Jazz Events

1878 May 25 Bill "Bojangles" Robinson is Born
Legendary jazz tap dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson was born on May 25, 1878, in Richmond, Virginia. His given name was Luther, but he despised it and appropriated that of his younger br...
1899 Apr 29 Duke Ellington Is Born
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington, often said to be America's greatest composer, bandleader, and recording artist, was born on April 29, 1899 in Washington, D.C. Nicknamed "Duke" as a young...
1901 Aug 4 Louis Armstrong is born
Armstrong often stated in public interviews that he was born on July 4, 1900, a date that has been noted in many biographies. Although he died in 1971, it wasn't until the mid-1980s that ...
1915 Apr 7 Billie Holiday Is Born
Jazz singer Billie Holiday was born on April 7, 1915, in Baltimore, Maryland. She made her professional singing debut in Harlem nightclubs in 1931, and her first recordings in 1933. Alth...
1917 Apr 25 Ella Fitzgerald Is Born
Ella Jane Fitzgerald was born on April 25, 1917, in Newport News, Virginia. She was one of the leading jazz singers of all time. In her lifetime, she won thirteen Grammys—two from the fi...
1917 Oct 21 Dizzy Gillespie is born
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, singer, and composer. He was born in Cheraw, South Carolina, the youngest of ...
1922 Louis Armstrong joins Creole Jazz Band in Chicago
Through all his riverboat experience Armstrong’s musicianship began to mature and expand. At twenty, he could now read music and he started to be featured in extended trumpet solos, one o...
1924 Louis Armstrong joins Fletcher Henderson band in Harlem
Armstrong enjoyed working with Oliver, but Louis's second wife, pianist Lil Hardin Armstrong, urged him to seek more prominent billing and develop his newer style away from the influence ...
1925 Louis Armstrong forms Hot Five and makes first records
Armstrong returned to Chicago in 1925 due mostly to the urging of his wife, who wanted to pump up Armstrong’s career and income. He was content in New York but later would concede that sh...
1926 May 26 Miles Davis is born
Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Dewey Davis III was at the forefront of almost every major development in jazz from World War II to the ...
1926 Sep 23 John Coltrane Is Born
John William "Trane" Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Starting in bebop and hard bop, Coltrane later helped pioneer free jaz...
1937 Aug 27 Alice Coltrane Is Born
Alice Coltrane (née McLeod) (August 27, 1937 – January 12, 2007) was an American jazz pianist, organist, harpist, composer, and the wife of John Coltrane.
1945 Louis Armstrong forms six piece group called the All Stars
Following a highly successful small-group jazz concert at New York Town Hall on May 17, 1947, featuring Armstrong with trombonist/singer Jack Teagarden, Armstrong's manager Joe Glaser dis...
1955 In the Wee Small Hours is released
In the Wee Small Hours (original issue: Capitol W-581) is an album by Frank Sinatra with arrangements by Nelson Riddle, released in 1955. It is with this album that Sinatra perfected the ...
1961 Oct 18 Wynton Marsalis is born
Wynton Learson Marsalis (born October 18, 1961) is an American trumpeter and composer. He is among the most prominent jazz musicians of the modern era and is also a well-known instrumenta...
1971 Jul 6 Louis Armstrong Dies
Armstrong died just after a heart attack on July 6, 1971, a month before his 70th birthday, and 11 months after playing a famous show at the Waldorf-Astoria's Empire Room. Shortly before ...
1984 Aug Jaco Pastorius appears on the cover of Guitar Player
1987 Sep 21 Jaco Pastorius, jazz bass legend, dies
After sneaking onstage at a Carlos Santana concert September 11, 1987, and being ejected from the premises, Pastorius made his way to the Midnight Bottle Club in Wilton Manors, Florida. A...
1996 Jun 15 Ella Fitzgerald Dies
Already blinded by the effects of diabetes, Fitzgerald had both her legs amputated in 1993. In 1996 she died of the disease in Beverly Hills, California at the age of 79. She is interred ...
2007 Jan 12 Alice Coltrane Dies
Alice Coltrane died of respiratory failure at West Hills Hospital and Medical Center in suburban Los Angeles. She is buried alongside her late husband John Coltrane in Pinelawn Memorial P...
2010 May 16 Hank Jones Dies
Hank Jones, whose self-effacing nature belied his stature as one of the most respected jazz pianists of the postwar era, died on Sunday in the Bronx. He was 91. His death, at Calvary H...