Date

Developments in Jazz

1619
1817 New Orleans city council establishes "Congo Square"
as an official site for slave music and dance.
1865
1892 Pianist Tommy Turpin writes Harlem Rag, the first
known ragtime composition.
1895 Pianist Scott Joplin publishes his first two rags.
Cornetist Buddy Bolden forms his band.
1896
1897 The first piano rags appear in print. Ragtime grows in
popularity.
1898
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
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.
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
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
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."
1906 Jelly Roll Morton composes King Porter Stomp.
1907 Cornetist Buddy Bolden is committed to a mental
institution without having ever recorded any music.
Scott Joplin moves to New York.
1908
1909 The US Marine band records Joplin's Maple Leaf
Rag.

Historical Events
The first Africans are sold into slavery in America.

Slavery is abolished in the US by the 13th

Amendment to the US Constitution.

Cinema is born.
Racial segregation is upheld by the Supreme Court.
Radio technology is introduced.

The US goes to war with Spain.

US President William McKinley is assassinated.

Painter Pablo Picasso's first exhibit is held in Paris.
Theodore Roosevelt becomes president.

The Wright brothers make their first successful flight.

Scientist Albert Einstein presents his special theory of

relativity. Pizza is introduced at Lombardi's in New
York.

The first wireless broadcast of classical music is

produced in New York.
Alcohol is banned in North Carolina and Georgia.
Alcohol is banned in Tennessee. Robert Peary
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

1930 Trumpeter Louis Armstrong records Body and Soul.

In a recording session with Armstrong, percussionist
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
38. Cornetist Buddy Bolden dies. Pianist Lil Hardin
separates from her husband Louis Armstrong and
forms an all-female band. RCA demonstrates the
first 33 1/3 rpm long-playing disc.
1932 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.
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. Singer Billie Holiday makes her first
recording.
1934 Fletcher Henderson's band folds due to financial
difficulties and Henderson sells some of his
arrangements to clarinetist Benny Goodman, who
performs with his band at Billy Rose's Music Hall in
New York. The journal Down Beat: the
Contemporary Music Magazine is launched in
Chicago. 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. 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
Count Basie forms the Barons of Rhythm with
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 threeact opera Porgy and Bess opens at the Alvin Theater
in New York.

Historical Events
The planet Pluto is discovered. The jet engine is
invented.

The Empire State building is opened in New York.

Spain becomes a Republic. Japan invades
Manchuria. There is massive worldwide
unemployment.
John Cockcroft splits the atom in Cambridge, UK.
Japan forms a Manchurian Republic and later attacks
Shanghai. Radio City Music Hall opens in New York.
Aviator Charles Lindbergh's son is kidnapped.
Adolph Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany,
followed by the creation of the Dachau concentration
camp, political arrests, and the appropriation of
Jewish finances by the government. President
Franklin Roosevelt initiates economic recovery in the
US. Mahatma Ghandi is imprisoned. Prohibition
ends in the US. The first photographs of the Loch
Ness monster are published in Britain's Daily Mail.
Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes president.
Outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are shot
dead. Italian troops invade Albania. The Nazi coup
fails in Austria. Adolf Hitler begins his dictatorship in
Germany. Blues singer Leadbelly is released from
prison in Louisiana after writing a song to the
governor asking for a pardon. The first cheeseburger
is served in Louisville, Kentucky.

Italy invades Ethiopia. The first paperback books are

published. The electric guitar is invented.

Date

Developments in Jazz

1938 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.
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
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. 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. Blue Note records is founded.
1940 Composer and bandleader Duke Ellington hires
saxophonist Ben Webster and records Ko-Ko,
Concerto for Cootie, and Cottontail. Trumpeter
Cootie Williams leaves Ellington's band and is
replaced by trumpeter and violinist Ray Nance.
Vibraphonist Lionel Hampton's big band records
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).

Historical Events
Germany annexes Austria and Sudetenland.
Shopping carts are introduced for the first time in
Oklahoma. Actor Orson Welles broadcasts War of
the Worlds, a radio science-fiction drama about a
Martian invasion, and causes a nationwide panic.

World War II breaks out in Europe. Germany

occupies Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, and Lithuania
and invades Poland. Military conscription is
introduced in Britain. Hitler and Mussolini agree to a
"Pact of Steel." The Spanish Civil War ends.

The Soviet Union attacks Finland. Germany invades

Norway and Denmark. Winston Churchill becomes
Prime Minister of Britain. Holland and Belgium fall to
Germany. Italy declares war on Britain and France.
Germany occupies Paris. African Americans and
Puerto Ricans begin moving to northern cities.

Date

Developments in Jazz

1941 Duke Ellington's band records composer Billy

Strayhorn's Take the 'A' Train, which becomes the
band's signature tune. Trumpeter Roy Eldridge joins
drummer Gene Krupa's orchestra as featured soloist.
Clarinetist Sidney Bechet plays five different
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.

Historical Events
Germany invades Yugoslavia, Russia and send
troops to North Africa. The British army goes to
Libya and Ethiopia. Japan bombs Pearl Harbor,
Hawaii. The US and Britain declare war on Japan.
The US declares war on Germany and Italy.

Date

Developments in Jazz

1940 Composer and bandleader Duke Ellington hires

saxophonist Ben Webster and records Ko-Ko,
Concerto for Cootie, and Cottontail. Trumpeter
Cootie Williams leaves Ellington's band and is
replaced by trumpeter and violinist Ray Nance.
Vibraphonist Lionel Hampton's big band records
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
Strayhorn's Take the 'A' Train, which becomes the
band's signature tune. Trumpeter Roy Eldridge joins
drummer Gene Krupa's orchestra as featured soloist.
Clarinetist Sidney Bechet plays five different
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.
Composer Leonard Bernstein performs in Boston as
a jazz pianist. The American Federation of
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,
and Beige and New World AComin' at Carnegie Hall.
Pianist Art Tatum establishes a trio with guitarist Tiny
Grimes and bassist Slam Stewart. Glenn Miller
publishes a text-book for arranging music.

Historical Events
The Soviet Union attacks Finland. Germany invades
Norway and Denmark. Winston Churchill becomes
Prime Minister of Britain. Holland and Belgium fall to
Germany. Italy declares war on Britain and France.
Germany occupies Paris. African Americans and
Puerto Ricans begin moving to northern cities.

Germany invades Yugoslavia, Russia, and sends

troops to North Africa. The British army goes to
Libya and Ethiopia. Japan bombs Pearl Harbor,
Hawaii. The US and Britain declare war on Japan.
The US declares war on Germany and Italy.

The US bombs Germany. Germany attacks

Stalingrad, USSR. Japan wages campaigns in East
Indies, Malaya, and Burma.

Britain captures Tripoli. Germany surrenders at

Stalingrad and Tunisia. Italian leader Benito
Mussolini resigns after the Allied invasion of Sicily.
The Allies land on mainland Italy. Italy turns against
Germany. The jitterbug dance becomes popular in
the US.

Date

Developments in Jazz

1944 Producer Norman Granz initiates the series, "Jazz at

the Philharmonic" in Los Angeles. Trumpeter Cootie
Williams makes the first recording of pianist
Thelonious Monk's 'Round About Midnight. 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 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
Miles Davis to replace Dizzy Gillespie at the Three
Deuces on 52nd Street, leading Davis to quit school.
Parker records Now's The Time, his first session as a
leader, with Dizzy Gillespie on piano, Miles Davis on
trumpet, and Max Roach on drums. Parker and
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.
1946 Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie perform at "Jazz
at the Philharmonic" in Los Angeles. Parker
performs with Miles Davis in Little Tokyo, Los
Angeles. Davis records Ornithology and Night in
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.

Historical Events
The siege of Leningrad ends. The Allies land on
Normandy beaches on what becomes "D-Day." An
unsuccessful assassination attempt is made on
Adolph Hitler. Paris and Brussels are liberated. The
US Army crosses the German border. The United
Negro College Fund is established.

Warsaw and Budapest fall to the USSR. Cologne

falls to the Allies. President Franklin Roosevelt dies.
Italian leader Benito Mussolini is lynched. Adolph
Hitler commits suicide. Berlin is captured by Russian
troops. German forces surrender. The US drops
atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan
surrenders. Composer Anton Webern is accidentally
shot to death by US military policeman in 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 Civil
War. The bikini is introduced.

Date

Developments in Jazz

1947 Louis Armstrong appears at Carnegie Hall with Billie

Holiday. Miles Davis continues to perform with
Charlie Parker at the Three Deuces and makes a
series of recordings with Parker. Davis makes his
first recordings as a leader, featuring Parker, pianist
John Lewis, and drummer Max Roach. Parker
records numerous tracks for the Dial and Savoy
labels. 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. 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
the Nice Jazz Festival in France along with Louis
Armstrong and others. Gillespie's Cuban drummer,
Chano Pozo, is shot dead in Harlem. Billie Holiday
performs twice at Carnegie Hall, both times breaking
box-office records. Columbia Records introduces the
first long-playing vinyl discs. Miles Davis forms a
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
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. Norman Granz
pairs Canadian pianist Oscar Peterson with bassist
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.

Historical Events
Crisis occurs in Palestine. India and Pakistan gain
independence from Britain. Communists assume
power in Hungary. Jackie Robinson becomes the
first African American in major league baseball. The
sound barrier is broken in the US. The Central
Intelligence Agency is created by President Harry
Truman. The House Un-American Activities
Committee begins investigating communism in
Hollywood, leading to the blacklisting of ten
filmmakers. The first microwave oven is introduced.

Mahatma Ghandi is assassinated in New Delhi.

Communists gain control of Czechoslovakia. Britain
abandons Palestine. Israel is founded. The USSR
isolates Berlin. Writer George Orwell's 1984 is
published. South Africa establishes the apartheid
system. In the US, a judge rules that it is illegal for
homeowners to refuse to sell to black buyers.

The Republic of Erie is established. The West

German Federal Republic is established. The first
passenger jet aircraft makes a flight. The People's
Republic of China is founded by Chairman Mao TseTung. The East German Democratic Republic is
established. Civil War ends in Greece. Vietnam
achieves independence from France.

Date

Developments in Jazz

1950 Pianist Oscar Peterson makes his first recordings.

Vocalist Sarah Vaughan records in NY with trumpeter
Miles Davis. Saxophonist Charlie Parker and pianist
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 longplaying album for Prestige. Pianist Dave Brubeck
forms his first quartet with saxophonist Paul
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
Latin 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.
1953 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.
Trombonist Bob Brookmeyer replaces Chet Baker in
Gerry Mulligan's quartet.

Historical Events
Writer George Orwell (1984) dies. The Soviet Union
declares its nuclear weaponry. The Korean War
begins. China invades Tibet.

United Nations troops take Seoul. Writer J.D.

Salinger publishes The Catcher in the Rye. NATO is
formed.

Writer Samuel Beckett's publishes Waiting for Godot.

The Immigration and Naturalization Act is passed,
removing the last racial and ethnic barriers to
naturalization.

Soviet leader Josef Stalin dies. Composer Serge

Prokofiev dies. Queen Elizabeth II is coronated in
London. The Korean War ends. Dwight
D.Eisenhower becomes president.

Date

Developments in Jazz

1954 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. The Dave Brubeck Quartet records Jazz
Goes To College. Brubeck appears on the cover of
Time magazine. Drummer Shelly Manne records
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
recordings with a new quintet featuring saxophonist
John Coltrane, pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul
Chambers, and drummer Philly Joe Jones. Art
Blakey's Jazz Messengers record live in NY.
Saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley performs
in NY for the first time. Pianist Lennie Tristano
experiments with overdubbing.
1956 Bassist Charlie Mingus records Pithecanthropus
Erectus, breaking new ground in collective
improvisation. Saxophonist Sonny Rollins records
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.

Historical Events
The US tests the hydrogen bomb on Bikini Atoll.
American composer Charles Ives dies. Bill Haley
and the Comets introduce the hit song Shake, Rattle
and Roll. The Vietnam War begins. The Supreme
Court rules that racial segregation in public schools in
unconstitutional. The first nuclear power is produced
in the Soviet Union.

Scientist Albert Einstein dies. The Warsaw Pact is

agreed upon. Disneyland opens in Los Angeles.
Jonas Salk perfects the polio vaccine. Chuck Berry's
Maybelline becomes a hit. Kentucky Fried Chicken
goes on sale in the US.

Actress Marilyn Monroe marries playwright Arthur

Miller. The USSR crushes the Hungarian rebellion.
Singer Elvis Presley releases Heartbreak Hotel.

Date

Developments in Jazz

1957 The Modern Jazz Quartet provides the score for the
film Sait-on jamais, and tours Europe performing the
music. Miles Davis and arranger Gil Evans record
Miles Ahead. 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. 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
in an article in Down Beat. Sonny Rollins records
Freedom Suite with Oscar Pettiford and Max Roach,
using the liner notes to attack racism in America.
Dave Brubeck performs in Denmark. Oscar Peterson
performs in Amsterdam. Bandleader W.C. Handy
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.

Historical Events
Composer Arturo Toscanini dies. Composer Jean
Sibelius dies. The USSR launches the first Sputnik
satellite. Governor Faubus of Arkansas calls out the
National Guard to prevent desegregation. Dr. Seuss'
children's book The Cat in the Hat becomes a
bestseller.

The European Economic Community is established.

Painter Pablo Picasso's mural The Fall of Icarus is
unveiled. The Boeing 707 jet revolutionizes air
travel. The hovercraft is invented. The first stereo
record is issued. The skateboard is invented in
California.

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

1960 Trumpeter Miles Davis records Sketches of Spain,

which uses Flamenco music, and then tours Europe.
The Modern Jazz Quartet records an album with
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.
Miles Davis records live at San Francisco's Black
Hawk. 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.
1962 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. 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.
1963 Charles Mingus records The Black Saint and The
Sinner Lady, a landmark in extended structure and
free improvisation. Bill Evans records Conversations
with Myself, which uses overdubbing. 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.
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.

Historical Events
Writer Albert Camus is killed in a car crash. The first
laser beam is demonstrated. African-American
students stage sit-ins in North Carolina.

Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin is the first 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 Cuban leader
Fidel Castro in the Bay of Pigs invasion. John F.
Kennedy becomes president.

Actress Marilyn Monroe dies. Writer William

Faulkner dies. The Cuban missile crisis occurs.
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts opens in New
York. The Beatles become a sensation with their first
single Love Me Do.

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King addresses a

rally in Washington DC. Twelve-year-old singer
Stevie Wonder releases his first album. President
John F. Kennedy is assassinated. Lyndon B.
Johnson becomes president.

Date

Developments in Jazz

1964 The Miles Davis Quintet records the classic live

album My Funny Valentine, and soon after
saxophonist Wayne Shorter replaces George
Coleman. Clarinetist and flutist Eric Dolphy records
Out To Lunch, with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard and
Tony Williams. 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. Avantgarde tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler records the
album Ghosts.
1965 Miles Davis records ESP with his new quintet.
Pianist Nat King Cole dies of cancer. Herbie
Hancock records Maiden Voyage, a classic modal
tune, with the other members of Miles Davis' group
plus trumpeter Freddie Hubbard. Trumpeter Thad
Jones and drummer Mel Lewis form a rehearsal
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
of Honor. Thad Jones and Mel Lewis debut with their
big band at the Village Vanguard in New York. Cecil
Taylor records Unit Structures, which is an
experimental album that resembles contemporary
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
soon after of liver disease. The Miles Davis Quintet
records Sorcerer and Nefertiti, featuring mostly
compositions by Wayne Shorter. The Dave Brubeck
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 avantgarde jazz group. Herbie Hancock introduces electric
piano to popular jazz in Miles Davis' group.

Historical Events
South African political activist Nelson Mandela begins
his life sentence. Composer Cole Porter dies.
Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick releases Dr. Strangelove.
The Beatles appear in A Hard Day's Night and tour
the US for the first time. The US 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.

Writer T.S. Eliot dies. The US intensifies its

involvement in Vietnam. The first spacewalk occurs.
Thirty-four people are killed in Los Angeles race riots.
The film The Sound of Music receives an Oscar for
Best Picture. Political activist Malcolm X is
assassinated.

Race riots break out in New York, Cleveland, and

Chicago. Cultural Revolution occurs in China. Star
Trek appears on TV. Barbara Jordan becomes the
first African American woman to win a seat in the
Texas Senate.

The first heart-transplant operation is performed.

The Six-Day War occurs in the Middle East. The
Apollo space crew is killed in a launchpad fire.
Singer Aretha Franklin has four top-ten hits.

Date

Developments in Jazz

1968 Vibraphonist Gary Burton appears at Carnegie Hall.

Herbie Hancock records the album Speak Like a
Child with trumpeter Thad Jones and bassist Ron
Carter. 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. 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. 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
Early Jazz, the first critical study of the origins of the
music. Bassist Paul Chambers dies from
tuberculosis. Miles Davis records In a Silent Way.
Later in the year, Davis records Bitches Brew, the
first important fusion album. Tony Williams forms the
group Lifetime with guitarist John McLaughlin and
organist Larry Young. The Art Ensemble of Chicago
records in Paris.

Historical Events
Martin Luther King is assassinated. Students protest
in Paris. The USSR invades Czechoslovakia.
Presidential candidate Robert Kennedy is
assassinated. Massive antiwar protests are staged
in the US. Rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix soars up the
charts with two albums. Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick's
2001: A Space Odyssey is released.

Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to land on the

moon. Colonel Muammar Gaddafi seizes power in
Libya. Golda Meir becomes Premier of Israel. The
Woodstock pop music festival is held in New York.
Writer Mario Puzo's The Godfather is published. The
lottery system is established for the US draft.
Richard M. Nixon becomes president.

Date

Developments in Jazz

1971 Keyboardist Joe Zawinul'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.
1972 Weather Report records I Sing the Body Electric.
Keyboardist Chick Corea records with his newly
formed fusion group Return to Forever. Bassist
Charles Mingus performs at the Philharmonic Hall in
New York. Hard bop trumpeter Lee Morgan is shot
dead by his former mistress in New York. Pianist
Thelonious Monk goes into retirement. Free jazz
saxophonist Ornette Coleman's Skies of America is
performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. The
Mahavishnu Orchestra records Birds of Fire and
Love Devotion Surrender.
1975 Saxophonist Michael Brecker and his brother,
trumpeter Randy, record together. Return to Forever
records No Mystery. Miles Davis performs in Japan,
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
anniversary concert. 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 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
Desmond dies. The World Saxophone Quartet is
founded. Drummer Kenny Clarke returns to the US.
Multi-instrumentalist Roland Kirk dies. Pop jazz
group Spyro Gyra records its first album.
1978 President Jimmy Carter hosts a jazz concert at the
White House in honor of bassist and composer
Charles Mingus. The Cuban band, Irakere, promotes
Afro-Cuban music in Europe and the US. 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.
1979 Bassist Charles Mingus dies in Mexico. Sue Mingus

Historical Events
Composer Igor Stravinsky dies. The US bombs
North Vietnam. Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick's A
Clockwork Orange is banned in the UK.

British troops kill 13 people in Northern Ireland. The

UK joins the European Economic Community. The
SALT agreement limits US and USSR nuclear
weapons. Eleven Israelis are murdered by Arab
terrorists in Munich at the Olympics. The US makes
its final bombing of North Vietnam. President
Richard Nixon visits Communist China and the
USSR. Reggae star Bob Marley is signed to Island
Records and brings Jamaican music and culture into
the mainstream. The first Polaroid cameras go on
sale.
The Khmer Rouge takes control of Cambodia. North
Vietnam invades South Vietnam. Filmmaker Steven
Spielberg's Jaws is released.

The Viking space probe transmits pictures from Mars.

Writer Alex Haley's Roots is published. The US
celebrates the bicentennial of its independence with
4th of July festivities. Punk rock becomes popular in
Britain.

The US space shuttle makes a test flight. Singer

Elvis Presley dies. Filmmaker George Lucas' Star
Wars is released. Jimmy Carter becomes president.

Revolution occurs in Afghanistan. The hit film

musical Grease is released. The first video arcade
game "Space Invaders" is a hug hit worldwide.
Television reporter Max Robinson is the first African
American to anchor network news.

Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain's first female

forms the Mingus Dynasty in honor of her late

husband. Drummer Jack DeJohnette collaborates
with saxophonist David Murray on Special Edition.
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.

Prime Minister. Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola's

movie Apocalypse Now is released. Nuclear disaster
occurs at Three Mile Island. The first Sony Walkman
is introduced.

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 Grammywinning 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 affirmativeaction 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

1990 Drummer Mel Lewis dies. Vocalist Sarah Vaughan

dies. Saxophonist Dexter Gordon dies. Composer
Leonard Bernstein dies. Drummer Art Blakey dies.
Trumpeter Miles Davis publishes his controversial
autobiography Miles: The Autobiography (coauthored by Quincy Troupe).
1991 Saxophonist Stan Getz dies. Miles Davis appears at
the Montreux Jazz Festival with Quincy Jones,
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
rap, is released. Saxophonist Branford Marsalis
becomes the bandleader on "The Tonight Show with
Jay Leno," 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.
1993 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. 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
dies. A Tribute to Miles, featuring the Miles Davis
tribute band, wins a Grammy Award.
1995 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. The Impulse record label is
revived after 21 years. Drummer Tony Williams dies.
1996 Kenny Garrett releases Pursuance: The Music of
John Coltrane, with Pat Metheny.
1997 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. A $27 million jazz museum opens in
Kansas City.

Historical Developments
The Gulf War begins. The Warsaw Pact collapses.
The Soviet Union falls.

Children's book writer Dr. Seuss dies. The Tailhook

scandal occurs. The Gulf War ends.

Race riots break out in Los Angeles. Author Terry

McMillan publishes the hit novel Waiting to Exhale.
Mae Jemison becomes the first African American
woman astronaut. Carol Moseley-Braun becomes
the first African American woman elected to the US
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.

Former football star O.J. Simpson is on trial for

murder. Civil unrest occurs in former Chechnya.
Oklahoma City Federal building is bombed. Nation of
Islam leader Louis Farrakhan organizes the Million
Man March in Washington, DC.

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.

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.