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Year

Developments in Jazz

Historical Events

1900

A cutting contest (a colloquial term for music competition) for


ragtime pianists is held at New York's Tammany Hall.

Hawaii becomes official U.S. territory.

First electric bus runs in New York City

U.S. President William McKinley is


assassinated.

Painter Pablo Picasso's first exhibit is he


Paris.

Theodore Roosevelt becomes president.

The Electric Theatre, the first movie the


in the United States, opens in Los Angel
California.

Cuba gains independence from the Unit


States.

1901

Charles Booth's performance of J. Bodewalt Lange's Creole


Blues is recorded for the new Victor label. This is the first
acoustic recording of ragtime to be made commercially
available.
The American Federation of Musicians (the musicians union)
votes to suppress ragtime.

Louis Armstrong is born.

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.

Pianist and composer Eubie Blake publishes his first piano


rags.

The Wright brothers make their first


successful flight.

Cornetist Buddy Bolden begins to develop a reputation in New


Orleans for playing music that fuses elements of blues and
ragtime.

The third Modern Olympic Games open


St. Louis, Missouri as part of the World'
Fair.

Tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins is born.

The ice cream cone is created.

The first underground line of the New Y


City Subway opens.

The first New Year's Eve celebration is h


in New York City's Times Square.

Scientist Albert Einstein presents his spe

1902

1903

1904

1905

A black newspaper in Indianapolis releases a statement in


reaction to racist songs popular during this period: "Composers

should not set music to a set of words that are a direct insult to
the colored race."

theory of relativity.

Pizza is introduced at Lombardi's in New


York.

1906

Jelly Roll Morton composes King Porter Stomp.

Cornetist Buddy Bolden is committed to a mental institution


without having ever recorded any music.

The first wireless broadcast of classical


music is produced in New York.

Scott Joplin moves to New York.

Alcohol is banned in North Carolina and


Georgia.

1907

1908

1909

The U.S. Marine band records Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag.

Alcohol is banned in Tennessee.

The popularity of ragtime continues to grow among Blacks and


white resulting in increased public interaction between the
races.

Robert Peary reaches the North Pole.

William Howard Taft becomes presiden

Year
Developments in Jazz

Historical Events

The NAACP is founded.

Mark Twain dies.

Marie Curie isolates radium.

1910
Composer and conductor James Reese Europe founds the Clef
Club, an association for Black musicians based in New York.

1911

Pianist Scott Joplin publishes his opera Treemonisha.

Raold Amundsen reaches the South Pole

Irving Berlin records Alexander's Ragtime Band, which


becomes a hit but is scorned by ragtime purists.

Civil War occurs in Mexico.

The Titanic sinks.

60-floor Woolworth Building is complet

1912

1913

The word "jazz" first appears in print.

making it the largest building in the wor

James Reese Europe records ragtime arrangements in New


York with the first black ensemble to be recorded.

Vernon and Irene Castle, a married dance team, begins


performing floor shows at James Europe's shows.

Pianist W.C. Handy writes St. Louis Blues.

Woodrow Wilson becomes President.

World War I begins in Europe.

The Panama Canal opens to commercial


traffic.

1914

1915

Trumpeter King Oliver forms a band in New Orleans with


clarinetist Sidney Bechet.

Albert Einstein presents his general theo


relativity.

Scott Joplin stages Treemonisha himself and the show fails.

Vocalist Billie Holiday is born.

The Great Migration begins; over the ne


years 6 million Blacks will leave the So
for northern cities, the mid-west and
California, carrying their musical influe
with them.

Revolution occurs in Russia.

1916

1917

Scott Joplin dies.

The U.S. enters World War I.

The classic era of ragtime ends.

More than 200,000 Black men served th


armed forces in segregated units.

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.

James Europe leads the 369th Hell Figh


Band.

The U.S. Navy closes New Orleans's Storyville red-light


district.

Jazz musicians begin to leave the city for the North.

Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk are born.

Trumpeter King Oliver leaves New Orleans for Chicago.

World War I ends.

Tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins tours with blues singer

A flu epidemic kills an estimated 20 mil

1918

Mamie Smith and begins to develop a unique style of playing.

people worldwide.

Singer, actor, and civil rights activist Pa


Robeson graduates first in his class from
Rutgers University.

Labor and housing tensions lead to race


in Chicago, East St. Louis, Washington,
and other cities, killing hundreds and bu
thousands out of their homes.

The first airplane crosses the Atlantic O


piloted by John Alcock and Arthur Whit
Brown.

Mexican rebel leader Emilio Zapata is


ambushed and murdered by government
forces.

Physicist Ernest Rutherford, known as t


father of nuclear physics, discovers a wa
induce the splitting of an atom. This is t
first instance of an experiment performi
nuclear transmutation, the changing of o
chemical element into another.

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.

James Europe is murdered by a fellow bandmate after an


argument.

Year
Developments in Jazz

Historical Events

The town of Zion, Illinois bans jazz performances, labeling


them "sinful."

A crisis occurs surrounding German war


reparations.

Pianist James P. Johnson records The Harlem Strut and


Carolina Shout, the earliest stride piano recordings, in New
York.

Adolf Hitler is elected leader of the Naz


Party.

Russia is refused entry to the League of


Nations.

The first Miss America contest is held.

Warren G. Hardin becomes president.

Mahatma Ghandi is imprisoned.

The BBC (British Broadcasting Corpora


is founded.

Isadora Duncan's suggestive dancing is

1921

1922

Trombonist Kid Ory's band, based in Los Angeles, makes the


first recordings by a black ensemble playing in the New
Orleans style.
Pianist Fats Waller makes his first recordings.

Pianist William "Count" Basie makes his first recordings.

Blues singer Mamie Smith continues to grow in popularity,


recording twenty songs with her band The Jazz Hounds, which
features saxophonist Coleman Hawkins.

Ragtime publisher John Stark goes out of business signifying


the end of ragtime.

banned.

Mussolini seizes power in Rome.

Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen's tomb


discovered.

Writer James Joyce publishes Ulysses.

Race records are created, marketing and categorizing music by


the race of the performers.

Louis Armstrong moves to Chicago to join King Oliver's Band.

Blues singer Bessie Smith makes her first recording, Downhearted Blues, which sells a million copies in six months and
leads to her signing a nine-year contract with Columbia
Records.

The first network radio broadcast occurs


the U.S.

Earthquake in Tokyo kills 100,000.

Cornetist King Oliver's band, which includes Louis Armstrong


on trumpet and Armstrong's wife Lil Hardin on piano, makes
its first recordings, including Dippermouth Blues.

Congress approves a law making all Na


Americans citizens of the U.S.

Pianist and arranger Fletcher Henderson forms the Fletcher


Henderson Orchestra and begins performing at Club Alabama
in New York.

Calvin Coolidge becomes President.

Pianist Jelly Roll Morton, now based in Chicago, makes


several recordings including solo pieces such as King Porter
Stomp and performances with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings.

Clarinetist Sidney Bechet makes his first recordings.

Bandleader Elmer Snowden's Washingtonians performs in New


York with Duke Ellington on piano.

Duke Ellington makes his first recordings as leader of the


Washingtonians.

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, leader of the


Communist Revolution, dies.

George Gershwin debuts Rhapsody in Blue along with Paul


Whiteman's band.

Stalin becomes dictator of Russia.

The Fascist Party wins the Italian electio

Cornetist Bix Beiderbecke and his band, The Wolverines, make


their first recordings.

Louis Armstrong moves to New York City to work with


Fletcher Henderson.

1923

1924

Coleman Hawkins plays alongside Louis Armstrong in the


Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra, and his sax playing
significantly evolves.

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.

1925

Italian leader Benito Mussolini commen


his dictatorship.

The first electrical recording of classical


music is made in the U.S.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is


published; Fitzgerald christens the decad
"The Jazz Age."

The Ku Klux Klan marches in Washingt


D.C.

Tennessee teacher John Thomas Scopes


convicted for teaching Darwin's theories
evolution to high school students.

American labor leader A. Philip Randol


organizes the Brotherhood of Sleeping C
Porters to help bring American Blacks in
the mainstream of the American labor
movement.

Frisbee is played for the first time by a g


of students using empty Frisbie Baking
Company pie plates.

The first television is introduced.

The National Broadcasting Company (N


begins transmitting nationally.

Painter Claude Monet dies.

The Harlem Globetrotters basketball tea


organized by Abe Saperstein in Chicago

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.

John Coltrane and Miles Davis are born.

Louis Armstrong makes his first recordings with his Hot


Seven, which was the Hot Five plus drums and tuba.

The U.S. and Britain use military force i


China.

Jean Goldkette's Orchestra is dissolved.

Charles Lindbergh makes the first solo f

1927

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.

across the Atlantic Ocean.

Columbia Broadcast System (CBS) is


inaugurated.

The first "talkie" film is released, The Ja


Singer, starring Al Jolson.

1928

Clarinetist Benny Goodman makes his first recordings.

Japanese troops enter China.

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.

Yugoslavia is formed under King Alexan

The U.S. stock market crashes.

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.

The St. Valentine's Day Massacre occur


Chicago.

The first Academy Awards are held in


Hollywood.

Herbert Hoover becomes president.

1929

Year
Developments in Jazz

Historical Events

Trumpeter Louis Armstrong records Body and Soul.

The planet Pluto is discovered.

In a recording session with Armstrong, percussionist Lionel


Hampton plays his first vibraphone solo and decides to make
that his main instrument.

The jet engine is invented.

Bandleader Paul Whiteman and his orchestra star in the movie


The King of Jazz.

Bandleader Cab Calloway becomes a regular at the Cotton


Club.

Free jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman is born.

Cornetist Bix Beiderbecke dies of pneumonia at age 38.

The Empire State Building opens in New


York City.

Cornetist Buddy Bolden dies.

Spain becomes a Republic.

Pianist Lil Hardin separates from her husband Louis Armstrong

1930

1931

and forms an all-female band.

Japan invades Manchuria.

RCA demonstrates the first 33 1/3 rmp long-playing disc.

There is massive worldwide unemploym

Duke Ellington records It Don't Mean a Thing (If it Ain't' Got


That Swing), the first jazz composition to use swing in the title.

Clarinetist Benny Goodman begins his career with the Fletcher


Henderson Orchestra.

John Cockcroft works in nuclear physic


is the first to split an atom in a complete
controlled manner. This work, for which
won a Nobel award in 1951, was also on
the first experiments to verify Einstein's
E=mc^2.

Pianist Joe Zawinul, trumpeter Donald Byrd, and jazz harpist


Dorothy Ashby are all born.

Japan forms a Manchurian Republic and


attacks Shanghai.

Radio City Music Hall opens in New Yo

Aviator Charles Lindbergh's son is


kidnapped.

Adolph Hitler becomes Chancellor of


Germany, followed by the creation of th
Dachau concentration camp, political ar
and the appropriation of Jewish finances
the government.

Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes presiden


intiates economic recovery in the U.S.

1932

1933

With the rise of the Nazi party in Germany, Berlin radio station
Funkstunde bans jazz broadcasts.

Pianist Art Tatum records his first piano solo, Tiger Rag, which
is thought by many to be a duet.

Duke Ellington and his orchestra begin their first tour of


Europe.

Singer Bessie Smith makes her last recordings.

Mahatma Ghandi is imprisoned.

Singer Billie Holiday makes her first recording.

Prohibition ends in the U.S.

The first photographs of the Loch Ness


monster are published in Britain's Daily

Fletcher Henderson's band folds due to financial difficulties


and Henderson sells his arrangements to Benny Goodman, who
performs with his band at Billy Rose's Music Hall in New
York.

Outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barro


are shot dead.

Italian troops invade Albania.

The journal Down Beat: the Contemporary Music Magazine is


launched in Chicago.

The Nazi coup fails in Austria.

The Quintette du Hot Club de France, featuring guitarist


Django Reinhardt and violinist Stephane Grappelli, gives its
first public performance at the Ecole Normale de Musique in
Paris.

Adolf Hitler begins his dictatorship in


Germany.

Blues singer Leadbelly is released from


prison in Louisiana after writing a song

1934

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.

governor asking for a pardon.

The first cheeseburger is served in Louis


Kentucky.

Pianist and bandleader Bennie Moten dies.

Italy invades Ethiopia.

Pianist Count Basie forms the Barons of Rhythm with


members of Moten's band.

The first paperback books are published

The electric guitar is invented.

Vocalist Ella Fitzgerald makes her first recordings.

Clarinetist Benny Goodman records Fletcher Henderson's


arrangement of Jelly Roll Morton's King Porter Stomp.

Benny 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.

Billie Holiday and Teddy Wilson record I Cried for You, which
goes on to sell 15,000 copies.

Pianist Nat King Cole makes his first recordings with the Solid
Swingers, a band led by his brother, Eddie Cole, a bassist.

Black American athlete Jesse Owens wi


four gold medals at the Olympic Games
Berlin; Hitler leaves the stadium and ref
to be photographed with Owens.

Benny Goodman, adding vibraphonist Lionel Hampton to his


trio, records Moonglow, which starts a series of popular quartet
recordings.

Duke Ellington provides music for the Marx Brothers movie A


Day at the Races.

Billie Holiday makes her debut with Count Basie's band.

The Hindenburg explodes in New Jersey

Coleman Hawkins records with Django Reinhardt and


saxophonist Benny Carter in Paris.

The Japanese capture Peking and contro


Shanghai.

1935

1936

1937

Duke Ellington records Caravan, by Juan Tizol.

Count Basie's band broadcasts from the Savoy Ballroom in


Harlem.

Count Basie's band records One O'clock Jump, which becomes


their signature tune.

Benny Goodman records Sing, Sing, Sing.

George Gershwin dies of a brain tumor.

Nat King Cole creates a new ensemble with piano, bass, and
guitar.

Bessie Smith dies in a car accident.

Trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie makes his first recordings.

Benny Goodman's band hosts a sold out concert at Carnegie


Hall which features a jazz history element and a jam session
with members of Duke Ellingtons and Count Basie's bands.
After the Goodman concert, Count Basie's band and Chick
Webb's band have an informal competition at the Savoy
Ballroom.

1938

Cornetist King Oliver dies after years in poverty working as a


pool-room janitor.

Benny Goodman's band records Bach Goes to Town: Prelude


and Fugue in Swing, which combines elements of classical
music and swing.

A new band led by trombonist Glenn Miller gains notoriety


through regular radio broadcasts.

Billie Holiday records Strange Fruit, with controversial lyrics


regarding lynchings which causes it to be banned from several
radio stations.

Germany annexes Austria and Sudetenla

Shopping carts are introduced for the fir


time in Oklahoma.

Actor Orson Welles broadcasts War of th


Worlds, a radio science-fiction drama ab
Martian invasion, and causes a nationwi
panic.

World War II breaks out in Europe.

Germany occupies Bohemia, Moravia,


Slovakia, and Lithuania and invades Pol

Military conscription is introduced in Br

Hitler and Mussolini agree to a "Pact of


Steel."

The Spanish Civil War ends.

1939

Chick Webb dies 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.

Charlie Parker moves to New York to pursue music.

Blue Note Records is founded.

Year
Developments in Jazz

Historical Events

Composer and bandleader Duke Ellington hires saxophonist


Ben Webster and records Ko-Ko, Concerto for Cootie, and
Cottontail.

The Soviet Union attacks Finland.

Germany invades Norway and Denmark

Trumpeter Cootie Williams leaves Ellington's band and is


replaced by trumpeter and violinist Ray Nance.

Winston Churchill becomes Prime Mini


of Britain.

Vibraphonist Lionel Hampton's big band records Flying Home.

Holland and Belgium fall to Germany.

Nat King Cole's trio records the timely piece, Gone with the
Draft.

Italy declares war on Britain and France

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.

Germany occupies Paris.

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).

Duke Ellington's band records composer Billy Strayhorn's Take


the 'A' Train, which becomes the band's signature tune.

Germany invades Yugoslavia, Russia, an


sends troops to North Africa.

Trumpeter Roy Eldridge joins drummer Gene Krupa's


orchestra as featured soloist.

The British army goes to Libya and Ethi

Japan bombs Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Clarinetist Sidney Bechet plays five different instruments on


The Sheik of Araby and Blues of Bechet, using some of the
earliest overdubbing techniques.

The U.S. and Britain declare war on Jap

The U.S. declares war on Germany and

1940

1941

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.

Cootie Williams forms his own orchestra, which eventually


employs musicians such as Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis, Charlie
Parker and Bud Powell.

Dizzy Gillespie is fired by Cab Calloway after an altercation


involving a knife.

Pianist Fats Waller appears at Carnegie Hall.

The U.S. bombs Germany.

Composer Leonard Bernstein performs in Boston as a jazz


pianist.

Germany attacks Stalingrad, U.S.S.R.

The American Federation of Musicians bans its members from


participating in studio recordings for record companies that fail
to pay royalties to performers.

Japan wages campaigns in East Indies,


Malaya, and Burma.

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."

Duke Ellington's Orchestra performs Black, Brown, and Beige


and New World AComin' at Carnegie Hall.

Britain captures Tripoli.

Pianist Art Tatum establishes a trio with guitarist Tiny Grimes


and bassist Slam Stewart.

Germany surrenders at Stalingrad and


Tunisia.

Glenn Miller publishes a text-book for arranging music.

Italian leader Benito Mussolini resigns a


the Allied invasion of Sicily.

The Allies land on mainland Italy.

Italy turns against Germany.

The jitterbug dance becomes popular in


U.S.

1942

1943

1944

Producer Norman Granz initiates the series, "Jazz at the


Philharmonic" in Los Angeles.

Bud Powell urges bandleader Cootie Williams to record


Thelonious Monk's 'Round Midnight. This is the first known
recording of this song, which has since become the mostrecorded jazz standard composed by any jazz musician.

The siege of Leningrad ends.

The Allies land on Normandy beaches o


what becomes "D-Day."

An unsuccessful assassination attempt is


made on Adolph Hitler.

Paris and Brussels are liberated.

The U.S. Army crosses the German bord

The United Negro College Fund is


established.

Thelonious Monk makes his first recordings with the Coleman


Hawkins Quartet.

Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie leave Billy Eckstine's band.

Trumpeter Miles Davis arrives in New York to study at


Juilliard School of Music but promptly withdraws. He
complains of the classical / European focus of the school and
decides he can learn more from Parker, Gillespie and the NY
jazz scene.

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.

Dizzy Gillespie records Be-Bop.

Warsaw and Budapest fall to the U.S.S.R

Charlie Parker hires Miles Davis to replace Dizzy Gillespie at


the Three Deuces on 52nd Street, leading Davis to quit school.

Cologne falls to the Allies.

President Franklin Roosevelt dies.

Charlie Parker records Now's The Time, his first session as a


leader, with Miles Davis on trumpet and Max Roach on drums.

Italian leader Benito Mussolini is execu


his corpse later hung upside down for pu
viewing.

Adolph Hitler commits suicide.

Berlin is captured by Russian troops.

German forces surrender.

The U.S. drops atomic bombs on Hirosh


and Nagasaki.

Japan surrenders.

Composer Anton Webern is accidentally


to death by U.S. military policeman in

1945

Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie play in Los Angeles,


helping to establish an interest in bebop.

Pianist Mary Lou Williams gives the first performance of her


Zodiac Suite at New York's Town Hall.

Austria.

Composer Bela Bartok dies.

The United Nations is founded.

Ebony Magazine is founded.

Harry S. Truman becomes president.

Hungary becomes a republic.

President Juan Peron assumes power in


Argentina.

Italy becomes a republic.

Mao Tse-Tung revives the Chinese Civi

The bikini is introduced.

1946

Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie perform at "Jazz at the


Philharmonic" in Los Angeles.

Charlie Parker performs with Miles Davis in Little Tokyo, Los


Angeles.

Miles Davis records Ornithology and Night in Tunisia with


Charlie Parker, 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.

Louis Armstrong appears at Carnegie Hall with Billie Holiday.

Crisis occurs in Palestine.

Miles Davis continues to perform with Charlie Parker at the


Three Deuces and makes a series of recordings with Parker.

India and Pakistan gain independence fr


Britain.

Miles Davis makes his first recordings as a leader, featuring


Charlie Parker, pianist John Lewis, and drummer Max Roach.

Communists assume power in Hungary.

Charlie Parker records numerous tracks for the Dial and Savoy
labels.

Jackie Robinson becomes the first Afric


American in major league baseball.

The sound barrier is broken in the U.S.

Billie Holiday is convicted for possession of heroin.

Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie appear at a sold out concert


at Carnegie Hall, where Gillespie performs Cubana Be/Cubana
Bop.

The Central Intelligence Agency is creat


by President Harry Truman.

The House Un-American Activities


Committee begins investigating commu
in Hollywood, leading to the blacklistin
ten filmmakers.

1947

Dizzy Gillespie records Manteca, bringing attention to AfroCuban jazz.

Thelonious Monk makes his first recordings as a bandleader


for Blue Note. Several of his original compositions are

featured, including In Walked Bud, Monk's Mood and Well


You Needn't.

The first microwave oven is introduced.

Drummer Art Blakey forms a group that is later to become the


Jazz Messengers.

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.

Dizzy Gillespie brings bebop to Europe, performing at the Nice


Jazz Festival in France along with Louis Armstrong and others.

Mahatma Ghandi is assassinated in New


Delhi.

Gillespie's Cuban drummer, Chano Pozo, is shot dead in


Harlem.

Communists gain control of Czechoslov

Britain abandons Palestine.

Billie Holiday performs twice at Carnegie Hall, both times


breaking box-office records.

Israel is founded.

1948

Columbia Records introduces the first long-playing vinyl discs.

The U.S.S.R. isolates Berlin.

Miles Davis forms a nonet which appears for two weeks at the
Royal Roost as a replacement for pianist Count Basie's band.

Writer George Orwell's 1984 is publishe

Saxophonist Ben Webster rejoins Duke Ellington's band.

South Africa establishes the apartheid


system.

In the U.S., a judge rules that it is illega


homeowners to refuse to sell to black bu

The Republic of Erie is established.

The West German Federal Republic is


established.

The first passenger jet aircraft makes a f

1949

Miles Davis and composer/arranger Gil Evans record Birth of


the Cool.

The first Festival International de Jazz is held in Paris,


featuring Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Sidney Bechet, Miles
Davis, Kenny Clark, and others.

Pianist Lennie Tristano records early examples of free jazz


improvisation.

The People's Republic of China is found


by Chairman Mao Tse-Tung.

Norman Granz pairs Canadian pianist Oscar Peterson with


bassist Ray Brown at a "Jazz at the Philharmonic" concert at
Carnegie Hall.

The East German Democratic Republic


established.

Pianist Dave Brubeck records in San Francisco with his piano


trio.

Civil War ends in Greece.

The club Birdland, named after Charlie "Bird" Parker, opens on


Broadway.

Charlie Parker appears at Carnegie Hall; the same year he also


records Charlie Parker with Strings.

Stan Kenton performs progressive jazz at Carnegie Hall with a


25-piece orchestra.

Vietnam achieves independence from Fr

Year
Developments in Jazz

Historical Events

Pianist Oscar Peterson makes his first recordings.

Writer George Orwell (1984) dies.

Vocalist Sarah Vaughan records in NY with trumpeter Miles


Davis.

The Soviet Union declares its nuclear


weaponry.

Saxophonist Charlie Parker and pianist Thelonious Monk


record together.

The Korean War begins.

China invades Tibet.

Thelonious 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.

The Miles Davis All Stars record their first long-playing album
for Prestige.

United Nations troops take Seoul.

Pianist Dave Brubeck forms his first quartet with saxophonist


Paul Desmond.

Writer J.D. Salinger publishes The Catc


the Rye.

NATO is formed.

Pianist John Lewis forms the Milt Jackson Quartet with


vibraphonist Milt Jackson, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer
Kenny Clarke.

New York police strip Thelonious Monk of his cabaret card


after he refuses to testify against Bud Powell for a narcotics
arrest. The loss of his card severely restricts Thelonious' ability
to find gainful employment in New York (a cabaret card was
required to play in any establishment that served liquor).

Charlie Parker records sessions with strings and Latin

Writer Samuel Beckett's publishes Waiti

1950

1951

1952

repertoire for Mercury.

Bassist Charles Mingus and drummer Max Roach form the


Debut label.

Carnegie Hall presents a concert devoted to 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.

Dave Brubeck's quartet records Jazz at Oberlin during a highly


acclaimed college tour.

Benny Goodman's band goes on tour with Louis Armstrong's


All Stars eventually leading to a fight that ends with Goodman
having a nervous breakdown.

for Godot.

The Immigration and Naturalization Act


passed, removing the last racial and ethn
barriers to naturalization.

Soviet leader Josef Stalin dies.

Composer Serge Prokofiev dies.

Queen Elizabeth II is coronated in Lond

The Korean War ends.

Dwight D.Eisenhower becomes presiden

The U.S. tests the hydrogen bomb on Bi


Atoll.

American composer Charles Ives dies.

Dave Brubeck appears on the cover of Time magazine, his


quartet records Jazz Goes To College.

Bill Haley and the Comets introduce the


song Shake, Rattle and Roll.

The Vietnam War begins.

Drummer Shelly Manne records West Coast Sound.

The first American jazz festival is organized in Newport,

The U.S. Supreme Court rules that racia


segregation in public schools in
unconstitutional.

1953

Trombonist Bob Brookmeyer replaces Chet Baker in Gerry


Mulligan's quartet.

Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Bud Powell and


Charles Mingus travel to Toronto, Canada to record Jazz at
Massey Hall.

Miles Davis records Walkin' and Miles Davis and the Modern
Jazz Giants, the latter featuring Thelonious Monk and Milt
Jackson.

The highly popular Chet Baker Quartet records My Funny


Valentine and But Not For Me.

1954

Rhode Island by George Wein.

The first nuclear power is produced in th


Soviet Union.

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 records his first album under the name
the Jazz Messengers.

Thelonious Monk tours Europe, where Mary Lou Williams first


introduces him to Baroness Pannonica 'Nica' de Koenigswarter,
for whom Thelonious will later dedicate the song Pannonica.

Charlie Parker dies. The coroner who performs his autopsy


mistakenly estimates Parker's 34-year-old body to be between
50 and 60 years of age.

Scientist Albert Einstein dies.

The Warsaw Pact is agreed upon.

Miles Davis makes his first recordings with a new quintet


featuring saxophonist John Coltrane, pianist Red Garland,
bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Philly Joe Jones.

Disneyland opens in Los Angeles.

Jonas Salk perfects the polio vaccine.

Chuck Berry's Maybelline becomes a hi

Kentucky Fried Chicken goes on sale in


U.S.

1955

Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers record live in Greenwich


Village, New York, with a quintet featuring pianist Horace
Silver, trumpeter Kenny Dorham, saxophonist Hank Mobley,
and bassist Doug Watkins.

Saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley performs in New


York for the first time.

Pianist Lennie Tristano experiments with overdubbing.

Bassist Charlie Mingus records Pithecanthropus Erectus,


breaking new ground in collective improvisation.

Actress Marilyn Monroe marries playwr


Arthur Miller.

Saxophonist Sonny Rollins records Saxophone Colossus.

The U.S.S.R crushes the Hungarian rebe

Trumpeter Clifford Brown dies in a car accident.

Singer Elvis Presley releases Heartbreak


Hotel.

Art Blakey records the album Hard Bop.

1956

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.

Thelonious Monk records Brilliant Corners, with Sonny


Rollins.

The Modern Jazz Quartet provides the score for the film Saiton jamais, and tours Europe performing the music.

Miles Davis and arranger Gil Evans record Miles Ahead.

Miles Davis records the soundtrack for the French film


L'Ascenseur pour l'echafaud and performs the music in Paris
with bassist Pierre Michelot and drummer Kenny Clarke.

1957

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,


D.C.

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

Conductor Arturo Toscanini dies.

Composer Jean Sibelius dies.

The U.S.S.R. launches the first Sputnik


satellite.

Governor Faubus of Arkansas calls out t


National Guard to prevent desegregation

Dr. Seuss' children's book The Cat in the


becomes a bestseller.

Beat and receives an award from the Berklee College of Music.

Brandies University commissions Third Stream works by


Charles Mingus and others.

Critic Barry Ulanov speaks out against sexism in jazz in an


article in Down Beat.

The European Economic Community is


established.

Sonny Rollins records Freedom Suite with Oscar Pettiford and


Max Roach, using the liner notes to attack racism in America.

Painter Pablo Picasso's mural The Fall o


Icarus is unveiled.

Dave Brubeck performs in Denmark.

The Boeing 707 jet revolutionizes air tra

Oscar Peterson performs in Amsterdam.

The hovercraft is invented.

Bandleader W.C. Handy dies.

The first stereo record is issued.

The film St. Louis Blues depicts Handy's life and features Nat
King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, and blues singer Mahalia Jackson.

The skateboard is invented in California

Miles Davis records Milestones, featuring early modal jazz.

Miles Davis records On Green Dolphin Street with pianist Bill


Evans.

Miles 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.

Art Blakey records Holiday for Skin with three jazz drummers
and seven Latin percussionists and tours Europe with the Jazz
Messengers.

Thelonious Monk appears at Town Hall.

Fidel Castro assumes power in Cuba.

Miles Davis records Kind of Blue, which pioneers modal jazz,


and will eventually become one of the best selling jazz albums
of all time.

Singer Buddy Holly dies.

Hawaii and Alaska join the U.S.

1958

1959

Saxophonist Lester Young dies.

Architect Frank Lloyd Wright dies.

John Coltrane records Giant Steps.

Panama is invaded by Cuban forces.

Clarinetist Sidney Bechet dies.

China is barred from joining the United


Nations.

Los Angeles-based saxophonist Ornette Coleman records The


Shape of Jazz to Come, a free jazz album.

The first cassette tapes are introduced in


U.S.

Coleman's group performs free jazz at the Five Spot in New


York.

Earth receives its first pictures of the da


side of the moon.

Billie Holiday is arrested for possession of drugs and dies soon


after.

The first Xerox machines are introduced

Duke Ellington composes the score for the film Anatomy of a


Murder.

Two monkeys are sent into space by NA


and return safely.

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.

Year
Developments in Jazz

Historical Events

Trumpeter Miles Davis records Sketches of Spain, which uses


Flamenco music, and then tours Europe.

Writer Albert Camus is killed in a car cr

The Modern Jazz Quartet records an album with orchestral


accompaniment.

John F. Kennedy is elected president of


U.S.

The first laser beam is demonstrated.

Crowd disturbances disrupt the 7th Newport Jazz Festival.

Saxophonist John Coltrane and trumpeter Don Cherry


collaborate on the album Avant-Garde, influenced by
saxophonist Ornette Coleman.

African-American students stage sit-ins


North Carolina.

John Coltrane records My Favorite Things, as well as Giant


Steps.

Drummer Max Roach records We Insist!: Freedom Now Suite.


The album has an explicit civil rights message.

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

1960

written about the Arkansas governor who opposed


desegregation.

Drummer Shelly Manne opens the club "Shelly's Manne-Hole"


in Los Angeles.

Ornette Coleman records Free Jazz.

Drummer Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers tour Japan.

Miles Davis records live at San Francisco's Black Hawk.

Miles Davis and arranger Gil Evans appear at Carnegie Hall.

Trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie appears at Carnegie Hall.

Pianist Thelonious Monk tours Europe.

Ornette Coleman's avant-garde quartet disbands.

Down Beat magazine prints several 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.

Saxophonist Stan Getz and guitarist Charlie Byrd record


Desafinado, which sparks renewed interest in bossa nova.

Pianist Herbie Hancock records his first album as a leader,


Takin' Off.

1961

Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin is the f


man in space.

Writer Ernest Hemingway dies.

The Berlin Wall is completed.

The birth-control pill is introduced.

Writer Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22 is


published.

Cuban exiles attempt to overthrow Cuba


leader Fidel Castro in the Bay of Pigs
invasion.

John F. Kennedy is inaugerated, becomi


the first Catholic President.

Actress Marilyn Monroe dies.

Writer William Faulkner dies.

The Cuban Missile Crisis occurs.

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts


in New York City.

The Beatles become a sensation with the


first single Love Me Do.

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King J

1962

Trumpeter Cootie Williams rejoins Duke Ellington's band.


Ellington 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.

Charles Mingus records The Black Saint and The Sinner Lady,

1963

a landmark in extended structure and free improvisation.

addresses a rally in Washington, D.C.

Bill Evans records Conversations with Myself, which uses


overdubbing.

Twelve-year-old singer Stevie Wonder


releases his first album.

Miles Davis performs and records with his new group with
Herbie Hancock, saxophonist George Coleman, bassist Ron
Carter, and 17-year-old drummer Tony Williams.

U.S. President John F. Kennedy is


assassinated.

Count Basie tours Japan.

Lyndon B. Johnson becomes president o


U.S.

Trumpeter Lee Morgan records the best-selling The


Sidewinder.

Four black girls are killed in an Alabam


church bombing.

Astrud Gilberto's Girl from Ipanema becomes a huge hit


featuring Stan Getz.

The Miles Davis Quintet records the classic live album My


Funny Valentine, and soon after saxophonist Wayne Shorter
replaces George Coleman.

South African political activist Nelson


Mandela begins his life sentence.

Composer Cole Porter dies.

Clarinetist and flutist Eric Dolphy records Out To Lunch with


trumpeter Freddie Hubbard and Tony Williams.

Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick releases Dr.


Strangelove.

The Beatles appear in A Hard Day's Nig


and tour the U.S. for the first time.

The U.S. Civil Rights Bill is passed.

France and Britain agree to construct a


Channel Tunnel connecting the two
countries.

The soldier doll G.I. Joe is introduced.

1964

Pianist Horace Silver records Song for My Father.

John Coltrane records A Love Supreme, which sells hundreds


of thousands of 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.

Pianist Nat King Cole dies of cancer.

The U.S. intensifies its involvement in


Vietnam.

Herbie Hancock records Maiden Voyage, a classic modal tune,


with the other members of Miles Davis' group plus trumpeter
Freddie Hubbard.

The first spacewalk occurs.

Trumpeter Thad Jones and drummer Mel Lewis form a


rehearsal orchestra that is to last for years.

Thirty-four people are killed in Los Ang


race riots.

John Coltrane records Ascension, a free jazz experiment

The film The Sound of Music receives a


Oscar for Best Picture.

influenced by Ornette Coleman.

Political activist Malcolm X is assassina

Duke Ellington receives the President's Gold Medal of Honor.

Race riots break out in New York, Cleve


and Chicago.

Thad Jones and Mel Lewis debut with their big band at the
Village Vanguard in New York.

Cultural Revolution occurs in China.

Cecil Taylor records Unit Structures, which is an experimental


album that resembles contemporary classical music.

Star Trek appears on TV.

The Miles Davis Quintet records Miles Smiles, a historic work


that explores structural freedom.

Barbara Jordan becomes the first Africa


American woman to win a seat in the Te
Senate.

Rise of the "Black Power" movement; H


Newton and Bobby Seale form the Blac
Panthers Party.

1966

1967

John Coltrane makes his last recordings and dies soon after of
liver disease.

The first heart-transplant operation is


performed.

The Miles Davis Quintet records Sorcerer and Nefertiti,


featuring mostly compositions by Wayne Shorter.

The Six-Day War occurs in the Middle E

The Dave Brubeck Quarter disbands.

The Apollo space crew is killed in a


launchpad fire.

Bandleader Paul Whiteman dies.

Singer Aretha Franklin has four top-10 h

The first Montreux Jazz Festival is held in Switzerland.

Down Beat announces it will cover rock music as well as jazz.

President Lyndon Johnson orders a


commission to report on rising racial
violence.

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.

Vibraphonist Gary Burton appears at Carnegie Hall.

Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated.

Herbie Hancock records the album Speak Like a Child with


trumpeter Thad Jones and bassist Ron Carter.

Students protest in Paris.

The U.S.S.R. invades Czechoslovakia.

Herbie Hancock quits the Miles Davis Quartet.

Guitarist Wes Montgomery, whose album A Day in the Life is


the best selling jazz album of the year, dies.

Presidential candidate Robert Kennedy


assassinated.

Massive antiwar protests are staged in th

1968

Pianist Chick Corea and bassist Dave Holland 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.

U.S.

Rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix soars up the


charts with two albums.

Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A S


Odyssey is released.

Composer Carla Bley's Jazz Composers Orchestra Association


forms the New Music Distribution Service to disseminate its
recordings.

Composer Gunther Schuller completes his book Early Jazz, the


first critical study of the origins of the music.

Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to


on the moon.

Bassist Paul Chambers dies from tuberculosis.

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi seizes powe


Libya.

Miles Davis records In a Silent Way. Later in the year, Davis


records Bitches Brew, the first important fusion album.

Golda Meir becomes Premier of Israel.

Tony Williams forms the group Lifetime with guitarist John


McLaughlin and organist Larry Young.

The Woodstock pop music festival is he


New York.

The Art Ensemble of Chicago records in Paris.

Writer Mario Puzo's The Godfather is


published.

Coleman Hawkins dies of pneumonia.

The lottery system is established for the


draft.

Richard M. Nixon becomes president.

1969

Year
Developments in Jazz

Historical Events

Pianist Chick Corea records The Song of Singing, a successful


experiment with atonal jazz.

Artist Mark Rothko dies.

The U.S. army enters Cambodia.

Chick Corea and bassist Dave Holland quit Miles Davis' band
and form the group Circle.

Guitarist Jimi Hendrix dies from a drug


overdose.

Singer Janis Joplin dies from a drug


overdose.

The voting age is lowered to 18.

Student demonstrators are killed at Kent

1970

Pianist Keith Jarrett joins Miles Davis' group on electric organ.

Bassist Charles Mingus and bandleader Sun Ra record in


Berlin.

Saxophonist Jan Garbarek visits the U.S.

State University and Jackson State Colle

Pianist Joshua Rifkin records ragtime composer Scott Joplin's


rags.

U.S. Supreme Court case Roe vs. Wade


defends women's right to abortion.

The World Trade Center in New York C


becomes the tallest building in the world

Composer Igor Stravinsky dies.

The U.S. bombs North Vietnam.

Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick's A Clockw


Orange is banned in the UK.

Louis Armstrong's death is reported on t


front pages of newspapers all over the w

1971

Keyboardist Joe Zawinul's and saxophonist Wayne Shorter's


new fusion group, Weather Report, records in New York.

Guitarist John McLaughlin's newly formed Mahavishnu


Orchestra 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.

Weather Report records I Sing the Body Electric.

British troops kill 13 people in Northern


Ireland.

Keyboardist Chick Corea records with his newly formed fusion


group Return to Forever.

The UK joins the European Economic


Community.

Bassist Charles Mingus performs at the Philharmonic Hall in


New York.

The SALT agreement limits U.S. and


U.S.S.R. nuclear weapons.

Hard bop trumpeter Lee Morgan is shot dead by his former


mistress in New York.

Eleven Israelis are murdered by Arab


terrorists in Munich at the Olympics.

Pianist Thelonious Monk goes into retirement.

Free jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman's Skies of America is


performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.

The U.S. makes its final bombing of No


Vietnam.

President Richard Nixon visits Commun


China and the U.S.S.R.

Reggae star Bob Marley is signed to Isla


Records and brings Jamaican music and
culture into the mainstream.

The first Polaroid cameras go on sale.

1972

The Mahavishnu Orchestra records Birds of Fire and Love


Devotion Surrender.

1973

Keyboardist Herbie Hancock records the jazz-rock (fusion)


album Headhunters in San Francisco, the album's sales
breaking all records in jazz.

The Vietnam War ends.

Painter Pablo Picasso dies.

The movie The Sting features Scott Joplin's music, creating a


renewed interest in ragtime.

The Watergate Scandal occurs.

Trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie arranges a comeback appearance for


trumpeter Chet Baker.

The mountain bike is invented in Califo

Guitarist John McLaughlin disbands the first Mahavishnu


Orchestra.

Trumpeter Thad Jones and drummer Mel Lewis take their big
band to Tokyo.

Turkish forces invade Cyprus.

The Akiyoshi-Tabackin big band records in Los Angeles.

Patty Hearst, daughter of newspaper mo


William Randolph Hearst, is kidnapped.

The Modern Jazz Quartet gives a farewell performance at New


York's Lincoln Center.

The "streaking" craze (running in the nu


for shock and laughs) hits college camp
and other public places.

Pianist Oscar Peterson visits the Soviet Union.

President Richard Nixon resigns.

Saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. records his crossover hit


Mr. Magic.

Gerald Ford becomes president.

Duke Ellington dies from lung cancer and pneumonia.

Saxophonist Michael Brecker and his brother, trumpeter


Randy, record together.

The Khmer Rouge takes control of


Cambodia.

Return to Forever records No Mystery.

North Vietnam invades South Vietnam.

Miles Davis performs in Japan, New York, and at the Newport


Festival before going into retirement.

Filmmaker Steven Spielberg's Jaws is


released.

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.

Pianist Dave Brubeck's quartet reunites for an anniversary


concert.

The Viking space probe transmits pictur


from Mars.

1974

1975

1976

Pianist Thelonious Monk performs for the last time at the


Newport Jazz Festival.

Pianist Herbie Hancock records live at Newport with his group,


VSOP.

Guitarist John McLaughlin disbands the second Mahavishnu


Orchestra.

Writer Alex Haley's Roots is published.

The U.S. celebrates the bicentennial of i


independence with 4th of July festivities

Punk rock becomes popular in Britain.

Scott Joplin is awarded a posthumous


Pulitzer Prize for his contributions to
American music.

Weather Report, now with electric bass virtuoso Jaco Pastorius,


records its best selling albums Black Market and Heavy
Weather.

Pianist Errol Garner dies.

The U.S. space shuttle makes a test fligh

Alto saxophonist Paul Desmond dies.

Singer Elvis Presley dies.

The World Saxophone Quartet is founded.

Filmmaker George Lucas' Star Wars is


released.

Drummer Kenny Clarke returns to the U.S.

Jimmy Carter becomes president.

Multi-instrumentalist Roland Kirk dies.

Pop jazz group Spyro Gyra records its first album.

President Jimmy Carter hosts a jazz concert at the White House


in honor of bassist and composer Charles Mingus.

Revolution occurs in Afghanistan.

The hit film musical Grease is released.

The Cuban band, Irakere, promotes Afro-Cuban music in


Europe and the U.S.

The first video arcade game Space Invad


is a hug hit worldwide.

Television reporter Max Robinson is the


African American to anchor network ne

1977

1978

Pianist Chick Corea records with vibraphonist Gary Burton.

Keyboardist Bob James composes a popular fusion theme for


the TV series Taxi.

The Pat Metheny Group is formed.

Bassist Charles Mingus dies in Mexico.

Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain's fir


female prime minister.

Sue Mingus forms the Mingus Dynasty in honor of her late


husband.

Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola's mov


Apocalypse Now is released.

Drummer Jack DeJohnette collaborates with saxophonist


David Murray on Special Edition.

Nuclear disaster occurs at Three Mile Is

1979

Year

Pianist Keith Jarrett and saxophonist Jan Garbarek 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.

Developments in Jazz

The first Sony Walkman is introduced.

Historical Events

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 rockinfluenced The Man with the Horn.

Former Beatle John Lennon is


murdered in New York City.

10,000 Cuban refugees come to


the U.S.

Mt. St. Helen's volcano erupts.

The Iranian hostage crisis begins.

Eighteen-year-old trumpeter Wynton


Marsalis records at Montreux with Art
Blakey's Jazz Messengers.

Pianist Bill Evans dies in New York.

Pianist Mary Lou Williams dies.

The U.S. completes its first


successful space shuttle mission.

Miles Davis makes his first live


performance since retirement at Avery
Fisher Hall in New York.

Race riots occur in Brixton,


London.

Saxophonist David Sanborn records the


album Voyeur, featuring the Grammywinning song All I Need is You, composed
by bassist Marcus Miller.

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 U.S. Supreme

1981

Saxophonist Branford and trumpeter


Wynton Marsalis joins Art Blakey's Jazz
Messengers.

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.

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.

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.

Pianist Keith Jarrett make his first


recordings of standards with drummer Jack
DeJohnette and bassist Gary Peacock.

Writer Tennessee Williams dies.

The U.S. invades Granada.

Pianist Eubie Blake dies.

Pianist Earl Hines dies.

The first compact discs are


marketed.

Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis makes history


by winning a jazz and classical Grammy
Award in the same year.

The Cabbage Patch dolls become


a commercial success.

Keyboardist Herbie Hancock's synthesized


dance hit, Rockit, reaches number one in
the pop charts.

The School Prayer Amendment is


rejected by the U.S. Supreme
Court.

Pianist Scott Joplin appears on a U.S.


postage stamp.

Harold Washington becomes the


first Black mayor of Chicago.

Vanessa Williams becomes the


first Black Miss America.

The first black franchise is


granted in South Africa.

Indian Prime Minister Indira

1983

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.

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.

Wynton Marsalis records Standard Time,


establishing his reputation as a
traditionalist.

Jazz-pop musician Kenny G has a hit with


Songbird.

Jazz education and outreach organization


Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz
established in memory of the jazz legend.

The film Round Midnight is released,


starring saxophonist Dexter Gordon as a
character loosely based on pianist Bud
Powell; Herbie Hancock wins Academy
Award for original score.

Ghandi is assassinated.

Ronald Reagan is elected to his


second term as President.

Apple Computers launches the


first Macintosh.

Singer and promoter Bob


Geldof's charity concert "Live
Aid" reaches a global audience.

The sunken cruise ship The


Titanic is located.

A new, sweeter Coca-Cola is


introduced but Coca-Cola goes
back to the original recipe due to
poor sales.

The U.S. space shuttle


Challenger explodes on launch.

The U.S. bombs Libya from a


British air base.

Filmmaker Oliver Stone's


Platoon receives an Academy
Award.

The Iran-Contra Scandal becomes


public.

The U.S. Supreme Court upholds


affirmative-action hiring quotas.

1985

1986

Jazz legend Benny Goodman dies.

Electric bassist Jaco Pastorius dies, beat up


by a bouncer in a South Florida bar.

Free jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman


reunites his original quartet.

1987

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 on the Billboard
charts.

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.

Classical Jazz, Lincoln Center's first


concert series devoted exclusively to jazz,
begins in Alice Tully Hall.

Arranger Gil Evans dies in Mexico.

A jumbo jet explodes over


Lockerbie, Scotland.

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.

American TV evangelist Jim


Bakker is forced to resign after
admitting to an affair.

The antidepressant drug Prozac is


launched.

1988

Actor Clint Eastwood directs Bird, a


biographical dramatization of the life of
Charlie Parker.

Trumpeter Roy Eldridge dies.

Artist Salvador Dali dies.

Trumpeter Woody Shaw dies.

The Berlin Wall is opened.

Nineteen-year-old trumpeter Roy Hargrove


records Diamond in the Rough.

Protesters are massacred at


Tiananmen Square in Beijing,
China.

John Zorn records the post-modern album


Naked City.

Trumpeter and producer Quincy Jones


records Back on the Block with a wide

Writer Salman Rushdie is


sentenced to death in Iran for
writing his novel The Satanic

1989

variety of genres from bop to rap.

Year

Miles Davis records Amandla.

Developments in Jazz

Verses.

The U.S. invades Panama.

The Exxon Valdez oil spill


occurs.

George H. Bush becomes


president.

Historical Events

1990

Drummer Mel Lewis dies.

The Gulf War begins.

Vocalist Sarah Vaughan dies.

The Warsaw Pact collapses.

Saxophonist Dexter Gordon dies.

The Soviet Union falls.

Drummer Art Blakey dies.

Composer Leonard
Bernstein dies.

Trumpeter Miles Davis publishes his


controversial autobiography Miles: The
Autobiography (co-authored by Quincy Troupe).

Saxophonist Stan Getz dies.

Children's book writer Dr.


Seuss dies.

Miles Davis appears at the Montreux Jazz


Festival with Quincy Jones, performing early
work with arranger Gil Evans.

The Tailhook scandal


occurs.

Miles Davis dies in California.

The Gulf War ends.

Upon winning Thelonious Monk Institute


International Jazz Saxophone Competition,
Joshua Redman signs with Warner Bros.
Records.

New York's Lincoln Center establishes jazz


division Jazz at Lincoln Center; Wynton
Marsails named Artistic Director.

Miles Davis' final album, Doo-Bop, which


features rap, is released.

Race riots break out in Los


Angeles.

Saxophonist Branford Marsalis becomes the


bandleader on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,

Author Terry McMillan


publishes the hit novel

1991

1992

with a group that includes pianist Kenny


Kirkland, bassist Bob Hurst, and drummer Jeff
Watts.

Hip hop group US3 has a hit with a song that


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.

Bandleader Sun Ra dies.

Saxophonist Joe Henderson receives critical


acclaim for his Miles Davis tribute album So
Near, So Far (Musings for Miles).

Pianist Chick Corea's Elektrik Band is refused


permission to perform in Germany because of
Corea' s membership in the controversial Church
of Scientology.

Waiting to Exhale.

Mae Jemison becomes the


first African American
woman astronaut.

Carol Moseley-Braun
becomes the first African
American woman elected to
the U.S. Senate.

South African Prime


Minister F.W. de Klerk and
political activist Nelson
Mandela win Nobel Peace
Prize.

Poet Maya Angelou delivers


a poem for the inauguration
of President Clinton.

Writer Toni Morrison wins


the Nobel Prize for
literature.

Bill Clinton becomes


president.

South Africa has its first


multi-racial election.

Paula Jones files a suit for


sexual harassment against
President Bill Clinton.

Former football star O.J.


Simpson is on trial for
murder.

Civil unrest occurs in


former Chechnya.

Oklahoma City Federal

1993

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.

Dizzie Gillespie dies of pancreatic cancer.

Guitarist Joe Pass dies.

Trumpeter Red Rodney dies.

A Tribute to Miles, featuring the Miles Davis


tribute band, wins a Grammy Award.

Trumpeter Roy Hargrove ousts Trumpeter


Wynton Marsalis in the Down Beat critic polls.

Film director Robert Altman's film, Kansas City,


is released, featuring a reenactment of a 1930's
jam session with pianist Geri Allen, saxophonist
Joshua Redman, bassist Christian McBride,
saxophonist James Carter, and others.

1994

1995

building is bombed.

The Impulse record label is revived after 21


years.

Drummer Tony Williams dies.

Kenny Garrett releases Pursuance: The Music of


John Coltrane, with Pat Metheny.

Thelonious Monk Institute produces "A


Celebration of America's Music" on ABC TV, the
first network television special devoted to jazz in
over 25 years.

Jazz at Lincoln Center becomes full constituent


of Lincoln Center, equal in stature with the ten
other organizations on campus including the NY
Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera, and NYC
Ballet.

Wayne Shorter wins a Grammy Award for his


electric jazz album High Life.

Saxophonist Joshua Redman, bassist Christian


McBride, and drummer Brian Blade tour as a
trio.

Nation of Islam leader


Louis Farrakhan organizes
the Million Man March in
Washington, D.C.

A bomb is set off at the


Olympic games in Atlanta.

Group suicide occurs


among religious cult
Heaven's Gate members in
California.

Former Princess of Wales


Lady Diana dies in a car
accident.

The first successful clone


(Dolly, a sheep) occurs.

President Clinton is
impeached.

Google Internet search


engine established.

President Clinton is
acquitted on impeachment
charges after a Senate trial.

Fifteen high school students


are shot dead by two

1996

1997

A $27 million jazz museum opens in Kansas


City.

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.

Trumpeter Art Farmer dies.

Vibraphonist Milt Jackson dies.

Singer Joe Williams dies.

1999

Year

Trumpeter Lester Bowie dies.

Developments in Jazz

students at Columbine High


School in Colorado.

Historical Events

2000

Trumpeter Dave Douglas and vocalist Diana Krall rise


in popularity.

Bassist Dave Holland tours with a group featuring


saxophonist Chris Potter.

New jazz-related genre, "jam bands," rises in popularity.

19-hour, 10-part documentary Jazz directed by Ken


Burns is presented on PBS and released on DVD.

Famed Juilliard School establishes degree program in


jazz studies.

Dave Brubeck's alma mater, the University of the


Pacific, launches the Brubeck Institute.

Thelonious Monk Jr. establishes independent record


label Thelonious Records.

Jazz greats Joe Henderson, John Lewis, J.J. Johnson,


Billy Higgins, and Tommy Flanagan die.

Violence erupts in Israel.

The U.S. Presidential election results are delay


due to confusion about votes in Florida.

George W. Bush becomes president.

The World Trade Center in New York and the


Pentagon in Washington, D.C. are rammed by
hijacked jetliners in the worst terror attack on U
soil; over 3,000 killed.

U.S. and Britain attack targets in Afghanistan a


Taliban government refuses to hand over terror
mastermind Osama bin Laden; Taliban regime
topples but bin Laden remains at large.

Apple Computer introduces the iPod.

XM satellite radio begins service.

2001

2002

Wayne Shorter tours and records with his new acoustic


quartet.

President Bush lables Iran, Iraq, and North Kor


"axis of evil."

Dave Holland forms critically acclaimed big band.

U.S. Homeland Security cabinet department


established.

Los Angeles Philharmonic establishes Creative Chair


for Jazz; vocalist Dianne Reeves accepts first
appointment.

Sirius satellite radio begins service.

The faces of jazz icons Duke Ellington, Sidney Bechet,


Louis Armstong, and Ella Fitzgerald are placed on
French postage stamps.

The word "google" becomes a verb (to google


means to perform a Web search); the American
Dialect Society chooses the verb as the "most u
word of 2002."

Tom Lord publishes comprehensive jazz discography


containing 136,263 recordings (15,000 pages in 26
volumes).

Several major record lables shut down or minimize their

jazz divisions, effecting a rise in the number of


independent jazz labels.

Jazz legends Lionel Hampton, Peggy Lee, Ray Brown,


and Rosemary Clooney die.

Blue Note recording artist Norah Jones wins 8 Grammy


Awards including Album of the Year.

Louis Armstrong's Queens, NY home opens as a jazz


museum, educational resource, and historical landmark.

New development in jazz, "jazztronica" (combining


improvisation, 1980's fusion era groove, and studio
electronics) arrives on the scene.

2003

Resurgence of interest in jazz vocals and pre-rock


standards.

Space shuttle Columbia explodes upon reentry


Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts
board.

U.S. and Britain wage war against Iraq.

President Bush signs $350 billion tax-cut bill.

Former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein capt


in Tikrit by U.S. 4th Infantry Division.

Apple Computer launches digital media player


application and online music service iTunes.

DVDs replace VCRs as the common standard a


video stores.

Jazz legend Benny Carter dies.

2004

Jazz at Lincoln Center opens Frederick P. Rose Hall, the


first-ever performance, education, and broadcast facility
devoted exclusively to jazz.

Sovereignty returned to an interim government


Iraq; U.S. maintains approximately 135,000 tro
there to fight growing insurgency.

As major record lables continue to minify or eliminate


their jazz divisions, more and more jazz artists record
and release their own CDs on the Internet via such
organizations as ArtistShare.

Two Mars exploration robotic rovers successfu


reach the surface of the red planet and send det
data and images of its landscape back to Earth.

Jam band Bad Plus rises in popularity.

NEA increases number of Jazz Masters honored each


year from 3 to 6 and honorarium from $20,000 to
$25,000.

Tsunami causes devastation in Sri Lanka, India


Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Maldiv
killing approximately 300,000 and prompting t
largest humanitarian response for a natural disa
in history.

Internet usage surpasses TV viewing.

Videogame industry profits surpass movie


industry's.

Jazz legends Elvin Jones and Illinois Jacquet die.

1957 recording of the Thelonious Monk Quartet with


John Coltrane discoved and released on Blue Note.

Terrorists bomb public transport system in Lon


and markets in New Delhi.

Jazz DVDs enter market.

New Orleans native sons Harry Connick Jr. and Wynton

Hurricane Katrina causes catastrophic damage


Mississippi and Louisiana; 80% of New Orlean
flooded; over 1,400 killed; all levels of U.S.

2005

Marsalis (and others) organize telethons, concerts, etc.


to help Hurricane Katrina vicitims; despite dark days,
jazz contiunes to flourish in New Orleans.

Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Nnenna Freeelon, and


8 Monk Institute Fellows tour Vietnam on behalf of the
U.S. State Department, commemorating 10th
anniversary of normalization of U.S.-Vietnam
diplomatic relations.

government criticized for delayed and inadequ


response.

Earthquake in Kashmir kills 80,000.

Israeli government enacts unilateral disengagem


plan, removing Israeli settlements from Gaza.

Pope John Paul II dies at age 84 and is succeed


Pope Benedict XVI.

Cell phone carriers add video viewing, internet


music downloading services.

Jazz legend Percy Heath dies.

2006

Tony Bennett, Chick Corea and the late Ray Barretto are
named NEA Jazz Masters.

Coretta Scott King, Civil Rights activist and w


Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., dies at 78.

Jazz legends Walter Booker and Anita ODay die.

Former Iraqui President Saddam Hussein and t


his senior allies are sentenced to death by hang
after an Iraqi court finds them guilty of crimes
against humanity.

Google buys YouTube for $1.65 billion.

The Blu-Ray disc, Nintendo Wii, and Playstatio


are released in the U.S.

The iPhone is introduced to the public.

32 people are killed in the Virginia Tech massa


on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute
State University in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Nancy Pelosi becomes the first female Speaker


the U.S. House of Representatives.

Russia is once again recognized as a full-fledge


superpower by the U.S.

2007

Ornette Coleman wins a Pulitzer Prize for album Sound


Grammar.

Monterey Jazz Festival celebrates their 50th year.

Jazz legends Alice Coltrane, Michael Brecker, Joe


Zawinul, Oscar Peterson, and Max Roach die.

2008

One of the largest and most powerful jazz advocacy


groups, the International Association of Jazz Education
(IAJE), files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Barack Obama is elected the 44th President of


U.S., becoming the first U.S. African-America
President.

The U.S. Postal Service issues jazz related stamps


featuring Frank Sinatra.

This election also marks the first time the


Republican Party nominated a woman for Vice
President (then Governor of Alaska, Sarah Pali

Herbie Hancocks album The River: The Joni Letters


wins a Grammy for Album of the Year, becoming the

first jazz album in 43 years to do so.

Miguel Zenon and Alex Ross win John D. and Catherine


T. MacArthur Foundation Genius Fellowships.

Geri Allen was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship for


music composition.

Dave Brubeck and Quincy Jones are inducted into the


California Museums California Hall of Fame.

Jazz musician Duke Ellington has become the first


Black American to be prominently featured on a U.S.
coin in circulation with the release of a quarter honoring
the District of Columbia.

Voter turnout is the highest in at least 40 years.

Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th, and


African-American president of the U.S.

The outbreak of the H1N1 influenza strain,


commonly referred to as "swine flu", is deemed
global pandemic, becoming the first condition
the Hong Kong flu of 19671968 to receive thi
designation.

Sonia Sotomayor is confirmed to the U.S. Supr


Court, the first Latino and third woman on the
bench.

U.S. Airways Flight 1549 makes a forced landi


Hudson River. All 150 passengers and 5 crew
members survived.

The death of American entertainer Michael Jac


triggers an outpouring of worldwide grief.

2009

Koko Taylor, blues singer, dies.

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