Louis Armstrong

A timeline of notable events in the history of jazz. For more detailed entries on annual festival dates, album releases and births and deaths see the articles by year such as 1955 in jazz.

1888 edit

  • The Standard Theatre opens in Philadelphia.[1] In the 1920s it becomes a major venue for jazz in Philadelphia.[2]

1895 edit

 
Ernest Hogan

The first ragtime composition to be published in notation, Ernest Hogan's "Las Pas Ma La", appears.[3]

1896 edit

Ben Harney helps popularize ragtime with the tune "You've Been a Good Old Wagon But You Done Broke".[3]

1899 edit

1900 edit

1901 edit

  • January - the first 10 inch records are made under the name Victor Ten Inch Records and are sold for $1 each.[5]
  • March 12 - Johnson registers the trademark to Victor Seven Inch Records.[5]
  • October 3 - Johnson and Berliner of the Conslidated Talking Machine Company of America agree to pool their patent, trademark and manufacturing interests and establish the Victor Talking Machine Company.[5]
  • October 18 - "High Society", composed by Porter Steele, is released.[6] Though a rag, it enters the early New Orleans jazz repertoire.[7]

1902 edit

  • January The logo of "Nipper" the dog begins to appear on Victor Records.[5]
  • December The Victor Records company has now sold over 2 million records and is making about 2000 discs a day in Camden, New Jersey.[5]
  • Jelly Roll Morton claims to have written his first jazz tunes in 1902.[8]

1905 edit

 
Jelly Roll Morton
  • Jelly Roll Morton claims to have composed "King Porter Stomp" in this year, though it is not recorded until 1923.[9]

1906 edit

  • The United States Military Band records "Maple Leaf Rag".[10]

1909 edit

  • May 20 - Ernest Hogan dies and is remembered as a pioneer of ragtime.[3]

1910 edit

1911 edit

  • March 18 - Irving Berlin's Alexander's Ragtime Band is first released.[6]
  • March 27 - William Henry Tyer's "Panama" is first released.[6]
  • October - "Alexander's Ragtime Band" becomes the number one song from October 1911 through January 1912."[11]

1913 edit

  • March 6 - The San Francisco Bulletin writes: "What is the "jazz"? Why, it's a little of that "old life," the "gin-i-ker," the "pep," otherwise known as enthusiasalum."[12] It is believed ot be the first time the word "jazz" is used in print with that spelling.[10]
  • April 13 - The San Francisco Bulletin publishes a detailed article about the word "jazz", documenting its meaning and various spellings.[12]

1915 edit

1916 edit

  • March 3 - The Original Dixieland Jass Band begin performing at Schiller's Cafe in Chicago under the name "Stein's Dixie Jass Band".[10]
  • A 15-year-old Louis Armstrong buys his first cornet at a New Orleans pawnshop for $10, an instrument described as "all bent up, holes knocked in the bell".[13]

1917 edit

 
"Beale Street Blues" was composed in 1917

1918 edit

1919 edit

1920 edit

1921 edit

1922 edit

  • John and Reb Spikes and their group become the first all-black band to record music.
  • King Oliver and his Creole Jazz Band begin performing at the Royal Gardens cabaret, with King Oliver on cornet, Armstrong on second cornet, Baby Dodds on drums, Johnny Dodds on clarinet, Lil Hardin on piano, Honoré Dutrey on trombone, and Bill Johnson on double bass.

1923 edit

1924 edit

  • February 12 - Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue premieres at New York City's Aeolian Hall in a concert entitled "An Experiment in Modern Music". Gershwin performs on the piano, backed by Paul Whiteman's orchestra. It is considered to be the first major milestone in fusing classical music and jazz.[20]
  • March 24 - The Earle Theatre opens in Philadelphia at the southeast corner of South 11th Street and Market Street.[21]

1925 edit

  • January 26 - Beiderbecke and His Rhythm Jugglers, with Tommy Dorsey on trombone, Paul Madeira Mertz on piano, Howdy Quicksell on banjo, Don Murray on clarinet and Tom Gargano on drums record the tune "Davenport Blues" at the Gennett studio in Richmond, Indiana, releasing it with "Toddlin' Blues" as the A side.
  • October 26 - Smalls Paradise is opened by Ed Smalls at 2294 Seventh Avenue, New York.
  • Pod's and Jerry's, officially the Catagonia Club, is opened by Charles "Pod" Hollingsworth and Jeremiah (Jerry) Preston on 133rd Street in Harlem. It becomes one of the thriving speakeasies during the Prohibition era when the street was known as "Swing Street", featuring jazz pianist and composer Willie "The Lion" Smith as a house pianist for some time.[22]

1926 edit

1927 edit

1928 edit

1929 edit

  • June 29 - Fats Waller's and Harry Brooks's musical "Hot Chocolates" opens at the Hudson Theatre on Broadway. The song "Ain't Misbehavin'" becomes a standard.
  • July 9 - Leo Reisman and His Orchestra with Lew Conrad record "Ain't Misbehavin'" and release it as a single along with "Moanin' Low", reaching #2.
  • An upstairs ballroom opens in The Harlem Alhambra theatre in Harlem and begins hosting the likes of Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday.

1930 edit

 
George Gershwin
 
Duke Ellington

1931 edit

1932 edit

1933 edit

1934 edit

1935 edit

1936 edit

  • December 19 - Duke Ellington, with Barney Bigard on clarinet and his fellow "Jazzopaters", first record Juan Tizol's "Caravan".[26]
  • Louis Armstrong becomes the first African-American jazz musician to write an autobiography, Swing That Music.[27]

1937 edit

  • A 16-year-old Charlie Parker has a cymbal thrown at him in contempt by drummer Jo Jones of the Count Basie Orchestra for a poor performance while jamming at Kansas City's Reno Club.[28] Unperturbed, Parker starts collaborating with pianist Jay McShann.

1938 edit

 
Minton's Playhouse

1939 edit

 
The Lenox Lounge

1940 edit

  • November 10 - The Copacabana opens at 10 East 60th Street in New York City.

1943 edit

1944 edit

1945 edit

1946 edit

1947 edit

  • May 8 - Parker and Davis first record the tune "Donna Lee" for Savoy in New York City. Very complex and fast, with four-note groups over each change, it becomes a landmark tune in the development of bebop and jazz improvisation.
  • July 12 - Jimmie Lunceford collapses during an autograph session at a Seaside, Oregon record store before his orchestra was due to play live at The Bungalow dance hall. He dies at age 45 from a coronary occlusion while being taken by ambulance to the Seaside hospital.
  • Joe Segal opens The Jazz Showcase jazz club in Chicago.

1948 edit

1949 edit

  • January 21 - Miles Davis leads a nonet in first of three recording sessions that will later be compiled as Birth of the Cool, greatly influencing cool and West Coast jazz.
  • February 21 - Louis Armstrong becomes first jazz musician to appear on the cover of Time magazine.
  • April 22 - Second of three recording sessions for Birth of the Cool.
  • May 16 - Lennie Tristano leads a drummer-less quintet including saxophonists Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh in "Intuition", one of the earliest recordings of free jazz.
  • Autumn - Black Hawk nightclub opens at 200 Hyde Street in San Francisco.
  • December 15 - Birdland jazz club opens at a 1678 Broadway, to the north of West 52nd Street in Manhattan.

1950 edit

  • March 9 - Third and final Birth of the Cool recording session.
  • May 17 - Charlie Parker and his quintet, with Bud Powell on piano, opens at Birdland; 32 songs recorded are later featured on a live album.

1951 edit

  • September 4 - Sinatra makes his Las Vegas debut at the Desert Inn.
  • Andy Rizzuto opens Andy's Jazz Club (then called Andy's 11 E. Lounge) to the north of the Chicago Loop.

1952 edit

The Institute of Jazz Studies is founded by jazz scholar and author Marshall Stearns.

1953 edit

1954 edit

1955 edit

 
Charlie Parker

1956 edit

  • June 22 - Rollins records Saxophone Colossus at Van Gelder. One of his most acclaimed albums, the tune "St. Thomas" has become a standard.
  • June 26 - Clifford Brown dies in a car accident in Bedford, Pennsylvania at age 25.
  • July 7 - Duke Ellington's appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival returns him to prominence and introduces him to a new generation of fans.
  • August 20 - Following his Newport triumph, Ellington is on the cover of Time magazine.
  • October 9 - Monk starts recording Brilliant Corners, which becomes one of the most critically acclaimed albums of 1957. "Pannonica" and "Bemsha Swing" become jazz standards.
  • The Five Spot Café opens at 5 Cooper Square in the Bowery neighborhood of New York City.

1957 edit

1958 edit

1959 edit

  • January - Ealing Jazz Club opens on The Broadway, Ealing, in the west of London.
  • March 2 - The tracks "So What", "Freddie Freeloader", and "Blue in Green" are recorded at CBS 30th Street Studio for the Miles Davis album Kind of Blue, which later becomes the best-selling jazz album of all time.
  • March 15 - Hours after arriving back in New York City from an abbreviated European tour, Lester Young dies at age 49 from cardiac arrest due to malnutrition and cirrhosis of the liver.
  • April 22 - The tracks "All Blues" and "Flamenco Sketches" are recorded for Kind of Blue.
  • May 4-5 - Coltrane records "Giant Steps", "Mr. P.C.", "Countdown", "Cousin Mary", "Syeeda's Song Flute" and "Spiral" for his album Giant Steps (1960). The tune Giant Steps, extremely fast and complex with 3 different tonal centers, becomes one of the most challenging tunes to play in the jazz repertoire.
  • May 22 - Ornette Coleman records his third album, The Shape of Jazz to Come, which is universally praised and becomes a definitive album in the development of Free Jazz. It features the tune "Lonely Woman", which becomes a standard.
  • July 17 - Billie Holiday dies from cirrhosis of the liver at age 44.
  • August 25 - Davis is beaten by a New York City Police Department officer on the sidewalk in front of Birdland during an engagement at the club.
  • October 30 - Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club is opened by Ronnie Scott and Pete King in a basement at 39 Gerrard Street in London's Soho district.
  • December 2 - Coltrane records "Naima" for Giant Steps.

1960 edit

1961 edit

1962 edit

1963 edit

1964 edit

  • February 28 - Thelonious Monk becomes the fourth jazz musician—after Armstrong (1949), Brubeck (1954) and Ellington (1956)—to appear on the cover of Time magazine.
  • December 9 - Coltrane records the devotional album A Love Supreme at Van Gelder. After release in January 1965 it becomes one of Coltrane's best-selling albums and one of the most critically acclaimed jazz albums of all time.
  • Berliner Jazztage (Berlin Jazz Days) is founded in West Berlin by the Berliner Festspiele.

1965 edit

1966 edit

  • July - Chet Baker is badly beaten and has his teeth knocked out after performing at The Trident restaurant in Sausalito, near San Francisco. His playing never fully recovers and he was forced to take a long hiatus from his career as a professional jazz musician.
  • The Pori Jazz Festival begins in the Finnish coastal city of Pori.
  • Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts, a social club for members of a black musicians union, is founded in Philadelphia.

1967 edit

 
John Coltrane

1968 edit

1970 edit

1971 edit

1972 edit

  • February 19 - Lee Morgan is shot by his common-law wife Helen outside Slug's Saloon in New York and dies from his injuries at age 33.
  • The first Stanford Jazz Workshop is held.

1973 edit

  • August 28 - Joe Pass records the album Virtuoso in MGM Recording Studios, Los Angeles. It is heralded as one of his best albums and one of the greatest and most influential solo jazz guitar albums of all time.
  • December 19 - The Vossajazz festival is established in Voss, Norway.

1974 edit

1975 edit

  • January 24 - Keith Jarrett performs The Köln Concert at the Opera House in Cologne, Germany.
  • November 30 - Jarrett releases The Köln Concert on the ECM label. Universally lauded, it eventually becomes the best-selling solo album in jazz history.

1979 edit

1980 edit

1981 edit

 
Blue Note Jazz Club

1983 edit

1984 edit

1985 edit

1986 edit

1987 edit

 
Jazz at Lincoln Center

1988 edit

1989 edit

1990 edit

1991 edit

1992 edit

1993 edit

1994 edit

  • May 23 - Joe Pass dies from liver cancer in Los Angeles.
  • June - Larry Carlton begins recording Larry & Lee, a collaboration with fellow jazz guitarist Lee Ritenour.
  • October 31 - New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park is formally registered in New Orleans to celebrate the evolution of jazz.

1995 edit

1997 edit

1998 edit

2005 edit

2007 edit

  • April 16 - Coltrane is posthumously awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize Special Award for his contribution to music.

2008 edit

  • June 14 - Jazz pianist Esbjörn Svensson dies in a scuba diving accident on the island of Ingarö, near Stockholm, Sweden.

2009 edit

  • The Blue Whale Jazz Club is opened by jazz vocalist Joon Lee at Weller Plaza on Onizuka St. in Downtown Los Angeles.

2010 edit

2011 edit

June - The inaugural Blue Note Jazz Festival is held to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City.

2016 edit

2017 edit

  • March 14 - The Kasper Collin documentary about trumpeter Lee Morgan and his common-law wife Helen, I Called Him Morgan, premieres in the US to critical acclaim, ranked by numerous mainstream newspapers as one of best films of 2017.

2019 edit

2020 edit

  • January 19 - Jimmy Heath dies at age 93 in Loganville, Georgia.
  • March 6 - McCoy Tyner dies at his home in New Jersey.

References edit

  1. ^ Willis, Cheryl M. (2016). Tappin' at the Apollo: The African American Female Tap Dance Duo Salt and Pepper. McFarland. p. 222. ISBN 9781476662701.
  2. ^ "Standard Theatre Historical Marker". explorepahistory.com. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  3. ^ a b c Abjorensen 2017, p. 19.
  4. ^ De Chiaro, Giovanni (2010). Complete Works of Scott Joplin. Mel Bay. p. 5. ISBN 9781609741860.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Holmes, Thom (2013). The Routledge Guide to Music Technology. Routledge. p. 322. ISBN 9781135477806.
  6. ^ a b c d Crawford & Magee 1992, p. 12.
  7. ^ Hobson 2014, p. 92.
  8. ^ Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development, Volume 2. Oxford University Press. 1986. p. 136. ISBN 978-0-19-504043-2. {{cite book}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help)
  9. ^ The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire. Oxford University Press. 2012. p. 220. ISBN 978-0-19-993739-4.
  10. ^ a b c d Abjorensen 2017, p. 20.
  11. ^ Furia & Patterson 2016, p. 73.
  12. ^ a b "Where Did 'Jazz,' the Word, Come From? Follow a Trail of Clues, in Deep Dive with Lewis Porter". wbgo.org. 26 February 2018. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  13. ^ Fordham, John (17 June 2011). "Louis Armstrong buys a cornet". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  14. ^ Yurochko 2001, p. 33.
  15. ^ a b c Abjorensen 2017, p. 21.
  16. ^ Gioia 2012, p. 31.
  17. ^ Yurochko 2001, p. 35.
  18. ^ Crawford & Magee, p. 12.
  19. ^ "Philadelphia Pioneers in Business". The Crisis. May 1944. p. 152.
  20. ^ Fordham, John (17 June 2011). "Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue premieres at New York's Aeolian Hall". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  21. ^ "Earle Theatre in Philadelphia". Cinematreasures.org. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  22. ^ a b Sampson, Henry T. (30 October 2013). Blacks in Blackface: A Sourcebook on Early Black Musical Shows. Scarecrow Press. p. 586. ISBN 978-0-8108-8351-2.
  23. ^ Cheryl M. Willis (2016). Tappin' at the Apollo: The African American Female Tap Dance Duo Salt and Pepper. McFarland. p. 222. ISBN 9781476662701.
  24. ^ Taborn, Karen Faye (21 May 2018). Walking Harlem : the ultimate guide to the cultural capital of black America. New Brunswick, New Jersey. ISBN 978-0-8135-9458-3. OCLC 1038016815.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  25. ^ "Hi Fi Review, Volume 3, Issue 6". Ziff Davis Publishing Company. 1959. p. 70.
  26. ^ "Caravan". Jazzstandards.com. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  27. ^ "Louis Armstrong". Biography.com. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  28. ^ Fordham, John (17 June 2011). "A teenage Charlie Parker has a cymbal thrown at him". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  29. ^ John S. Wilson (24 September 1976). "Jimmy Ryan's, a Shrine To the Same Old Jazz". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  30. ^ "Remembering the Downbeat: 1940s Progressive Philly Jazz Club". Hiddencityphila.org. 7 April 2014. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  31. ^ "Blue Note: Still The Finest In Jazz Since 1939". Udiscovermusic.com. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  32. ^ J.H. Richards (2009). "The Nation". The Nation. p. 9.
  33. ^ "Heritage House Jazz Workshop". Phillyjazz.us. Retrieved 7 May 2020.

Bibliography edit

External links edit

  • Artists, finding recording dates at Library of Congress

Category:History of jazz