Jazz Milestones

1961: Orrin Keepnews set up the microphones to record pianist Bill Evans and his trio (Scott LaFaro bass, Paul Motian drums) "Sunday at the Village Vanguard (Live)" on June 25, creating one of the most dynamic impacts in Jazz music.

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

...December 9: John Coltrane records his masterpiece "A Love Supreme" with McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass and Elvin Jones on drums.

1965: The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), a non-profit organization, is founded in Chicago by Muhal Richard Abrams, Jodie Christian, Steve McCall and Phil Cohran.

1969: Miles Davis' "Bitches Brew," a primordial "Jazz-Rock" fusion record, sells 500,000 copies, turning many rock fans on to Jazz but leaving some hard-core Miles followers groaning.

1972-1977: New York's "Loft Jazz" scene blooms, with experimental, post-bop players performing in lofts like Ali's Alley. Rising among the players of the scene are Joe Lovano and David Murray.

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

1984: The new generation gets a leader who looks backward: Wynton Marsalis, at 22, wins a Grammy for his "neo-bop" record "Think of One." The same night, he takes a classical Grammy for his recording of trumpet concertos.

1989: Frontmen and backlash: Trying to duplicate Marsalis' commercial success, record labels snap up straight-ahead players like Roy Hargrove and Antonio Hart. Much grumbling ensues from those who consider these so-called Young Lions too imitative or too green.

1991: Jazz as institution: Marsalis is appointed artistic director of the new Jazz at Lincoln Center program. Big audiences but big detractors too; who claim that Marsalis is anti-modernist and anti-white.

1992: A new fusion trip: The British "Acid Jazz" group Us3, which blends hip-hop and electronic samples of Jazz cuts, gets permission to raid the Blue Note archives. Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, the hip-hop group Digable Planets records "Rebirth of Slick (Cool like Dat)," built around the sampled horn lines of James Williams' "Stretchin." Suddenly, a new degree of Jazz cool.

1993: Jazzmen can be pop stars too: Joshua Redman, the Harvard summa cum laude saxophonist, chooses Jazz over Yale Law and releases two records. Critics love the records and fans love Redman: in concert, young women shriek and young men pump their fists in the air.

June 1995: The Impulse record label, one of the most important in Jazz 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.

May 2000: Inspired by Mary Lou Williams, Dr. Billy Taylor founds the Women in Jazz Festival, held annually at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.

January 2001: Documentary film maker Ken Burns creates his 10 episode, 19 hour PBS television miniseries "Jazz" greatly appealing to the general public but enraging Jazz aficionados who protest that many important players were overlooked.

April 2002: The Smithsonian National Museum of American History announces the launch of Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM) annually paying tribute to Jazz both as an historic and a living American art form.

August 18, 2003: President George W. Bush signed Public Law 108-72, which includes language strongly endorsing Jazz and urging that "musicians, schools, colleges, libraries, concert halls, museums, radio and television stations, and other organizations should develop programs to explore, perpetuate, and honor Jazz as a national and world treasure."

October 18, 2004: Celebrates the grand opening of the 100,000 square-foot performance, education & broadcast facility dedicated entirely to America's true art form, Jazz. Located at Columbus Circle in Manhattan overlooking beautiful Central Park, "the Frederick P. Rose Hall, " said Jazz at Lincoln Center artistic director Wynton Marsalis, "signifies that our culture has matured to the point of accepting Jazz as an art form deserving of an International home."

January 8, 2005: The National Endowment for the Arts announces the launch of NEA Jazz in the Schools, an educational resource for high school teachers of social studies, U.S. history, and music. The five-unit, web-based curriculum and DVD toolkit explores Jazz as an indigenous American art form as a means to understand American history. The curriculum is produced by Jazz at Lincoln Center supported by a $100,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation.

August 23 - 31, 2005: Hurricane Katrina destroys the "cradle of Jazz," New Orleans, LA, USA causing damages of $200 billion (costliest Atlantic hurricane of all time.)

April, 2006: Legends of Jazz is scheduled as the first weekly series featuring live Jazz performance and conversation to air on network television in over 40 years. The 13 half-hour PBS episodes produced in multi-camera HDTV and Dolby Surround 5.1 audio coincides with National Jazz Appreciation Month.

March, 2007: Soundies: A Musical History, presented by Michael Feinstein and aired on PBS television, captures never before seen footage of the greats that started it all (Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Nat King Cole, etc). The program also contains exclusive interviews with some of America's most famous musical and cultural icons including Hugh Hefner, Les Paul, Wynton Marsalis, George Duke and film historian Leonard Maltin.

February 10, 2008: Herbie Hancock wins Grammy for Album of the Year with "River: The Joni Letters" becoming the first Jazz recording to win the honor in 44 years, since Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto's "Getz/Gilberto" in 1964.

April 18th, 2008: Ending 40 years of service, the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) ceases daily operations and files for bankruptcy under Chapter 7 of the United States Federal Bankruptcy Law.

June 29th, 2008: The first annual International Jazz Awards, a global 2 hour television special celebrating over 100 years of Jazz music, will take place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, USA.

2009: Celebrates the 50th anniversary of the most creative moment in American music history; the year when Jazz was at its most fertile peak.

February 3, 2012: The United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization (UNESCO) unanimously agreed to designate April 30 as International Jazz Day to celebrate Jazz music as a rich cultural heritage, a product of cultural collaboration and a universal language of tolerance and freedom with live internet concerts scheduled each year.

Apr 28, 2020: Z2 Comics and the Parker estate announce first-ever graphic novel on the Jazz legend 'Chasin' the Bird: Charlie Parker in California' celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of the father of bebop.

Aug 15, 2023: The Royal Canadian Mint launches a special $1 coin celebrating the late music legend Oscar Peterson.