jazz Historical Events

1960 Trumpeter Miles Davis records Sketches of Spain, Writer Albert Camus is killed in a car crash. The first
which uses Flamenco music, and then tours Europe. laser beam is demonstrated. African-American
The Modern Jazz Quartet records an album with students stage sit-ins in North Carolina.
orchestral accompaniment. Crowd disturbances
disrupt the Seventh Newport Jazz Festival.
Saxophonist John Coltrane and trumpeter Don
Cherry collaborate on the album Avant-Garde,
influenced by saxophonist Ornette Coleman.
Coltrane records My Favorite Things with his new
quartet. Drummer Max Roach records We Insist!:
Freedom Now Suite. Pianist Cecil Taylor and
saxophonist Archie Shepp record The World of Cecil
Taylor. Bassist Charles Mingus and
saxophonist/clarinetist Eric Dolphy record What Love
and Fables of Faubus, the latter written about the
governor who opposed desegregation. Drummer
Shelly Manne opens the club "Shelly's Manne-Hole"
in Los Angeles. Ornette Coleman records Free Jazz.
1961 Drummer Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers tour Japan. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin is the first man in
Miles Davis records live at San Francisco's Black space. Writer Ernest Hemingway dies. The Berlin
Hawk. Davis and arranger Gil Evans appear at Wall is completed. The birth-control pill is introduced.
Carnegie Hall. Trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie appears at Writer Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22 is published.
Carnegie Hall. Pianist Thelonious Monk tours Cuban exiles attempt to overthrow Cuban leader
Europe. Ornette Coleman's avant-garde quartet Fidel Castro in the Bay of Pigs invasion. John F.
disbands. Down Beat magazine prints several Kennedy becomes president.
articles attacking Ornette Coleman's music and the
current (free jazz) music of John Coltrane and Eric
Dolphy. The Newport Jazz Festival relocates to New
York after rioting in its original location. Saxophonist
Oliver Nelson records Blues and the Abstract Truth.
1962 Saxophonist Stan Getz and guitarist Charlie Byrd Actress Marilyn Monroe dies. Writer William
record Desafinado, which sparks renewed interest in Faulkner dies. The Cuban missile crisis occurs.
bossa nova. Pianist Herbie Hancock records his first Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts opens in New
album as a leader, Takin' Off. Trumpeter Cootie York. The Beatles become a sensation with their first
Williams rejoins Duke Ellington's band. Ellington single Love Me Do.
records an album with Charles Mingus and drummer
Max Roach and an album with John Coltrane.
Carnegie Hall hosts a bossa-nova concert. Guitarist
Joe Pass makes his first album. Cecil Taylor records
live in Copenhagen.
1963 Charles Mingus records The Black Saint and The Civil rights leader Martin Luther King addresses a
Sinner Lady, a landmark in extended structure and rally in Washington DC. Twelve-year-old singer
free improvisation. Bill Evans records Conversations Stevie Wonder releases his first album. President
with Myself, which uses overdubbing. Miles Davis John F. Kennedy is assassinated. Lyndon B.
performs and records with his new group with Herbie Johnson becomes president.
Hancock, saxophonist George Coleman, bassist Ron
Carter, and 17-year-old drummer Tony Williams.
Count Basie tours Japan. Trumpeter Lee Morgan
records the best-selling The Sidewinder. Astrud
Gilberto's Girl from Ipanema becomes a huge hit
featuring Stan Getz.
Date Developments in Jazz Historical Events

1964 The Miles Davis Quintet records the classic live South African political activist Nelson Mandela begins
album My Funny Valentine, and soon after his life sentence. Composer Cole Porter dies.
saxophonist Wayne Shorter replaces George Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick releases Dr. Strangelove.
Coleman. Clarinetist and flutist Eric Dolphy records The Beatles appear in A Hard Day's Night and tour
Out To Lunch, with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard and the US for the first time. The US Civil Rights Bill is
Tony Williams. Pianist Horace Silver records Song passed. France and Britain agree to construct a
for My Father. John Coltrane records A Love Channel Tunnel connecting the two countries. The
Supreme, which sells hundreds of thousands of soldier doll G.I. Joe is introduced.
copies. Blind multi-instrumentalist Roland Kirk
performs at the Newport in Europe festival. Avant-
garde tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler records the
album Ghosts.
1965 Miles Davis records ESP with his new quintet. Writer T.S. Eliot dies. The US intensifies its
Pianist Nat King Cole dies of cancer. Herbie involvement in Vietnam. The first spacewalk occurs.
Hancock records Maiden Voyage, a classic modal Thirty-four people are killed in Los Angeles race riots.
tune, with the other members of Miles Davis' group The film The Sound of Music receives an Oscar for
plus trumpeter Freddie Hubbard. Trumpeter Thad Best Picture. Political activist Malcolm X is
Jones and drummer Mel Lewis form a rehearsal assassinated.
orchestra that is to last for years. John Coltrane
records Ascension, a free jazz experiment influenced
by Ornette Coleman.
1966 Duke Ellington receives the President's Gold Medal Race riots break out in New York, Cleveland, and
of Honor. Thad Jones and Mel Lewis debut with their Chicago. Cultural Revolution occurs in China. Star
big band at the Village Vanguard in New York. Cecil Trek appears on TV. Barbara Jordan becomes the
Taylor records Unit Structures, which is an first African American woman to win a seat in the
experimental album that resembles contemporary Texas Senate.
classical music. The Miles Davis Quintet records
Miles Smiles, a historic work that explores structural
freedom.
1967 John Coltrane makes his last recordings and dies The first heart-transplant operation is performed.
soon after of liver disease. The Miles Davis Quintet The Six-Day War occurs in the Middle East. The
records Sorcerer and Nefertiti, featuring mostly Apollo space crew is killed in a launchpad fire.
compositions by Wayne Shorter. The Dave Brubeck Singer Aretha Franklin has four top-ten hits.
Quartet disbands. Bandleader Paul Whiteman dies.
The first Montreux Jazz Festival is held in
Switzerland. Down Beat announces it will cover rock
music as well as jazz. Trumpeter Lester Bowie forms
the Art Ensemble of Chicago, an important avant-
garde jazz group. Herbie Hancock introduces electric
piano to popular jazz in Miles Davis' group.
Date Developments in Jazz Historical Events

1968 Vibraphonist Gary Burton appears at Carnegie Hall. Martin Luther King is assassinated. Students protest
Herbie Hancock records the album Speak Like a in Paris. The USSR invades Czechoslovakia.
Child with trumpeter Thad Jones and bassist Ron Presidential candidate Robert Kennedy is
Carter. Hancock quits the Miles Davis Quartet. assassinated. Massive antiwar protests are staged
Guitarist Wes Montgomery, whose album A Day in in the US. Rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix soars up the
the Life is the best selling jazz album of the year, charts with two albums. Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick's
dies. Pianist Chick Corea and bassist Dave Holland 2001: A Space Odyssey is released.
join Miles Davis' band. Avant-garde saxophonist
Anthony Braxton, a member of the Chicago
Association for the Advancement of Creative
Musicians, records For Alto Saxophone and Three
Compositions of New Jazz. Composer Carla Bley's
Jazz Composers Orchestra Association forms the
New Music Distribution Service to disseminate its
recordings.
1969 Composer Gunther Schuller completes his book Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to land on the
Early Jazz, the first critical study of the origins of the moon. Colonel Muammar Gaddafi seizes power in
music. Bassist Paul Chambers dies from Libya. Golda Meir becomes Premier of Israel. The
tuberculosis. Miles Davis records In a Silent Way. Woodstock pop music festival is held in New York.
Later in the year, Davis records Bitches Brew, the Writer Mario Puzo's The Godfather is published. The
first important fusion album. Tony Williams forms the lottery system is established for the US draft.
group Lifetime with guitarist John McLaughlin and Richard M. Nixon becomes president.
organist Larry Young. The Art Ensemble of Chicago
records in Paris.
Date Developments in Jazz Historical Events

1971 Keyboardist Joe Zawinul's new fusion group, Composer Igor Stravinsky dies. The US bombs
Weather Report, records in New York. Guitarist John North Vietnam. Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick's A
McLaughlin's newly formed Mahavishnu Orchestra Clockwork Orange is banned in the UK.
records in New York. Pianist Thelonious Monk
records in London. Sun Ra's Arkestra tours Egypt.
Bassist Charles Mingus publishes his autobiography,
Beneath The Underdog. Trumpeter Louis Armstrong
dies.
1972 Weather Report records I Sing the Body Electric. British troops kill 13 people in Northern Ireland. The
Keyboardist Chick Corea records with his newly UK joins the European Economic Community. The
formed fusion group Return to Forever. Bassist SALT agreement limits US and USSR nuclear
Charles Mingus performs at the Philharmonic Hall in weapons. Eleven Israelis are murdered by Arab
New York. Hard bop trumpeter Lee Morgan is shot terrorists in Munich at the Olympics. The US makes
dead by his former mistress in New York. Pianist its final bombing of North Vietnam. President
Thelonious Monk goes into retirement. Free jazz Richard Nixon visits Communist China and the
saxophonist Ornette Coleman's Skies of America is USSR. Reggae star Bob Marley is signed to Island
performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. The Records and brings Jamaican music and culture into
Mahavishnu Orchestra records Birds of Fire and the mainstream. The first Polaroid cameras go on
Love Devotion Surrender. sale.
1975 Saxophonist Michael Brecker and his brother, The Khmer Rouge takes control of Cambodia. North
trumpeter Randy, record together. Return to Forever Vietnam invades South Vietnam. Filmmaker Steven
records No Mystery. Miles Davis performs in Japan, Spielberg's Jaws is released.
New York, and at the Newport Festival before going
into retirement. Guitarist Pat Metheny records his
first album, Bright Sized Life, with electric bassist
Jaco Pastorius. Pianist Bill Evans records the album
Alone. Fourteen-year-old trumpet virtuoso Wynton
Marsalis performs with the New Orleans Symphony
Orchestra.
1976 Pianist Dave Brubeck's quartet reunites for an The Viking space probe transmits pictures from Mars.
anniversary concert. Pianist Thelonious Monk Writer Alex Haley's Roots is published. The US
performs for the last time at the Newport Jazz celebrates the bicentennial of its independence with
Festival. Pianist Herbie Hancock records live at 4th of July festivities. Punk rock becomes popular in
Newport with his group, VSOP. Guitarist John Britain.
McLaughlin disbands the Mahavishnu Orchestra.
Weather Report, now with electric bass virtuoso Jaco
Pastorius, records its best selling albums Black
Market and Heavy Weather.
1977 Pianist Errol Garner dies. Alto saxophonist Paul The US space shuttle makes a test flight. Singer
Desmond dies. The World Saxophone Quartet is Elvis Presley dies. Filmmaker George Lucas' Star
founded. Drummer Kenny Clarke returns to the US. Wars is released. Jimmy Carter becomes president.
Multi-instrumentalist Roland Kirk dies. Pop jazz
group Spyro Gyra records its first album.
1978 President Jimmy Carter hosts a jazz concert at the Revolution occurs in Afghanistan. The hit film
White House in honor of bassist and composer musical Grease is released. The first video arcade
Charles Mingus. The Cuban band, Irakere, promotes game "Space Invaders" is a hug hit worldwide.
Afro-Cuban music in Europe and the US. Pianist Television reporter Max Robinson is the first African
Chick Corea records with vibraphonist Gary Burton. American to anchor network news.
Keyboardist Bob James composes a popular fusion
theme for the TV series Taxi. The Pat Metheny
Group is formed.
1979 Bassist Charles Mingus dies in Mexico. Sue Mingus Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain's first female
forms the Mingus Dynasty in honor of her late Prime Minister. Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola's
husband. Drummer Jack DeJohnette collaborates movie Apocalypse Now is released. Nuclear disaster
with saxophonist David Murray on Special Edition. occurs at Three Mile Island. The first Sony Walkman
Pianist Keith Jarrett and saxophonist Jan Garbarek is introduced.
record live. Bandleader Stan Kenton dies in Los
Angeles. Dizzy Gillespie publishes his book, To Be
or Not To Bop. Pianist Bill Evans makes his final
recordings.
Date Developments in Jazz
1980 Saxophonist Grover Washington, Jr., records his
Grammy Award winning album, Winelight, that
includes the hit song Just the Two of Us. Trumpeter
Miles Davis comes out of retirement and records the
funk and rock-influenced The Man with the Horn.
Eighteen-year-old trumpeter Wynton Marsalis
records at Montreux with Art Blakey's Jazz
Messengers. Pianist Bill Evans dies in New York.
1981 Pianist Mary Lou Williams dies. Miles Davis makes
his first live performance since retirement at Avery
Fisher Hall in New York. Saxophonist David Sanborn
records the album Voyeur, featuring the Grammy-
winning song All I Need is You, composed by bassist
Marcus Miller. Saxophonist Branford and trumpeter
Wynton Marsalis joins Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers.
1982 Pianist Thelonious Monk dies. Saxophonist Sonny
Stitt dies. Bassist Jaco Pastorius leaves Weather
Report. Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and vocalist
Bobby McFerrin are featured at the Kool Jazz
Festival.
1983 Pianist Keith Jarrett make his first recordings of
standards with drummer Jack DeJohnette and
bassist Gary Peacock. Pianist Eubie Blake dies.
Pianist Earl Hines dies. Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis
makes history by winning a jazz and classical
Grammy Award in the same year. Keyboardist
Herbie Hancock's synthesized dance hit, Rockit,
reaches number one in the pop charts. Pianist Scott
Joplin appears on a US postage stamp.
1984 Bandleader and keyboardist Sun Ra performs in
Athens and is voted into the Down Beat Hall of
Fame. Pianist Count Basie dies in Hollywood.
Drummer Shelly Manne dies. Miles Davis records
You're Under Arrest, before leaving Columbia
Records and signing a seven figure deal with Warner
Bros.
Historical Events
Former Beatle John Lennon is murdered in New York
City. 10,000 Cuban refugees come to the US. Mt.
St. Helen's volcano erupts. The Iranian hostage
crisis begins.
The US completes its first successful space shuttle
mission. Race riots occur in Brixton, London. Prince
Charles marries Lady Diana Spencer. President
Anwar Sadat of Egypt is assassinated. Poland
declares martial law to quash trade union "solidarity."
Former actor Ronald Reagan becomes president.
Assassination attempts are made on President
Reagan and Pope John Paul II. Sandra Day
O'Connor becomes the first female Supreme Court
Justice. The Iranian hostage crises ends. The AIDS
epidemic begins.
Argentina invades the Falkland Islands. British
forces reclaim the Falklands forcing the surrender of
Argentine troops. Filmmaker Richard Attenborough
receives eight Academy Awards for the film Ghandi.
Filmmaker Steven Spielberg receives three Academy
Awards for E.T. The Message is one of the earliest
rap hits.
Writer Tennessee Williams dies. The US invades
Granada. The first compact discs are marketed. The
Cabbage Patch dolls become a commercial success.
The School Prayer Amendment is rejected by the
Supreme Court.
The first black franchise is granted in South Africa.
Indian Prime Minister Indira Ghandi is assassinated.
Ronald Reagan is elected to his second term as
President. Apple Computers launches the first
Macintosh.
Date Developments in Jazz
1985 Drummer Kenny Clarke dies. Miles Davis records
Aura in Denmark. Trumpeter Thad Jones takes over
the Count Basie band. Blue Note is relaunched with
a concert at Town Hall with drummer Art Blakey,
bassist Ron Carter, pianist Herbie Hancock,
trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, and others. Drummer
Philly Joe Jones dies. Trumpeter Cootie Williams
dies. Pianist Chick Corea captures a new audience
with his Elektrik Band with electric bassist John
Patitucci and drummer Dave Weckl. Branford
Marsalis tours with pop artist Sting.
1986 Clarinetist Benny Goodman dies. Wynton Marsalis
records Standard Time, establishing his reputation as
a traditionalist. Jazz-pop musician Kenny G has a hit
with Songbird. The film Round Midnight is released,
starring saxophonist Dexter Gordon as a character
loosely based on pianist Bud Powell. Pianist Herbie
Hancock wins an Academy Award for his original
score for the film Round Midnight.
1987 Electric bassist Jaco Pastorius dies, beat up by a
bouncer in a South Florida bar. Free jazz
saxophonist Ornette Coleman reunites his original
quartet. Saxophonist Michael Brecker releases his
first solo album. A big band is formed to celebrate
trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie's seventieth birthday.
Major record labels begin massive reissues of classic
jazz recordings on CD, reflecting the renewed
interest in bebop and hard bop.
1988 Arranger Gil Evans dies in Mexico. Trumpeter Chet
Baker dies in mysterious circumstances in
Amsterdam. Pianist Keith Jarrett is nominated for a
Grammy for his recording of music by composer J.S.
Bach. Actor Clint Eastwood directs Bird, a
biographical film of the life of Charlie Parker.
1989 Trumpeter Roy Eldridge dies. Trumpeter Woody
Shaw dies. Nineteen-year-old trumpeter Roy
Hargrove records Diamond in the Rough. John Zorn
records the post-modern album Naked City.
Trumpeter and producer Quincy Jones records Back
on the Block with a wide variety of genres from bop
to rap. Miles Davis records Amandla.
Historical Events
Singer and promoter Bob Geldof's charity concert
"Live Aid" reaches a global audience. The sunken
cruise ship The Titanic is located.
The US space shuttle Challenger explodes on
launch. The US bombs Libya from a British air base.
Filmmaker Oliver Stone's Platoon receives an
Academy Award. The Iran-Contra Scandal becomes
public. The Supreme Court upholds affirmative-
action hiring quotas.
Artist Andy Warhol dies. The stock market crashes.
Ex-Nazi deputy Rudolf Hess commits suicide in a
Berlin prison. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet
leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign the first treaty to
reduce nuclear arms. Pop vocalist Whitney Houston
becomes the first female artist to have an album go
straight to number one in the Billboard charts.
A jumbo jet explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland.
American TV evangelist Jim Bakker is forced to
resign after admitting to an affair. The antidepressant
drug Prozac is launched.
Artist Salvador Dali dies. The Berlin Wall is opened.
Protesters are massacred at Tiananmen Square in
Beijing, China. Writer Salman Rushdie is sentenced
to death in Iran for writing his novel The Satanic
Verses. The US invades Panama. The Exxon
Valdez oil spill occurs. George H. Bush becomes
president.
Date Developments in Jazz Historical Developments

1990 Drummer Mel Lewis dies. Vocalist Sarah Vaughan The Gulf War begins. The Warsaw Pact collapses.
dies. Saxophonist Dexter Gordon dies. Composer The Soviet Union falls.
Leonard Bernstein dies. Drummer Art Blakey dies.
Trumpeter Miles Davis publishes his controversial
autobiography Miles: The Autobiography (co-
authored by Quincy Troupe).
1991 Saxophonist Stan Getz dies. Miles Davis appears at Children's book writer Dr. Seuss dies. The Tailhook
the Montreux Jazz Festival with Quincy Jones, scandal occurs. The Gulf War ends.
performing early work with arranger Gil Evans. Davis
dies in California. Saxophonist Joshua Redman
signs with Warner Bros. records.
1992 Miles Davis' final album, Doo-Bop, which features Race riots break out in Los Angeles. Author Terry
rap, is released. Saxophonist Branford Marsalis McMillan publishes the hit novel Waiting to Exhale.
becomes the bandleader on "The Tonight Show with Mae Jemison becomes the first African American
Jay Leno," with a group that includes pianist Kenny woman astronaut. Carol Moseley-Braun becomes
Kirkland, bassist Bob Hurst, and drummer Jeff Watts. the first African American woman elected to the US
Hip hop group US3 has a hit with a song that Senate.
samples Herbie Hancock's Cantaloupe Island.
Pianist Herbie Hancock, saxophonist Wayne Shorter,
bassist Ron Carter, drummer Tony Williams and
trumpeter Wallace Roney tour in a tribute to Miles
Davis.
1993 Bandleader Sun Ra dies. Saxophonist Joe South African Prime Minister F.W. de Klerk and
Henderson receives critical acclaim for his Miles political activist Nelson Mandela win Nobel Peace
Davis tribute album So Near, So Far (Musings for Prize. Poet Maya Angelou delivers a poem for the
Miles). Pianist Chick Corea's Elektrik Band is inauguration of President Clinton. Writer Toni
refused permission to perform in Germany because Morrison wins the Nobel Prize for literature. Bill
of Corea's membership in the controversial Church of Clinton becomes president.
Scientology. Saxophonist Jan Garbarek has
commercial success with his album Officium.
Saxophonist Joshua Redman records two albums
and establishes himself as the top star in the young
lion jazz scene.
1994 Guitarist Joe Pass dies. Trumpeter Red Rodney South Africa has its first multi-racial election.
dies. A Tribute to Miles, featuring the Miles Davis
tribute band, wins a Grammy Award.
1995 Trumpeter Roy Hargrove ousts Trumpeter Wynton Former football star O.J. Simpson is on trial for
Marsalis in the Down Beat critic polls. Film director murder. Civil unrest occurs in former Chechnya.
Robert Altman's film, Kansas City, is released, Oklahoma City Federal building is bombed. Nation of
featuring a reenactment of a 1930's jam session with Islam leader Louis Farrakhan organizes the Million
pianist Geri Allen, saxophonist Joshua Redman, Man March in Washington, DC.
bassist Christian McBride, saxophonist James
Carter, and others. The Impulse record label is
revived after 21 years. Drummer Tony Williams dies.
1996 Kenny Garrett releases Pursuance: The Music of A bomb is set off at the Olympic games in Atlanta.
John Coltrane, with Pat Metheny.
1997 Wayne Shorter wins a Grammy Award for his electric Group suicide occurs among religious cult Heaven's
jazz album High Life. Saxophonist Joshua Redman, Gate members in California. Former Princess of
bassist Christian McBride, and drummer Brian Blade Wales Lady Diana dies in a car accident.
tour as a trio. A $27 million jazz museum opens in
Kansas City.
Date Developments in Jazz
1998 Guitarist Pat Metheny and bassist Charlie Haden win
Grammy Awards for their duet album Beyond the
Missouri Sky. Guitarist Kevin Eubanks replaces
Branford Marsalis as the bandleader on "The Tonight
Show with Jay Leno."
1999 Trumpeter Art Farmer dies. Vibraphonist Milt
Jackson dies. Singer Joe Williams dies. Trumpeter
Lester Bowie dies.
Trumpeter Dave Douglas rises in popularity. Bassist
Dave Holland tours with a group featuring
2000 saxophonist Chris Potter.
Historical Developments
President Clinton is impeached.
President Clinton is acquitted on impeachment
charges after a Senate trial. Fifteen high school
students are shot dead by two students at Columbine
High School in Colorado.
Violence erupts in Israel. The US Presidential
election results are delayed due to confusion about
votes in Florida.