Date Developments in Jazz Historical Events

1930 Trumpeter Louis Armstrong records Body and Soul.In a recording session with Armstrong, percussionistLionel Hampton plays his first vibraphone solo anddecides to make that his main instrument.Bandleader Paul Whiteman and his orchestra star inthe movie The King of Jazz. Bandleader CabCalloway becomes a regular at the Cotton Club.

The planet Pluto is discovered. The jet engine isinvented.

1931 Cornetist Bix Beiderbecke dies of pneumonia at age38. Cornetist Buddy Bolden dies. Pianist Lil Hardinseparates from her husband Louis Armstrong andforms an all-female band. RCA demonstrates thefirst 33 1/3 rpm long-playing disc.

The Empire State building is opened in New York.Spain becomes a Republic. Japan invadesManchuria. There is massive worldwideunemployment.

1932 Duke Ellington records It Don't Mean a Thing (If itAin't' Got That Swing,the first jazz composition to useswing in the title.

John Cockcroft splits the atom in Cambridge, UK.Japan forms a Manchurian Republic and later attacksShanghai. Radio City Music Hall opens in New York.Aviator Charles Lindbergh's son is kidnapped.

1933 With the rise of the Nazi party in Germany, Berlinradio station Funkstunde bans jazz broadcasts.Pianist Art Tatum records his first piano solo, TigerRag, which is thought by many to be a duet. DukeEllington and his orchestra begin their first tour ofEurope. Singer Bessie Smith makes her lastrecordings. Singer Billie Holiday makes her firstrecording.

Adolph Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany,followed by the creation of the Dachau concentrationcamp, political arrests, and the appropriation ofJewish finances by the government. PresidentFranklin Roosevelt initiates economic recovery in theUS. Mahatma Ghandi is imprisoned. Prohibitionends in the US. The first photographs of the LochNess monster are published in Britain's Daily Mail.Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes president.

1934 Fletcher Henderson's band folds due to financialdifficulties and Henderson sells some of hisarrangements to clarinetist Benny Goodman, whoperforms with his band at Billy Rose's Music Hall inNew York. The journal Down Beat: theContemporary Music Magazine is launched inChicago. The Quintette du Hot Club de France,featuring guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinistStephane Grappelli, gives its first public performanceat the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris. JimmieLunceford's band replaces Cab Calloway’s at theCotton Club in Harlem. Clarinetist Jimmy Dorsey andtrombonist Tommy Dorsey form the Dorsey BrothersOrchestra. Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday appearin the film Symphony in Black.

Outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are shotdead. Italian troops invade Albania. The Nazi coupfails in Austria. Adolf Hitler begins his dictatorship inGermany. Blues singer Leadbelly is released fromprison in Louisiana after writing a song to thegovernor asking for a pardon. The first cheeseburgeris served in Louisville, Kentucky.

1935 Pianist and bandleader Bennie Moten dies. PianistCount Basie forms the Barons of Rhythm withmembers of Moten's band. Vocalist Ella Fitzgeraldmakes her first recordings. Clarinetist BennyGoodman records Fletcher Henderson'sarrangement of Jelly Roll Morton's King PorterStomp. Goodman begins recording with a raciallyintegrated trio that includes pianist Teddy Wilson anddrummer Gene Krupa. Billie Holiday makes severalrecordings with pianist Teddy Wilson, including Whata Little Moonlight Can Do. George Gershwin's three-act opera Porgy and Bess opens at the Alvin Theaterin New York.

Italy invades Ethiopia. The first paperback books arepublished. The electric guitar is invented.

Date Developments in Jazz Historical Events

1938 Benny Goodman's band hosts a sold out concert atCarnegie Hall which features a jazz history elementand a jam session with members of Duke Ellington’sand Count Basie's bands. After the Goodmanconcert, Count Basie's band and Chick Webb's bandhave an informal competition at the Savoy Ballroom.Cornetist King Oliver dies after years in povertyworking as a pool-room janitor. Goodman's bandrecords Bach Goes to Town: Prelude and Fugue inSwing, which combines elements of classical musicand swing.

Germany annexes Austria and Sudetenland.Shopping carts are introduced for the first time inOklahoma. Actor Orson Welles broadcasts War ofthe Worlds, a radio science-fiction drama about aMartian invasion, and causes a nationwide panic.

1939 A new band led by trombonist Glenn Miller gainsnotoriety through regular radio broadcasts. BillieHoliday records Strange Fruit, with controversiallyrics regarding lynchings which causes it to bebanned from several radio stations. Chick Webb diesand Ella Fitzgerald takes over his band. Glenn Millerrecords the hugely successful In The Mood. BennyGoodman hires guitarist Charlie Christian. LesterYoung records Lester Leaps In with Count Basie.Coleman Hawkins records Body and Soul, setting anew standard for improvisational sophistication onthe saxophone. Artie Shaw retires. Singer MaRainey dies. Blue Note records is founded.

World War II breaks out in Europe. Germanyoccupies Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, and Lithuaniaand invades Poland. Military conscription isintroduced in Britain. Hitler and Mussolini agree to a"Pact of Steel." The Spanish Civil War ends.

1940 Composer and bandleader Duke Ellington hiressaxophonist Ben Webster and records Ko-Ko,Concerto for Cootie, and Cottontail. TrumpeterCootie Williams leaves Ellington's band and isreplaced by trumpeter and violinist Ray Nance.Vibraphonist Lionel Hampton's big band recordsFlying Home. Nat King Cole's trio records the timelypiece, Gone with the Draft. Minton's Playhouse inNew York becomes a hot spot for jazz, wheremusicians such as pianist Thelonious Monk,trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, and drummer KennyClarke are featured. The American Society ofComposer, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) issuesa broadcast ban of ASCAP works, resulting in thegrowth of rival organization Broadcast MusicIncorporated (BMI).

The Soviet Union attacks Finland. Germany invadesNorway and Denmark. Winston Churchill becomesPrime Minister of Britain. Holland and Belgium fall toGermany. Italy declares war on Britain and France.Germany occupies Paris. African Americans andPuerto Ricans begin moving to northern cities.

Date Developments in Jazz Historical Events

1941 Duke Ellington's band records composer BillyStrayhorn's Take the 'A' Train, which becomes theband's signature tune. Trumpeter Roy Eldridge joinsdrummer Gene Krupa's orchestra as featured soloist.Clarinetist Sidney Bechet plays five differentinstruments on The Sheik of Araby and Blues ofBechet, using some of the earliest overdubbingtechniques. Saxophonist Charlie Parker makes hisfirst recordings with Jay McShann and beginsparticipating in the famous Minton's Playhouse jamsessions where bebop is created. ASCAP'sbroadcasting boycott ends. Jelly Roll Morton dies.

Germany invades Yugoslavia, Russia and sendtroops to North Africa. The British army goes toLibya and Ethiopia. Japan bombs Pearl Harbor,Hawaii. The US and Britain declare war on Japan.The US declares war on Germany and Italy.