BIOS - WEBSITES - MUSEUMS - EXHIBITS - ARCHIVES

AN INTERACTIVE HISTORY OF JAZZ: 1718 TO NOW

Generation Saxophone:  1940 - 1960

click on boxes below for audio and more info

* 1940 - Frank "Machito" Grillo, a Cuban singer who had recorded with Xavier Cugat, forms a group called Afro-Cubans and lures his brother in law, trumpeter Mario Bauza away from Cab Calloway's band.  Bauza's affinity for jazz influences the sound of the Afro-Cubans; Machito's (and Mario's) experiment becomes what is commonly referred to as the first Latin Jazz band. When Bauza leaves Cab Calloway, he suggests friend Dizzy Gillespie as his replacement. This is also the year when Gillespie, who would soon be at the forefront of Latin Jazz and the other new sound emerging at this time - Bebop, meets Charlie Parker, who has just made his first record, playing in the Jay McShann Orchestra.  Oscar Peterson, 14 years old,  wins Canadian national talent contest, quits school and begins life as a professional musician; Herbie Hancock & Al Jarreau are born within a month of each other, April 12 & March 12 respectively.

* 1941 - In the history of jazz, there is nothing quite like this year; Swing and Big Band are well established and enjoying breathtaking success. Latin Jazz & Bebop are in their nascent stages and attracting excited followings. Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, always existing in an orbit somewhere "beyond category" , recorded their most indelible and revered collaboration, "Take The A-Train" in the first two months of the year. In June Stan Kenton, inspired by Ellington and Machito, becomes a bandleader for the first time. What is old is new again: Dixieland is in the midst of a revival, with "new" Dixie-bands popping up everywhere. The year also marks the passing of Jelly Roll Morton, a pioneering bandleader and pianist from New Orleans who has been called "the first true composer of jazz music." Ironically Morton had been, shortly before his death, "re-discovered" thanks to the Dixieland craze and a series of Library of Congress interviews with folklorist Alan Lomax. The eight hours of conversations reveal Morton as a skilled raconteur who didn't hesitate to exaggerate a bit if it enhanced the story (he carried business cards that referred to him as the "Originator of Jazz") but, most importantly, the Lomax interviews show Morton to be a true eyewitness and important contributor to the early New Orleans jazz scene. Some say he even changed his birth date to substantiate his "Originator of Jazz" claims so no one really knows if Jelly Roll Morton was 50 or 55 when he died in Los Angeles on July 10. He leaves behind a rich legacy of recordings and dozens of compositions, including "King Porter Stomp"(a huge hit for Benny Goodman) and "Wolverine Blues". 5 decades after his death, Morton's music would star in two Broadway productions, "Jelly Roll" and "Jelly's Last Jam", winner of 3 Tony Awards & 6 Drama Desk Awards.

* 1942 to 1949 -  Wartime anxiety has changed the playing field for all making a living in the music biz; most depend on regular gigs that are drying up. And the usual alternative for many working musicians not on the road - session work - has disappeared because in Aug '42 the American Federation of Musicians, claiming sound recordings were eliminating the jobs of the union membership, banned all instrumental recording for the next year in an attempt to increase royalties.  The successive actions effectively closed the curtain on 10 years of Big Band prominence. Now the door is wide open for bebop, which is ready for prime time. 

 In 1944, Glen Miller, in Europe leading a band for the U.S. Army, dies in a military plane crash; this is the year pianist and Bebop originator Thelonius Monk publishes the most recorded jazz tune in history, “Round Midnight”. Cootie Williams, who had recently gone solo after 10 years in the trumpet section of Duke Ellington's Orchestra (he would re-join Ellington in 1962), hears Monk's masterpiece and wants it for his new band. Williams helps with publishing Round Midnight (he is commonly credited as co-composer) and makes the first recording of it on August 22nd (click to hear recording), with Monk's associate Bud Powell playing piano. Incidentally, the first bebop record is made in '44, featuring Monk associate and collaborator Coleman Hawkins; Los Angeles jazz enthusiast Norman Granz produces the first in a series of historic "Jazz At The Philharmonic" concerts. The band featured Nat King Cole playing piano and saxophonist Illinois Jacquet who broght the house down with his work on "Lester Leaps In" and an 18 year old trumpet player from Illinois named Miles Davis arrives in New York just in time to get first hand exposure to the bebop bug. Set to begin music studies at Juilliard, he wastes no time connecting with his idol, Charlie Parker. In a few months the teenager is hired to join Parker's band.

Oliver Lake, a saxophonist that is extending the Charlie Parker's legacy into the 21^st century, is born, on September 14.

In the spring of 1945, Bebop is the thing. The genre's most important players, Dizzy Gillespie & Charlie Parker team up to make records and tour the U.S. for the first time. In 1947 Miles Davis, still a member of Charlie Parker's band, records under his own name for the 1st time. Parker is also there, taking a rare turn on tenor sax on the tune "Little Willie Leaps." By 1949, Gillespie is leader of an all-star big band that included future members of The Modern Jazz Quartet and a virtually unknown alto sax player named John Coltrane. Also in 1949, Coltrane's future employer Miles Davis would make portions of the historic "Birth of the Cool" recordings that redefined the dynamics of jazz performance and created an entirely new movement - Cool Jazz. 

* 1950 to 1955 - July 3 1950: Pianist Hazel Scott becomes the first African-American to host a network television program; The Hazel Scott Show was cancelled two months later after it's host was accused of being a communist sympathizer. T.V. pioneer  Bob Hope( he appeared in an experimental 1932 CBS broadcast)is the host of a traveling variety show in 1950; one of the artists on the bill went by the name of Joe Bari when he opened for Pearl Bailey a year ago but now, following Hope's suggestion, he uses an anglicized version of his given name, Anthony Benedetto. As Tony Bennett he gives a performance at New York's Paramount Theater that attracts the attention of Columbia Records who immediately sign him to a record deal after hearing "Bennett's demo of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams."

Also in 1950; 20 year old trumpeter Clifford Brown is involved in a serious auto accident, he would die in an auto accident six years later, but not before setting the jazz world on it's ear with his legendary tone and influential approach. Brown made his first recordings (click to hear excerpts) in 1952 as a member of singer Chris Powell's Blue Flames. Brown's future band member, Theodore "Sonny" Rollins is released prison in '52 after an armed robbery conviction and in the same year Milt Jackson, Kenny Clarke, John Lewis and Percy Heath have become The Modern Jazz Quartet. Two years later, The Modern Jazz Sextet is formed by Houston, Texas teenagers Joe Sample, Wilton Felder, Stix Hooper, Wayne Henderson and Hubert Laws. In a few years they become The Jazz Crusaders.

 In '53, a pianist and composer named George Russell publishes his "Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization" while working as a sales clerk at Macy's Department Store. At the time the Lydian concept was a groundbreaking stroke of genius that influenced many musicians including John Coltrane and Miles Davis, who subsequently incorporated many Lydian ideas into his music.

In '54, 29 yr old George Wein, at the time a Boston jazz club owner, is invited by socialite Elaine Lorillard to organize a jazz festival in a resort town on the Rhode Island coast. The Newport Jazz Festival is debuted in July and featured Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday and Gerry Mulligan. Another stellar debut was that of The Jazz Messengers, formed by Art Blakey and Horace Silver, who leave for a solo career the following year. For the next 34 years, The Messengers would continue as a workshop and springboard for many young players who would go on to be stars including Donald Byrd, Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett, Terence Blanchard, Donald Harrison, Kenny Garrett, Branford Marsalis & Wynton Marsalis. 

In '55, a Philadelphia teenager named McCoy Tyner meets John Coltrane, who has just joined the ascending Miles Davis' quintet. Coincidentally, Miles' mentor Charlie Parker ends a tragic descent while watching television in NYC apartment, March 12 1955 (read original N.Y.Times obit).The doctor who did the post mortem said, without knowing he looked to be about 53 years old. He was 34. Parker's death solidifies his place in jazz lore but stifles the further development of jazz music immeasurably, leaving many jazz fans then and now stuck in world Bird created in the 40's. It is safe to assume that, given his penchant for exploration, Parker's music and jazz in general would be quite different had he lived a longer life.  

* 1956 to 1960 -  Duke Ellington celebrates his 30th year as a bandleader in 1956 on a somewhat sour note; his extraordinary popularity is waning and the public's appetite for jazz is shifting - toward singers and smaller groups. The Ellington Orchestra now plays everything from ice rinks to  schools to make ends meet. But Ellington's appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 7th of '56 would be the event that would trigger his big comeback, restoring the prestige that he and his orchestra represents today. The highlight of the entire festival was the Ellington Orchestra's performance of - Diminuendo in Blue and Crescendo in Blue - featuring a mammoth,    At about the same time, saxophonist Wayne Shorter graduates from NYU and begins a 2 year enlistment in the U.S. Army and Dizzy Gillespie earns the moniker "Ambassador of Jazz"  after he's asked to take his band on a tour of the Middle East, sponsored by The U.S. State Department.

 In '57 Thelonius Monk, is asked to headline gigs at a NYC club called The Five Spot; Monk, who hasn't played in a NYC club since 1951, would be world famous by the time the gig was over, an unheard of 7 months later! . Around the same time, soon-to-be world famous David Sanborn, age 12 and suffering from polio, starts playing saxophone at the suggestion of his doctor who thinks it would be good therapy for Sanborn, who's polio-related respiratory problems keep him in an iron lung for much of the time. Sanborn would start playing professionally two years later, featured with Albert King and Little Milton among others. By his 22nd birthday Sanborn was a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band; this led to work on thousands of recordings with many artists representing virtually every genre. Sanborn's music has also been featured in numerous films and television programs, including his days as a member of the Saturday Night Live band and his own show, Sunday Night, which aired on NBC (and in syndication as "Night Music") in the late 80's and early 90's.

   In June '58, Billie Holiday releases her final recording, "Lady in Satin." Click to hear a

  sample.

'59 begins with the recording of what many have called the two most important and best-selling recordings in the history of modern jazz - Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue." & Dave Brubeck's "Time Out" Joining Davis was Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, Jimmy Cobb, Paul Chambers, Cannonball Adderley & John Coltrane, who was a few months away from making the important recordings of his career. "Time Out" featured Joe Morello, Eugene Wright & Paul Desmond. Brubeck's signature tune "Take Five", written by Desmond, appears on the album.

By this time, years of health problems have taken it's toll on Billie Holiday, who can only sing two songs in her final public appearance on May 25. A few days later she is admitted to New York City's Metropolitan Hospital where she dies on July 17. (click to read original N.Y. Times obit) Also in '59, Sonny Rollins, enjoying new prominence but unhappy with his playing, decides to take a 3 year hiatus from public performing, surfacing only to practice or "woodshed" on, of all places New York's Williamsburg Bridge because he didn't want to disturb the neighbors. Rollins returned inspired, making his most famous recording, "The Bridge."  Fittingly, John Coltrane would close the year and the decade recording "Giant Steps", which marks the first time "Trane filled an entire program of music with his compositions. This was also the "tipping point" for modern jazz. As a result of "Giant Steps," many jazz musicians looking for inspiration would move away from Bebop toward new directions that were mapped out in large part by John Coltrane, whose presence on the jazz scene was about to become larger than life.        

NEXT