User:Dr. Blofeld/Timeline of jazz history

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

 * The Standard Theatre opens in Philadelphia. In the 1920s it becomes a major venue for jazz in Philadelphia.

1895
The first ragtime composition to be published in notation, Ernest Hogan's "Las Pas Ma La", appears.

1896
Ben Harney helps popularize ragtime with the tune "You've Been a Good Old Wagon But You Done Broke".

1899

 * September 18 - John Stark registers the copyright to Scott Joplin's  Maple Leaf Rag.

1900

 * January - Eldridge R. Johnson begin to make records privately.
 * Summer - Eldridge Johnson and Leon F. Douglass form the Consolidated Talking Machine Company in Camden, New Jersey.

1901

 * January - the first 10 inch records are made under the name Victor Ten Inch Records and are sold for $1 each.
 * March 12 - Johnson registers the trademark to Victor Seven Inch Records.
 * 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.
 * October 18 - "High Society", composed by Porter Steele, is released. Though a rag, it enters the early New Orleans jazz repertoire.

1902

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

1905

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

1906

 * The United States Military Band records "Maple Leaf Rag".

1909

 * May 20 - Ernest Hogan dies and is remembered as a pioneer of ragtime.

1910

 * July 6 - Chinatown My Chinatown by Schwarz and Jerome and Some of These Days by Shelton Brooks are first released.

1911

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

1913

 * 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." It is believed ot be the first time the word "jazz" is used in print with that spelling.
 * April 13 - The San Francisco Bulletin publishes a detailed article about the word "jazz", documenting its meaning and various spellings.

1915

 * Bert Kelly opens Kelly's Stables at 431 Rush Street, in Tower Town, Chicago. One of the prominent early jazz clubs which flourished in the 1910s, Johnny Dodds goes on to lead a small house band at the club from 1924 to 1930.
 * The Chicago Automatic Machine and Tool Company invents the jukebox.

1916

 * March 3 - The Original Dixieland Jass Band begin performing at Schiller's Cafe in Chicago under the name "Stein's Dixie Jass Band".
 * 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".

1917



 * February 26 - The Original Dixieland Jass Band records "Livery Stable Blues". Along with the A side "Dixieland Jass Band One-Step" it is widely acknowledged as the first jazz recording to be released commercially.
 * April 1 Joplin dies.
 * W.C. Handy composes "Beale Street Blues".

1918

 * July 22 - "After You've Gone", composed by Turner Layton with lyrics by Henry Creamer, is first recorded by Marion Harris. It becomes a hit and a standard, recorded by Henry Burr and Albert Campbell and Billy Murray and Gladys Rice the same year, and later recorded by Bessie Smith in 1929 and Duke Ellington in 1933, among many others.
 * The first documented racially intergrated jazz session takes place.

1919

 * December 29 - African-American bankers E. C. Brown and Andrew Stevens, Jr. open the Dunbar Theatre in Philadelphia with a stage performance of Shuffle Along from the Lafayette Theatre group from Harlem, who were raising money for the NAACP and Marcus Garvey. In the 1920s to 1940s it flourishes as a major venue for big band jazz in the city.
 * King Oliver moves to Chicago.

1920

 * The tune "Singin' the Blues", by J. Russel Robinson, Con Conrad, Sam M. Lewis, and Joe Young is recorded by the Original Dixieland Jass Band as an instrumental and released along with "Margie" as a Victor 78.

1921

 * September 26 - Wabash Blues is released, and becomes a best-seller for Isham Jones and his Orchestra, selling over 1 million records.
 * The New Orleans Rhythm Kings begin playing a 17-month stint at Mike Fritzel's Friar's Inn in Chicago. The group were also known as "Friar's Society Orchestra".
 * John T. Gibson buys Philadelphia's Dunbar Theatre for $420,000, and he starts to attract jazz bands to perform.

1922

 * 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

 * The Cotton Club opens on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem. Fletcher Henderson leads the first house band.

1924

 * 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.
 * March 24 - The Earle Theatre opens in Philadelphia at the southeast corner of South 11th Street and Market Street.

1925

 * 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.

1926

 * February 26 - Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five record "Muskrat Ramble", composed by Kid Ory with lyrics by Ray Gilbert.
 * March 12 - The Savoy Ballroom opens at 596 Lenox Avenue in Harlem.

1927

 * September 9 - Bix Beiderbecke records "In a Mist", which is released as Okeh 40916 and Vocalion 3150, backed with "Wringin' an' Twistin'". He plays piano on the recording.
 * December 8 - McKenzie and Condon's Chicagoans, featuring banjo player Eddie Condon, tenor saxophonist Bud Freeman, drummer Gene Krupa, double bassist Jim Lanigan, cornetist Jimmy McPartland, cymbalist Mezz Mezzrow, clarinetist Frank Teschemacher and pianist Joe Sullivan record the tunes "China Boy" and "Sugar", contributing to the development of the Chicago jazz style.
 * December 16 - McKenzie and Condon's Chicagoans record "Liza" (a different tune to Gershwin's "Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away)") and "Nobody's Sweetheart".
 * The 1400-seat Pearl Theatre opens in Philadelphia.
 * Jimmie Lunceford organizes a jazz band at Manassa High School, Memphis, known as the Chickasaw Syncopators. Manassa includes jazz as part of music curriculum.

1928

 * February 4 - The Regal Theater opens in Chicago

1929

 * 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

 * April 5 - Kelly's Stables in Chicago is shut down by the authorities due to Prohibition.
 * October 9 - Armstrong becomes the first jazz musician to record "Body and Soul".
 * October 14 - The Gershwin musical Girl Crazy opens at the Alvin Theatre on Broadway; several of the songs, including "Embraceable You", "But Not for Me" and "I Got Rhythm", become jazz standards.

1931

 * August 6 - Beiderbecke dies in his apartment at 43-30 46th Street, in Sunnyside, Queens, officially from lobar pneumonia.

1932

 * September 15 - The Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz musical Flying Colors opens at the Imperial Theatre on Broadway. The tune written for it, "Alone Together", sung by Clifton Webb and Tamara Geva, becomes a standard.
 * December 7 - The musical Walk a Little Faster, with music by Vernon Duke and lyrics by E. Y. Harburg, opens at the St. James Theatre on Broadway. The tune "April in Paris" becomes a standard, later associated with Count Basie.
 * The Hot Club de France is founded by Hugues Panassié and jazz enthusiasts from the Lycée Carnot.

1933

 * December - Gershwin begins composing "Summertime".
 * Billie Holiday makes her singing debut at Pod's and Jerry's in Harlem.

1934

 * September - The Quintette du Hot Club de France begins its recording career on the Odeon label as "Delaunay's Jazz".
 * December 27 - The musical Thumbs Up! opens at the St. James Theatre on Broadway. Vernon Duke's "Autumn in New York" and James F. Hanley's "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart" become standards.

1935

 * February 22 - The Village Vanguard at Seventh Avenue South in Greenwich Village, New York City is opened by Max Gordon as a folk music club.
 * August 21 - Benny Goodman and his big band begin a three-week engagement at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles that it is often credited as sparking the swing era.
 * December - The Count Basie Orchestra broadcast live from the Reno Club in Kansas City.

1936

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

1937

 * 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. Unperturbed, Parker starts collaborating with pianist Jay McShann.

1938

 * January 16 - Benny Goodman leads the first performance by a swing big band at Carnegie Hall.
 * February 24 - The standard "You Go to My Head", composed by J. Fred Coots with lyrics by Haven Gillespie, is first recorded by Larry Clinton's orchestra and singer Bea Wain, later reaching #3 in the charts.
 * Spring - Commodore Records is established, becoming the "first record company completely devoted to jazz" according to The New York Times.
 * May 13 - Louis Armstrong and his orchestra famously record "When the Saints Go Marching In".
 * Henry Minton opens the Minton's Playhouse jazz club at 206 West 118th Street in Harlem.
 * Philadelphia's Downbeat jazz club is opened at 1627 Ranstead Street by Nat Segall and Billy Krechmer and soon moves to the second floor of 23 South 11th Street.

1939

 * March 3 - Blue Note Records release their first two records, BN1 with "Melancholy" and "Solitude" and BN2 with "Boogie Woogie Stomp" and "Boogie Woogie Blues".
 * April 1 - The Hot Club of Belgium (Hot Club de Belgique) is founded by Willy De Cort, Albert Bettonville, Carlos de Radzitzky and others.
 * April 20 - Billie Holiday records "Strange Fruit", a protest song decrying American racism, specifically the contemporaneous lynching of blacks.
 * October - Jay Faggen opens the 25,000 square foot Golden Gate Ballroom at the intersection of Lenox Avenue and 142nd Street in Harlem.
 * November 17 - The Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II musical Very Warm for May opens at the Alvin Theatre. A tune written for the musical, "All the Things You Are", later becomes one of the most popular jazz standards.
 * The Lenox Lounge is opened by Ralph Greco at 288 Lenox Avenue in Harlem. Billie Holiday performs "Strange Fruit" at the lounge the same year.

1940

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

1943

 * January 23 - Duke Ellington debuts Black, Brown and Beige at Carnegie Hall, beginning an annual series of concerts there over the next four years.

1944

 * August 22 - Cootie Williams first records "'Round Midnight".

1945

 * November 26 - Parker, Davis, Curley Russell and Max Roach get together for a Savoy session and record "Ko-Ko", "Billie's Bounce" and "Now's the Time". It is marketed as the "greatest Jazz session ever."
 * Lawrence Berk founds Schillinger House, the precursor to the Berklee School of Music.

1946

 * February - Charlie Parker records "Confirmation". It is known for its extensive ii–V cycles, known as the "Bird changes".
 * March 25 - Woody Herman's First Herd premieres Igor Stravinsky's Ebony Concerto at Carnegie Hall. Herman commissioned the piece, which the composer dedicated to him.
 * March 28 - Parker first records the tune "Yardbird Suite", which becomes a definitive tune as bebop emerges.
 * July 30 - Following a long period of drug and alcohol abuse, Parker has a mental and physical breakdown and is arrested for indecent exposure and arson. He is sent to Camarillo State Mental Hospital for six months. His tune "Relaxin' at Camarillo" is recorded after release in 1947.
 * The standard "Angel Eyes" is composed by Matt Dennis, with lyrics by Earl Brent.
 * November - The London House club opens in Chicago.

1947

 * 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

 * Columbia Records opens CBS 30th Street Studio at 207 East 30th Street in Manhattan.

1949

 * 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

 * 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

 * 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
The Institute of Jazz Studies is founded by jazz scholar and author Marshall Stearns.
 * January 14 - Pianist John Lewis, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, bassist Percy Heath, and drummer Kenny Clarke incorporate as the Modern Jazz Society, Inc., to form arguably jazz's first full-time chamber ensemble, the Modern Jazz Quartet.
 * June - First recording sessions in Hollywood by Gerry Mulligan's pianoless quartet with Chet Baker serve as landmark of West Coast jazz.

1953

 * May 15 - The final recorded pairing of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, accompanied by Bud Powell, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach, takes place at Toronto's Massey Hall. The Guardian will later call the resulting album, Jazz at Massey Hall, "one of the great recorded live shows in the history of the genre".
 * May 16 - Django Reinhardt dies of a stroke at age 43 in Samois-sur-Seine, France.
 * Epic Records is founded by the Columbia Records unit of CBS to cater for jazz and classical music.

1954

 * April - Heritage House (now the Freedom Theater) at 1346 North Broad Street in Philadelphia begins hosting a "Jazz Workshop" every Friday afternoon, frequently hosting famous jazz musicians performing in town.
 * June 29 - Davis and Rollins record Miles Davis with Sonny Rollins at Van Gelder. Rollins's tunes "Airegin", "Oleo" and "Doxy" become popular standards.
 * July 4 - The 1st Newport Jazz Festival, billed as the "First Annual American Jazz Festival", begins at Newport Casino in Newport, Rhode Island.
 * August 2-6 - Trumpeter Clifford Brown and drummer Max Roach record "Delilah", "Parisian Thoroughfare", "Daahoud", "Joy Spring" and "Jordu" in Hollywood for the album Clifford Brown & Max Roach.
 * November 5-6 - Sinatra records his first album with Capitol Records at Capitol Studios in Hollywood, Songs for Young Lovers.
 * November 8 - Dave Brubeck becomes the second jazz musician (after Louis Armstrong in 1949) to appear on the cover of Time magazine.

1955

 * February 8 - Sinatra begins recording his album In the Wee Small Hours.
 * March 12 - Bird dies at age 34 from a lobar pneumonia, a bleeding ulcer in the suite of Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter at the Stanhope Hotel in New York City.
 * July 17 - Miles Davis's historic performance at the 2nd Newport Jazz Festival results in George Avakian signing him to Columbia Records, leading to the formation of a quintet with John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones.

1956

 * 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

 * The Concorde Club is opened in Southampton, England by Cole Mathieson.
 * The Lenox School of Jazz, a summer jazz school in Massachusetts, is founded.
 * September 15 - Coltrane records Blue Train at Van Gelder, which after its release in January 1958 becomes one of his most successful albums. The tunes "Blue Train", "Moment's Notice" and "Lazy Bird" become jazz standards.
 * December 8 - The Sound of Jazz, a one-hour live telecast from CBS Studio 58 in New York City, stars Count Basie and other Swing era musicians as well as modernists such as Thelonious Monk and Jimmy Giuffre. One of the first full-length jazz programs on American network television, it featured Billie Holiday singing "Fine and Mellow" with a brief but classic blues solo by Lester Young as Holiday watched admiringly.

1958

 * August 7 - Monk records Misterioso live at the Five Spot Café in New York City with Johnny Griffin.
 * October 30 - Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers record Moanin' at Van Gelder. It becomes well known for its title track, "Moanin'", which becomes a standard, and the album has been cited as archetypal hard bop.
 * Art D'Lugoff opens the Village Gate club in Greenwich Village.

1959

 * 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

 * August - Chet Baker is arrested for possession of drugs in Lucca, Italy.
 * September - The Golden River City Jazz Festival begins in Kortrijk, Belgium.

1961

 * June 25 - The Bill Evans Trio records Sunday at the Village Vanguard live. The album is universally lauded after release in early October.
 * July 6 - Two weeks after recording at the Vanguard with Evans and just four days after performing with Stan Getz at the Newport Jazz Festival, double bassist Scott LaFaro dies in an accident on U.S. Route 20 between Geneva and Canandaigua, New York.
 * August 26-27 - The National Jazz Festival, inspired by the American Newport Jazz Festival, is first held at the Richmond Athletic Ground in the London suburb of Richmond. As blues and rock became more popular in the mid 1960s and 1970s it gradually evolves into a rock festival as a precursor to the Reading Festival.
 * September 21 - The film Paris Blues premieres, starring Louis Armstrong, Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier as jazz musicians to a score composed by Duke Ellington.
 * December 31 - Founded in 1959, the Jazzhus Montmartre is reopened by Herluf Kamp-Larsen in new premises in Store Regnegade, Copenhagen, Denmark
 * Moldejazz becomes the first jazz festival to be launched in Norway.

1962

 * September 26 - Coltrane collaborates with Duke Ellington to record the album Duke Ellington & John Coltrane; the first track is Ellington's "In a Sentimental Mood".

1963

 * March 18-19 - Stan Getz, Brazilian guitarist João Gilberto, singer Astrud Gilberto and pianist and composer Antônio Carlos Jobim record Getz/Gilberto in A&R Recording Studios in New York. Featuring bossa nova standards such as "The Girl from Ipanema", "Corcovado", "Desafinado" and "Só Danço Samba", it became one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time and the first international album to win a Grammy for Album of the Year, in 1965.
 * July 7 - Sonny Rollins performs in a quintet with his idol, Coleman Hawkins, at the Newport Jazz Festival. Later in the month, on July 15 and 18, they record the studio album Sonny Meets Hawk! in New York City.
 * October 31 - Horace Silver starts recording the hard bop album Song for My Father at Van Gelder. There is a photograph of Silver's father, John Tavares Silver, on the cover, and the title song, which is dedicated to him, has become a standard. Two other sessions on January 28 and October 26, 1964 completed the album recording, which was not released until late January 1965.
 * December 14 - Dinah Washington dies from a lethal combination of secobarbital and amobarbital at age 39.

1964

 * 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

 * October 20-22 - Burt Bacharach, working with jazz musicians such as Sonny Rollins, Ronnie Scott, Tubby Hayes and Keith Christie, records the theme to the film Alfie (1966) at Twickenham Studios. It is a pop hit for Cilla Black but enters the jazz repertoire.

1966

 * 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

 * June 18 - The 1st Montreux Jazz Festival begins in Montreaux, Switzerland.
 * July 17 - Coltrane dies of liver cancer at age 40 at Huntington Hospital on Long Island.
 * July 21 - Coltrane's funeral takes place at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in New York City, featuring performers such as the Albert Ayler Quartet and the Ornette Coleman Quartet. He is laid to rest at Pinelawn Cemetery in Farmingdale, New York.

1968

 * May 16 - The Thomas Reichman documentary film about Charles Mingus, Mingus: Charlie Mingus 1968, is released.
 * The U.S. National Association of Jazz Education is established.

1970

 * April 23-26 - The inaugural New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is held at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, and features a performance by Mahalia Jackson.
 * The Baked Potato jazz club opens in Los Angeles.

1971

 * July 6 - Louis Armstrong dies of a heart attack in his sleep in Corona, Queens, a month before his 70th birthday.
 * August 6 - The Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival is first held in Davenport, Iowa on the 40th anniversary of Beiderbecke's death.

1972

 * 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

 * 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

 * July 18 - Oscar Peterson, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and Barney Kessell perform at Ronnie Scott's; the event is captured live by the BBC.
 * October 1 - The Bimhuis concert hall opens in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

1975

 * 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

 * January 5 - Mingus dies at age 56 in Cuernavaca, Mexico from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. His ashes are later scattered into the Ganges.
 * May 25 - The Japanese jazz fusion group, Casiopea, formed in 1976, releases their debut album of the same name. Recorded between December 1978 and March 1979, it features guest performances from Michael and Randy Brecker and David Sanborn.
 * July 1 - The 1st Copenhagen Jazz Festival is held in Copenhagen, Denmark.

1980

 * May 10 - The 1st Montreal International Jazz Festival opens, and later grows into the world's biggest jazz festival.
 * June 4-8 - The Bill Evans Trio plays a four day stint at the Village Vanguard. It is released after his death in a 6 CD box set on Turn Out the Stars: The Final Village Vanguard Recordings in 1996.
 * September 15 - Bill Evans dies from cirrhosis of the liver, a peptic ulcer, bronchial pneumonia, and hepatitis in New York.
 * December 5 - Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía perform Friday Night In San Francisco at The Warfield Theatre in San Francisco, which becomes one of the most influential acoustic guitar albums of all time.

1981

 * September 30 - Danny Bensusan opens the Blue Note Jazz Club at 131 West 3rd Street in Greenwich Village, New York City. The Nat Adderley Quintet performs on the opening night.

1983

 * February 23 - Wynton Marsalis becomes the only musician in history to win Grammy Awards in both jazz and classical music during the same year at the 25th Annual Grammy Awards.

1984

 * August 17 - The inaugural Brecon Jazz Festival opens in Brecon, Wales, featuring Humphrey Lyttelton, George Melly, Bruce Turner and John Barnes.
 * September 13 - The Jazz at the Lake: Lake George Jazz Weekend festival begins in Lake George, New York.

1985

 * October 25 - Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got, a Canadian documentary about Artie Shaw is released and wins the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, tying with Down and Out in America.


 * Birdland opens in Hamburg, Germany.

1986

 * October 3 - The film Round Midnight is released in the United States, directed by Bertrand Tavernier and starring Dexter Gordon, François Cluzet and Herbie Hancock, and numerous cameos from people such as Wayne Shorter. Gordon portrays "Dale Turner", a character who is based on both saxophonist Lester Young and pianist Bud Powell (piano). Though fictional, it is partly based on the memoir Dance of the Infidels by Francis Paudras, a man who was a friend of Powell's during his period in Paris.
 * The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz opens in Washington, D.C.

1987

 * August 3 - Jazz at Lincoln Center holds its inaugural concert at Alice Tully Hall.
 * The Jazz Journalists Association is established.
 * Vortex Jazz Club opens on Stoke Newington Church Street in Hackney, London.
 * The Center for International Performance and Exhibition (known as HotHouse) is opened by Marguerite Horberg at 1565 N. Milwaukee Ave in Chicago.

1988

 * May 13 - Chet Baker falls to his death from his second-story room in Hotel Prins Hendrik, Amsterdam and is found dead on the street. Heroin and cocaine are found in his room and his death is later ruled an accident.
 * September 30 - Clint Eastwood releases the film Bird, starring Forest Whitaker as Charlie Parker, which wins him the Best Actor award at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival.
 * October 20 - a Charlotte Zwerin-directed, Clint Eastwood-produced documentary about Monk, Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser, is released.
 * November 26 - The Blue Note Tokyo jazz club opens in Tokyo, Japan.

1989

 * January 1 - Mark Levine's The Jazz Piano Book, a definitive text book for jazz piano education is first published.
 * May 1989 - The Jazz Foundation of America is established and begins hosting "A Great Night in Harlem," annually in May.
 * August 18 - The International Association for Jazz Education is first incorporated as a non-profit association.

1990

 * December - The Jazz Café opens in Camden, London.

1991

 * September 28 - Miles Davis dies from pneumonia in Santa Monica, California at age 65.

1992

 * September 15 - Joshua Redman records his debut album in Skyline Studios, New York.
 * September 24 - Richard Cook's and Brian Morton's The Penguin Guide to Jazz, a detailed guide to jazz recordings, is first published by Penguin Books.

1993

 * The Esbjörn Svensson Trio consisting of pianist Esbjörn Svensson, double bassist Dan Berglund and drummer Magnus Öström is formed.

1994

 * 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

 * January 22-25 - Wynton Marsalis records the album Blood on the Fields, which in 1997 becomes the only jazz album to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music.

1997

 * The National Jazz Museum in Harlem is founded by Leonard Garment and Abraham D. Sofaer at 104 East 126th Street in East Harlem.
 * May 18 - Yoshi's jazz club reopens in Jack London Square in the Port of Oakland, California.

1998

 * May 14 - Sinatra dies of a heart attack at age 82 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
 * May 20 - Sinatra's funeral, attended by 400 people, with thousands more onlookers, is held at the Roman Catholic Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills, California. He is interred at Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City.

2005

 * March 5-7 - the inaugural Jakarta International Java Jazz Festival is held at Jakarta Convention Center.
 * October 14 - Ornette Coleman records Sound Grammar live in Ludwigshafen, Germany. It goes on to win the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for music.
 * The Kasper Collin documentary My Name Is Albert Ayler is released to critical acclaim.

2007

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

2008

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

2009

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

2010

 * December 6 - Turner Classic Movies airs Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Way, a Clint Eastwood-produced documentary film about Dave Brubeck in celebration of his 90th birthday.

2011
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

 * January 4 - The John Scheinfeld documentary Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary, with Coltrane narrated by Denzil Washington, is showcased at the Toronto International Film Festival and is released on September 16.
 * February 1 - The National Jazz Museum in Harlem reopens with around 1900 square feet of exhibition space on the ground floor of 58 West 129th Street in Central Harlem.

2017

 * 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

 * November 7 - The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz is renamed the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz.

2020

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