| Year |
Developments in Jazz |
Historical Events |
| 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.
- Thelonious Monk is arrested for possession of drugs and banned from performing in NY nightclubs for six years.
- Pianist Errol Garner composes Misty.
- Pianist Ahmad Jamal forms his first piano trio.
- Pianist Count Basie and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie both disband their big bands due to financial constraints.
|
- Writer George Orwell (1984) dies.
- The Soviet Union declares its nuclear weaponry.
- The Korean War begins.
- China invades Tibet.
|
| 1951 |
- The Miles Davis All Stars record their first long-playing 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.
|
- United Nations troops take Seoul.
- Writer J.D. Salinger publishes The Catcher in the Rye.
- NATO is formed.
|
| 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.
|
- Writer Samuel Beckett's publishes Waiting for Godot.
- The Immigration and Naturalization Act is passed, removing the last racial and ethnic barriers to naturalization.
|
| 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.
|
- 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.
|
| 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.
- Dave 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.
|
- The U.S. 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 U.S. Supreme Court rules that racial segregation in public schools in unconstitutional.
- The first nuclear power is produced in the Soviet Union.
|
| 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 New York.
- Saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley performs in New York for the first time.
- Pianist Lennie Tristano experiments with overdubbing.
|
- 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 U.S.
|
| 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.
|
- Actress Marilyn Monroe marries playwright Arthur Miller.
- The U.S.S.R crushes the Hungarian rebellion.
- Singer Elvis Presley releases Heartbreak Hotel.
|
| 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.
- Miles Davis records the soundtrack for the French film L'Ascenseur pour l'echafaud and performs the music in Paris with bassist Pierre Michelot and drummer Kenny Clarke.
- Thelonious Monk records with the Jazz Messengers.
- Clarinetist Jimmy Dorsey dies.
- Bassist Charles Mingus records Tijuana Moods, using elements of Latin music.
- Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story opens in Washington, D.C.
- Saxophonist John Coltrane records the album Blue Trane.
- Louis Armstrong causes controversy by speaking out against President Dwight Eisenhower.
- Billie Holiday performs Fine and Mellow in a live TV broadcast.
- The State Department sends Benny Goodman on a tour to the Far East.
- Pianist and arranger Toshiko Akiyoshi wins a poll in Down Beat and receives an award from the Berklee College of Music.
- Brandies University commissions Third Stream works by Charles Mingus and others.
|
- Conductor Arturo Toscanini dies.
- Composer Jean Sibelius dies.
- The U.S.S.R. 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.
|
| 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.
- Miles Davis records On Green Dolphin Street with pianist Bill Evans.
- Miles Davis and Gil Evans record large-ensemble arrangements of composer George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess.
- Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers record Moanin', a defining album for hard bop.
- Composer Antonio Carlos Jobim launches the bossa nova craze, recording Joao Gilberto's Chega de Saudade.
- Bill Evans records Everybody Digs Bill Evans with the influential modal track Peace Piece.
- Art Blakey records Holiday for Skin with three jazz drummers and seven Latin percussionists and tours Europe with the Jazz Messengers.
|
- 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.
|
| 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.
|
- Fidel Castro assumes power in Cuba.
- Singer Buddy Holly dies.
- Hawaii and Alaska join the U.S.
- 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 U.S.
- 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.
|
