A brief history of Jazz, including the major milestones of jazz evolution, and the legendary musicians that made it great

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1929: The swing era rises - Duke Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and Count Basie's groups.

1935: West 52d St. Manhattan N.Y. becomes the playground for Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and Thelonious Monk.

1936: At the Congress Hotel, Chicago, Lionel Hampton and Teddy Wilson sit in with Benny Goodman's ensemble. Two years later, Billie Holiday joins Artie Shaw's band.

1939: While playing "Cherokee" during a Harlem jam session, Charlie Parker happens upon a harmonic discovery that leads to be-bop, a more intricate style, both harmonically and rhythmically.

1943: Ascendency to the concert hall: The first of Duke Ellington's annual Carnegie Hall concerts and the premiere of "Black, Brown and Beige," his influential work about the history of American blacks.

1951: On the heels of Miles Davis's "Birth of the Cool", musicians Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan form the "cool school" - turning down the volume and intensity.

1951: Sidney Bechet relocates to Paris, the first of many American ex-patriates including Kenny Clarke, Arthur Taylor and Bud Powell, where racial tension is less and European audiences were are appreciative.

1954: George Wein, a pianist and singer, rewrites his resume by inviting musicians to Newport, R.I., for the first Newport Festivals.

1956: Ella Fitzgerald makes the first of several "Songbook" recordings for Verve, the impresario Norman Granz's new recording label. the "Songbooks" makes Fitzgerald an international star.

1959: Several records that expand the very possibilities of improvisation: Miles Davis's "Kind of Blue," John Coltrane's "Giant Steps," and Ornette Coleman's "Shape of Jazz to Come."

1964: The avant-garde gains mainstream recognition as Thelonious Monk makes the cover of Time magazine, which christens him the high priest of bebop.

1969: Miles Davis' "Bitches Brew," a primordial jazz-rock fusion record, sells 500,000 copies, turning on many rock fans to the new music form.

1972: New York's "loft" scene blooms, with experimental, post bebop players performing in lofts like Ali's Alley.

1979: On Jan. 5, Charles Mingus dies in Cuernavaca, Mexico, at the age of 56. That same day, 56 whales beach themselves on the Mexican coast.

1984: Virtuoso trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, at 22, wins a Grammy for his "neo-bop" record "Think of One." The same night, with impeccible technique, he takes a Grammy for his recording of classical trumpet concertos.

1991: Marsalis is appointed artistic director of the new Jazz at Lincoln Center program.

1992: The British "acid" group Us3, which blends hip-hop and electronic samples of cuts, gets permission to raid the Blue Note archives.

1993: Joshua Redman, the Harvard summa cum laude saxophonist, chooses music over Yale Law and releases two records.

June 1995: The Impulse record label, one of the most important in this history, is revived after a 21-year dormancy. It is the seventh major jazz label to be launched or relaunched in the past 10 years.

History of Jazz - Legendary Dixieland Jazz Musicians

Dixieland began in the 1880's in New Orleans. The large marching groups were made up of black jazz musicians and were often used for funeral processions and the large Mardi Gras celebration. The instrumentation of these bands were usually cornets, clarinets, trombones, tubas, banjos and drums. The beauty of Dixieland jazz lies in it's collective improvisation - three lead instruments improvising in a countrapuntal way. Usually one instrument plays the melody while the other two improvise in a melodically blended way, responding to each other, and creating this unique sound.

The earliest recordings are from the 1920's and early 30's. Trumpet player/vocalist Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong was the most important figure of this period. He played with the Hot Five and the Hot Seven. The style of these groups is referred to as New Orleans or Dixieland. It is characterized by collective improvisation - all performers simultaneously play improvised melodic lines. Louis is credited with the invention of scat - singing improvised nonsense syllables. Other notable performers include clarinetist Johnny Dodds, soprano saxophone player Sidney Bechet, trumpeter King Oliver, and trombonist Kid Ory.

Other styles popular during this period were piano jazz, including ragtime, Harlem stride, and boogie-woogie. These styles are distinct, but are characterized by rhythmic, percussive left hand lines and fast, full right hand lines. Scott Joplin and Jelly Roll Morton were early ragtime pioneers of jazz history. Fats Waller, Willie "The Lion" Smith and James P. Johnson popularized the stride left hand pattern (bass note, chord, bass note, chord). Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis developed this into the faster moving left hand patterns of boogie-woogie. Earl "Fatha" Hines was a pianist who was known for his right hand, in which he did not often play full chords or arpeggios, playing instead "horn-like" melodic lines. Art Tatum is considered to be the greatest pianist and one of the most technically gifted. His harmonic insights paved the way for many after, and is sometimes considered a precursor of bebop.

The Big Bands are normally associated with a slightly later era, but there were several large bands playing during this period, including Fletcher Henderson. Bix Beiderbecke was a cornet soloist who played with several bands and was considered a legend in his time.

History of Jazz - Legendary Big Band Musicians

In the 1930's the nation was at war and there was economic depression. This is the generation when jazz (Big band) crossed the barrier and became "popular" music and was played in ballrooms. The Big band music became more structured as the emphasis was on ensemble playing. There were two types of big bands: the white bands that played refined arrangements and the black bands that emphasized improvisation.

The mid 30's was the swing era and saw Big bands as the popular music of the day. Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Willie Bryant, Bix Beiderbecke , Harry James, Les Brown, Stan Kenton and Count Basie led some of the more popular jazz bands. The styles of these musicians can be summarized by saying they concentrated primarily on playing melodically, on the swing feel, and on the development of an individual sound. The blues was an important element of this music. Most of these musicians recorded in small groups as well as with large ensembles. The small groups are included in the next section - Swing.

History of Jazz - Legendary Swing Jazz Musicians

The mid 30's was the swing era and saw the Big Bands as the popular music of the day. There were also some important small group swing recordings during the 1930's and 1940's. These differed from earlier small groups because they featured very little collective improvisation. This music emphasized the individual soloist. Goodman, Ellington, and Basie recorded often in these small group settings. Major saxophonists of the era include Johnny Hodges, Paul Gonsalves, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, and Ben Webster. Trumpet players include Roy Eldridge, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Cootie Williams, and Charlie Shavers. Pianists include Ellington, Basie, Teddy Wilson, Erroll Garner, and Oscar Peterson; guitarists include Charlie Christian, Herb Ellis, Barney Kessell, and Django Reinhardt; vibraphonists include Lionel Hampton; bassists include Jimmy Blanton, and Slam Stewart; drummers include Jo Jones. Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington and Ella Fitzgerald were important singers in this era.

Many of the players from this generation helped pave the way for bebop. These musicians included Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge, Charlie Christian, Jimmy Blanton, and Jo Jones.

History of Jazz - Legendary Bebop Jazz Musicians

Bebop jazz is a musical style for virtuoso musicians. This style of jazz produced four changes: it required a greater understanding of jazz theory; complex instrumental melodies were introduced; complicated chords and rhythms were added to the rhythm section; and a cult of serious musicians evolved. The improvisational style shifted from adorning an original melody to organizing new patterns of quick, active, melodic lines. The musical pattern often ended abruptly with two notes, suggesting the word "be-bop". Musicians developed relationships between distended chords and esoteric scales. These notes are called melodic extensions and were added to chords by pianists to add harmonic color.

The birth of bebop jazz in the 1940's is considered the beginning of modern jazz. This style grew out of the small swing groups, but placed a much higher emphasis on technique and on complex harmonies, rather than on singable melodies. Alto saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker was the father of this movement, and trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie ("Diz") was his primary cohort. His quintet and other small group recordings that featured Dizzie and Bird formed the foundation of bebop and most modern jazz.

Much use was made of blues and popular songs of the day, including songs by George Gershwin and Cole Porter. The original compositions began to diverge from popular music for the first time. It was not intended to be dance music. The compositions usually featured fast tempos and difficult eighth note runs. Many of the standards are based on the chord progressions of other popular songs, such as "I Got Rhythm", "Cherokee", or "How High The Moon". The improvisations were based on scales implied by those chords, and the scales used included alterations such as the flatted fifth.

The development of this form of jazz led to new approaches to accompanying as well as soloing. Drummers began to rely less on the bass drum and more on the ride cymbal and hi-hat. Bass players became responsible for keeping the pulse by playing almost exclusively a walking bass line consisting mostly of quarter notes while outlining the chord progression. Pianists were able to use a lighter touch, and in particular their left hands were no longer forced to define the beat or to play roots of chords. In addition, the modern standard form became universal. Performers would play the melody to a piece (the head), often in unison, then take turns playing solos based on the chord progression of the piece, and finally play the head again. The technique of trading fours, in which soloists exchange four bar phrases with each other or with the drummer, also became common. The standard quartet and quintet formats (piano, bass, drums; saxophone and/or trumpet) have changed very little since the 1940's.

Notables include saxophonists Sonny Stitt and Lucky Thompson, trumpeters Fats Navarro, Kenny Dorham, and Miles Davis, pianists Bud Powell, Duke Jordan, Al Haig, and Thelonious Monk, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, bassists Oscar Pettiford, Tommy Potter, and Charles Mingus, and drummers Max Roach, Kenny Clarke, and Roy Haynes.

History of Jazz - Legendary Cool Jazz Musicians

Both jazz and classical music originated in simple dance forms and both have developed these forms into large sophisticated structures. Both musical streams have influenced each other greatly. Third stream represents a formal merger of classical music and jazz. The term was coined to describe music that channeled together jazz and classical elements. Third stream combines jazz and classical composition procedures. Some modern classical composition is melodically angular and harmonically dissonant. This atonal style first appeared when jazz bands turned to classically trained arrangers. Serial or 12 tone techniques invaded jazz compositions in the 1950's and 1960's. It used orchestral instruments such as cellos, oboes, bassoons and French horns and imitates classical music. Avant-garde assimilated the tonal qualities of classical composers such as Wagner, Debussy, Schoenberg and others. Cool jazz composers borrowed the large extended forms of the Baroque and Classical periods.

Although Miles Davis first appeared on the bebop recordings of Charlie Parker, his first important session as a leader was called The Birth Of The Cool. The cool jazz style has been described as a reaction against the fast tempos and the complex melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic ideas of bebop. These ideas were picked up by many west coast musicians, and this style is also called West Coast jazz. This music is generally more relaxed than bebop. Other musicians in this style include saxophonists Stan Getz and Gerry Mulligan, and trumpet player Chet Baker. Stan Getz is also credited with the popularization of Brazilian styles such as the bossa nova and samba. These and a few other Latin American styles are sometimes collectively known as Latin jazz.

Many groups in the cool style do not use a piano, and instead rely on counterpoint and harmonization among the horns, usually saxophone and trumpet, to outline chord progressions. Pianist-led groups that developed from this school include those of Dave Brubeck (with Paul Desmond on saxophone), Lennie Tristano (with Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh on saxophones), and the Modern Jazz Quartet or MJQ (featuring John Lewis on piano and Milt Jackson on vibraphone), which also infuses elements of classical music.

History of Jazz - Legendary Hard Bop Musicians

History of Jazz - Legendary Modern Jazz Musicians

John Coltrane is another giant of this period. He recorded the album Giant Steps, which showed him to be one of the most technically gifted and harmonically advanced players around. After leaving Miles Davis, he formed a quartet with pianist McCoy Tyner, drummer Elvin Jones, and a variety of bass players eventually settling on Jimmy Garrison. Coltrane's playing with this group showed him to be one of the most intensely emotional players around. Tyner is also a major voice on his instrument, featuring a very percussive attack. Elvin Jones is a master of rhythmic intensity. This group evolved constantly, from the relatively traditional post bop of My Favorite Things to the high energy modal of A Love Supreme to the wailing avant garde of Meditations and Ascension.

Charles Mingus was an influential leader - his small groups tended to be less structured than others, giving more freedom to the individual players. Mingus also directed larger ensembles in which most of the parts were written out. Mingus' compositions for smaller groups were often only rough sketches, and performances were sometimes literally composed or arranged on the bandstand, with Mingus calling out directions to the musicians. Alto saxophonist, bass clarinetist, and flautist Eric Dolphy was a mainstay of Mingus' groups. His playing was often described as angular, meaning that the interval in his lines were often large leaps, as opposed to scalar lines, consist mostly of steps.

Thelonious Monk is widely regarded as one of the most important composers in jazz, as well as being a highly original pianist. His playing is more sparse than most of his contemporaries. Some of his albums include Brilliant Corners and Thelonious Monk With John Coltrane. Pianist Bill Evans was known as one of the most sensitive ballad players, and his trio albums, particularly Waltz For Debby, with Scott LaFaro on bass and Paul Motian on drums, are models of trio interplay. Wes Montgomery was one of the most influential of jazz guitarists. He often played in groups with an organist, and had a particularly soulful sound. He also popularized the technique of playing solos in octaves. His early albums include Full House. Tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins rivaled Coltrane in popularity and recorded many albums under his own name, including Saxophone Colossus and The Bridge, which also featured Jim Hall on guitar. Sonny also recorded with Clifford Brown, Miles Davis, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, and other giants.

Other noteworthy musicians of the era include saxophonists Jackie McLean, Dexter Gordon, Joe Henderson, and Charlie Rouse; trumpet players Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, Woody Shaw, and Booker Little; trombonists J. J. Johnson and Curtis Fuller; clarinetist Jimmy Guiffre, pianists Tommy Flanagan, Hank Jones, Bobby Timmons, Mal Waldron, Andrew Hill, Cedar Walton, Chick Corea, and Ahmad Jamal; organist Larry Young, guitarists Kenny Burrell and Joe Pass; guitarist and harmonica player Toots Thielemans; vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson; bassists Ray Brown, Percy Heath, Sam Jones, Buster Williams, Reggie Workman, Doug Watkins, and Red Mitchell; drummers Billy Higgins and Ben Riley; and vocalists Jon Hendricks, Eddie Jefferson, Sarah Vaughan, Betty Carter, Carmen McRae, Abbey Lincoln, and Shirley Horn. Big bands such as those of Woody Herman and Stan Kenton also thrived.

History of Jazz - Legendary Free & Avant Garde Musicians

During the decades of the 1950's and 1960's, some musicians took jazz in more exploratory directions. The terms Free Jazz and Avant Garde are often used to describe these approaches, in which traditional forms, harmony, melody, and rhythm were extended considerably or completely abandoned. Saxophonist Ornette Coleman and trumpet player Don Cherry were pioneers of this music through albums such as The Shape Of Jazz To Come and Free Jazz. The former album, as well as several more recorded with a quartet that also include either Scott LaFaro or Charlie Haden on bass and either Billy Higgins or Ed Blackwell on drums, still retains the basic feel of the traditional post bop small group ensemble, with alternating soloists over a walking bass line and swinging drum beat (this style is sometimes known as Freebop.) The album Free Jazz was a more cacophonous musical affair that featured collective improvisation.

Another major figure in the avant garde movement was pianist Cecil Taylor. His playing is very percussive, and includes dissonant clusters of notes and fast technical passages that do not appear to be based on any particular harmonies or rhythmic pulse.

John Coltrane, as was already previously mentioned, delved into the Avant Garde in the mid 1960's. Albums such as Ascension and Interstellar Space show Coltrane absorbing both Free Jazz and the works of Cecil Taylor. Later Coltrane musical groups featured his wife Alice on piano and Rashied Ali on drums, as well as Pharoah Sanders on tenor saxophone. John Coltrane also recorded an album called The Avant Garde with Don Cherry that is interesting for its parallels with The Shape Of Jazz To Come and other Ornette Coleman quartet recordings. Coltrane influenced many other musicians, including saxophonists Archie Shepp, Sam Rivers, and Albert Ayler.

Sun Ra is a somewhat enigmatic figure in the Avant Garde genre, claiming to be from the planet Saturn. He plays a variety of keyboard instruments with his big bands and solo work that range from the 1920's style swing to the wilder Free Jazz of John Coltrane and others.

History of Jazz - Legendary Fusion Jazz Musicians

Other groups combined jazz and rock in a more popularly oriented manner, from the crossover Top 40 music of Spyro Gyra and Chuck Mangione to the somewhat more esoteric guitarist Pat Metheny. Other popular fusion bands include Weather Report, featuring Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, and bass players Jaco Pastorius and Miroslav Vitous; Return To Forever, featuring Chick Corea and bassist Stanley Clarke; The Crusaders, featuring saxophonist Wilton Felder and keyboardist Joe Sample; the Yellowjackets, featuring keyboardist Russell Ferrante; the Family of Mann with flutist Herbie Mann, and the Jeff Lorber Fusion, which originally featured Kenny G on saxophone. In recent years, several fusion bands have achieved much commercial success, including those of Pat Metheny and Kenny G.

History of Jazz - Legendary New Age Jazz Musicians

Some groups, such as Oregon, rejected the complexity and dissonance of modern jazz and played in a much simpler style, which has given rise to the current New Age music. Fine collections of "space" jazz and proto-ambient music include: Universe 3, Universe 4, Universe Sampler 92, and Universe Sampler 90 from the Hearts of Space radio program. On the other extreme are musicians like saxophonist John Zorn and guitarist Fred Frith, who engaged in a frenetic form of free improvisation sometimes called energy music. Somewhere in between was the long lived group formed by saxophonist George Adams, who was influenced by Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, and pianist Don Pullen, who was influenced by Cecil Taylor. This group drew heavily from blues music and well as the avant garde. Other important musicians during the 1970's and 1980's include pianists Abdullah Ibrahim, Paul Bley, Anthony Davis, and Keith Jarrett.

Not all developments in jazz occur in the United States. Many European musicians extended some of the free jazz ideas of Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor, and further dispensed with traditional forms. Others turned toward a more introspective music. Some of the more successful of the European improvisers include saxophonists Evan Parker, John Tchicai, John Surman, and Jan Garbarek, trumpet players Kenny Wheeler and Ian Carr, pianist John Taylor, guitarists Derek Bailey and Allan Holdsworth, bassist Eberhard Weber, drummer John Stevens, and arrangers Mike Westbrook, Franz Koglman, and Willem Breuker.

Neoclassicism is a return to the bebop and post bop roots of modern jazz. Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and his brother, saxophonist Branford Marsalis, have achieved much popular success playing music that is based on styles of the 1950's and 1960's. The best of this group of young musicians, including the Marsalises and their rhythm sections of Marcus Roberts on piano, Bob Hurst on bass, and Jeff "Tain" Watts on drums, extend the art through new approaches to melodicism, harmony, rhythm, and form, rather than just recreating the music of past masters.

History of Jazz - Legendary Neoclassic Jazz Musicians

An exciting development since the mid 1980's has been a collective of musicians that refers to its music as M-Base. The music is characterized by angular melodic lines played over complex funky beats with unusual rhythmic twists. This movement is led by saxophonists Steve Coleman, Greg Osby, and Gary Thomas, trumpet player Graham Haynes, trombonist Robin Eubanks, bass player Anthony Cox, and drummer Marvin "Smitty" Smith.

Many other musicians are making strong music in the modern tradition. Among musicians already mentioned, there are Ornette Coleman, David Murray, Joe Henderson, Dewey Redman, Cecil Taylor, Charlie Haden, Dave Holland, and Jack DeJohnette. Others include saxophonists Phil Woods, Frank Morgan, Bobby Watson, Tim Berne, John Zorn, Chico Freeman, Courtney Pine, Michael Brecker, Joe Lovano, Bob Berg, and Jerry Bergonzi; clarinetists Don Byron and Eddie Daniels; trumpet players Tom Harrell, Marcus Belgrave, and Arturo Sanduval; trombonists Steve Turre and Ray Anderson; pianists Geri Allen, Mulgrew Miller, Kenny Barron, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Eduard Simon, Renee Rosnes, and Marilyn Crispell; guitarists John Scofield, Bill Frisell, and Kevin Eubanks; vibraphonist Gary Burton; bassists Niels-Henning Oersted Pedersen and Lonnie Plaxico; and vocalists Bobby McFerrin and Cassandra Wilson.