Important Firsts

IMPORTANT FIRSTS, GROUPS AND THEIR LEADERS, and GROUPS AND PERSONNEL (compiled by David Baker)

Important Firsts

First jazz recording: Livery Stable Blues, Original Dixieland Jass Band (ODJB) - 1917

First classic blues recording: Crazy Blues, Mamie Smith - 1920

First recording by a black band: Ory's Creole Trombone / Society Blues, Kid Ory's Sunshine Orchestra - 1921

Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith record for the first time (New York) - 1923

King Oliver's first recording (Gennett Records) - 1923

First mixed (racially) recording session: New Orleans Rhythm Kings (NORK) and Jelly Roll Morton (Mr. Jelly Lord, London Blues, Milenberg Joys, etc.) - 1923

Washingtonians made their first recordings (Ellington in NY) - 1924

First recordings made by Louis Armstrong as a leader (Hot 5) - 1925

First scat recording: Louis Armstrong, Heebie Jeebies - 1925

First recordings by the Red Hot Peppers (Jelly Roll Morton) - 1926

First Boogie-Woogie recording: Meade Lux Lewis, Honky Tonk Train - 1927

First recordings of Benny Goodman and Jimmy Lunceford - 1934

First gold record ever: Glenn Miller, Chattanooga Choo-Choo -1942

First electric (amplified) jazz guitar solo: Floyd Smith, Floyd’s Guitar Blues - 1939

First modal album: Miles Davis, Kind Of Blue - 1959

First major album in the bossa nova style: Joao Gilberto, Chega de Saudade - 1959

Beginnings of Fusion: Miles Davis, Bitches Brew - 1969

Other Important Firsts

First jazz improviser: Louis Armstrong

First jazz composer: Jelly Roll Morton

First use of the word "Jazz": Vaudeville team of William and George Demarest of "Our Three Sons" - 1910

First jazz ensemble on film: Original Dixieland Jass Band (ODJB) in The Good For Nothing - 1917

First published ragtime composition: William Krell, Mississippi Rag - 1897

First published rag by a black composer: Thomas Million Turpin, The Harlem Rag - 1897

First interracial jazz group: Benny Goodman Trio (Benny Goodman/Teddy Wilson/Gene Krupa)

First modern jazz bass player: Jimmy Blanton

First modern jazz guitar player: Charlie Christian

First center of jazz: New Orleans

First composer to set the standard of setting brass against reeds: Fletcher Henderson

First black band with a regularly sponsored series: Don Redman

First band to use five saxophones: Benny Carter

First jazz musician to be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize: Duke Ellington

First black vocalist with a major white jazz orchestra: Billie Holiday with Artie Shaw - 1938

First Jazz at the Philharmonic concert - 1943

First modal composition: Miles Davis, Miles aka Milestones - 1958

Groups and Their Leaders

Bebop for the People -- Charlie Ventura
Blackbyrds -- Donald Byrd
Bobcats -- Bob Crosby
Cabjivers/Stompy Stevedores -- Cab Calloway
Clambake 7 -- Tommy Dorsey
Creole Jazz Band -- King Oliver
Elektrik Band -- Chick Corea
Gramercy 5 -- Artie Shaw
Harlem Footwarmers -- Duke Ellington
Headhunters -- Herbie Hancock
Hot 5 and Hot 7 -- Louis Armstrong
Jazz Messengers -- Art Blakey
Jazztet -- Art Farmer/Benny Golson
Kansas City 7 -- Count Basie
Modern Jazz Quartet -- John Lewis
Original Dixieland Jass Band (ODJB) -- Nick La Rocca
Quintet of the Hot Club of France -- Stephane Grappelli/Django Reinhardt
Red Hot Peppers -- Jelly Roll Morton
Return To Forever -- Chick Corea
Weather Report -- Wayne Shorter/Joe Zawinul
Woodchoppers -- Woody Herman