The History of Jazz

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.