1961 in jazz

This is a timeline documenting events of Jazz in the year 1961.

Events

Album releases

• Basie at Birdland – Count Basie Orchestra (Roulette)
• A Jazz Hour with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers: Blues March – Art Blakey (Movieplay)
• Mosaic – Art Blakey (Blue Note)
• Time Further Out – The Dave Brubeck Quartet (Columbia)
• Con Alma – Ray Bryant (Columbia)
• Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation – Ornette Coleman (Atlantic)
• Coltrane Jazz – John Coltrane (Atlantic)
• My Favorite Things – John Coltrane (Atlantic)
• Whistle Stop – Kenny Dorham (Blue Note)
• American Freedom – Duke Ellington & Louis Armstrong (Blue Note)
• Out of the Cool – Gil Evans Orchestra (Impulse!)
• Focus – Stan Getz (Verve)
• 1961 – Jimmy Giuffre 3 (ECM)
• Out Front – Booker Little (Candid)
• All the Sad Young Men – Anita O'Day (Verve)
• The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra – Sun Ra and his Arkestra (Savoy Records)
• We Are In the Future – Sun Ra and his Arkestra (Savoy Records)
• We Travel the Spaceways – Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra
• Secrets of the Sun – by Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra (El Saturn Records)
• Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy – Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra
• Bad and Beautiful – Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra (El Saturn Records, Impulse!)
• Fate in a Pleasant Mood – Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra (El Saturn Records, Impulse!)
• Percussion Bitter Sweet – Max Roach (Impulse!)
• Forbidden Fruit – Nina Simone (Colpix)

Standards

Deaths

February

• 4 – Alphonse Picou, American clarinetist and composer (born 1878).
• 7 – Noah Lewis, American harmonica player (born 1891).
• 22 – Nick LaRocca, New Orleans cornetist and trumpeter (born 1889).

March

• 6 – George Formby, English actor, singer-songwriter, and comedian (born 1904).
• 9 – Wilber Sweatman, American clarinetist (born 1882).
• 24 – Freddy Johnson, American pianist and singer (born 1904).

April

• 29 – Miff Mole, American trombonist and bandleader (born 1898).

July

• 6 – Scott LaFaro, American upright bassist (born 1936).

August

• 15 – Stick McGhee, American guitarist (born 1918).

October

• 5 – Booker Little American trumpeter and composer (born 1938).

Births

January

• 12 – Ivo Perelman, Brazilian saxophonist.
• 16 – Kenneth Sivertsen, Norwegian composer and guitarist (died 2006).

February

• 5 – Clark Tracey, British drummer, band leader, and composer.
• 9 – Steve Wilson, American saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist.
• 10 – Paolo Fresu, Italian trumpeter, flugelhornist, composer, and arranger.
• 12 – Knut Reiersrud, Norwegian guitarist.
• 21 – Mike Nielsen, Irish guitarist, composer, and educator.

March

• 2 – Harald Dahlstrøm, Norwegian pianist.
• 5 – Marcelo Peralta, Argentine saxophones, piano, accordion, the Latin American aerophones, and composer.
• 23 – Eivind Aarset, Norwegian guitarist.
• 25 – Makoto Ozone, Japanese pianist.
• 27 – Tak Matsumoto, Japanese guitarist, producer, arranger, composer, singer and songwriter.
• 29 – Ken Stubbs, English alto saxophonist, and composer.^[3]
• 30 – Tina May, English singer.

April

• 9 – Chris Abrahams, New Zeeland pianist and composer.
• 23 – Gene Calderazzo, American drummer.
• 25 – Paul Wagnberg, Swedish–Norwegian organist and keyboarder.
• 30 – Alan Steward, Dutch record producer and multi-instrumentalist.^[4]

May

• 5 – Flavio Boltro, Italian trumpeter and flugelhornist.
• 17 – Enya, Irish singer-songwriter.
• 21 – Rachelle Ferrell, American vocalist.
• 24 – Jarmo Savolainen, Finnish pianist and composer (died 2009).
• 27
  • Ivan Božičević, Croatian composer, pianist, and organist.
  • Russel Blake, American bassist.

June

• 4 – El DeBarge, American singer-songwriter.
• 7 – Mohammed Nazam, Pakistani-English guitarist, composer, and writer.
• 10 – Gary Thomas, American saxophonist.
• 15 – Kai Eckhardt, German bass guitarist.
• 18 – Alison Moyet, British singer-songwriter.
• 24 – Marvin Smith, American drummer and composer.

July

• 7 – Leon Bosch, South African upright bassist.
• 8 – Karl Seglem, Norwegian saxophonist and goat horn player.
• 26 – Keiko Matsui, Japanese pianist and composer.
• 29 – Michael Publig, Austrian pianist and composer.

August

• 3 – Art Porter Jr., American saxophonist (died 1996).
• 13 – Koji Kondo, Japanese composer, pianist, and sound director.
• 17 – Everette Harp, American saxophonist.
• 23 – Anita Wardell, English singer.

September

• 1 – Boney James, American saxophonist, songwriter, and producer.
• 7 – LeRoi Moore, American saxophonist (Dave Matthews Band) (died 2008).^[5]
• 9 – Eyþór Gunnarsson, Icelandic keyboarder and composer.
• 29 – David Kikoski, American pianist.

October

• 11 – Xavier Desandre Navarre, French percussionist and drummer.
• 18 – Bo Sundström, Swedish singer and songwriter, Bo Kaspers orkester.
• 18 – Wynton Marsalis, American trumpeter.
• 20 – Audun Kleive, Norwegian drummer.
• 25 – Franck Amsallem, French-American pianist, arranger, composer, and singer.

November

• 13 – Candye Kane, American singer and entertainer (pancreatic cancer) (died 2016).^[6]
• 19 – Mornington Lockett, English saxophonist.

December

• 5 – Anders Bergcrantz, Swedish trumpeter.
• 29 – Lê Quan Ninh, French percussionist.

Unknown date

• Paul Hanmer, South African composer and pianist.

Awards

• Grammy Awards of 1961
  • Best Jazz Performance Solo or Small Group
    • André Previn for West Side Story
  • Best Jazz Performance Large Group
    • Henry Mancini for Blues and the Beat
  • Best Jazz Composition of More Than Five Minutes Duration
    • Gil Evans & Miles Davis for Sketches of Spain

Music criticism

• Dan Morgenstern, Jazz Journal (1958–1961), Metronome (1961)

See also

• 1960s in jazz
• List of years in jazz
• 1961 in music

References

Bibliography

• Ratliff, Ben (2007). Coltrane: The Story of a Sound. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 0-374-12606-2.
• The New Real Book, Volume I. Sher Music. 1988. ISBN 0-9614701-4-3.
• The New Real Book, Volume II. Sher Music. 1991. ISBN 0-9614701-7-8.
• The New Real Book, Volume III. Sher Music. 1995. ISBN 1-883217-30-X.
• The Real Book, Volume I (6th ed.). Hal Leonard. 2004. ISBN 0-634-06038-4.
• The Real Book, Volume II (2nd ed.). Hal Leonard. 2007. ISBN 1-4234-2452-2.
• The Real Book, Volume III (2nd ed.). Hal Leonard. 2006. ISBN 0-634-06136-4.
• The Real Jazz Book. Warner Bros. ISBN 978-91-85041-36-7.
• The Real Vocal Book, Volume I. Hal Leonard. 2006. ISBN 0-634-06080-5.

External links

• History Of Jazz Timeline: 1961 at All About Jazz