98 Fun Facts About Jazz

Which guitarist, who lost two fingers' use in a 1928 fire, co-founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France?

Django Reinhardt retaught himself during months of recuperation to solo using mainly his index and middle fingers, keeping the injured fingers for chord work.

Who was known as the 'King of Swing'?

Benny Goodman was crowned the 'King of Swing' after his band's 21 August 1935 opening at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles, the night usually taken as the start of the swing era.

Which iconic jazz singer was known by the nickname 'Lady Day'?

Holiday's autobiography Lady Sings the Blues was published in 1956 and inspired the 1972 film of the same name.

John Coltrane started on alto, but which instrument made his name?

Coltrane started out on alto and switched to tenor in 1947 when he joined King Kolax's band.

Miles Davis's landmark 1959 modal album opens with which track?

Kind of Blue opens with 'So What', a 32-bar modal tune built on just two scales, D Dorian and E-flat Dorian, recorded 2 March 1959 at Columbia's 30th Street Studio.

Which Harlem club's after-hours jam sessions in the early 1940s are regarded as the birthplace of bebop?

Minton's Playhouse, opened by saxophonist Henry Minton in 1938 inside the Cecil Hotel on West 118th Street, hosted the after-hours sessions where house drummer Kenny Clarke and the young beboppers reshaped jazz rhythm and harmony.

Which jazz pianist, nearly blind from infancy, hated having it pointed out on stage?

Tatum disliked attention being drawn to his blindness and planned his own unaided walk to the keyboard in clubs whenever he could.

Which big band leader went missing in December 1944 when his flight over the English Channel never reached France?

Miller was serving as an officer in the US Army Air Forces; his remains were never recovered and the loss is thought to have been accidental.

Which Harlem stride pioneer composed 'The Charleston', the unofficial anthem of the Roaring Twenties?

James P. Johnson wrote 'The Charleston' for the 1923 Broadway revue Runnin' Wild; the stride pianist also composed 'Carolina Shout', the test piece every Harlem pianist had to master.

Which band was founded by Chick Corea in 1972, with bassist Stanley Clarke its only constant member?

Return to Forever's first line-up in 1972 leaned on Brazilian sounds with singer Flora Purim and percussionist Airto Moreira before Chick Corea took the band electric in 1973 with guitarist Bill Connors.

Bandleader Lionel Hampton, who joined a famous clarinetist's quartet in 1936, was a virtuoso on what?

Lionel Hampton made the vibraphone a jazz lead voice; after Benny Goodman heard him in Los Angeles in 1936 he joined the Goodman Quartet with Teddy Wilson and Gene Krupa, one of the first integrated jazz groups.

What early New Orleans jazz style features collective improvisation and upbeat tempos?

Dixieland, also called traditional or hot jazz, grew out of New Orleans in the 1910s and features collective polyphonic improvisation by a trumpet, clarinet and trombone front line.

Which saxophonist's album 'Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation' pioneered the movement?

Ornette Coleman was a pivotal figure in the free jazz movement, and his 1961 album 'Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation' gave the genre its name.

'Summertime', later a jazz standard, was written as an aria for which 1935 opera?

'Summertime' opens the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess; the lyrics are by DuBose Heyward, author of the 1925 novel Porgy on which the opera was based.

Which Harlem bandleader became known as the 'Hi-de-ho' man for his 1931 hit 'Minnie the Moocher'?

Cab Calloway performed 'Minnie the Moocher' in a 1932 Betty Boop cartoon, and the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.

The Dave Brubeck Quartet's iconic album featuring 'Take Five' is titled what?

'Time Out' reached number two on the Billboard albums chart and became the first jazz album to sell one million copies.

What jazz-tinged Brazilian style was popularized by Antônio Carlos Jobim and João Gilberto?

Bossa Nova, a style of Brazilian music derived from samba but with more jazz influences, gained international popularity through artists like Antônio Carlos Jobim and João Gilberto.

The bandleader crowned the 'King of Swing' was a virtuoso on which woodwind instrument?

Benny Goodman, the 'King of Swing', was a clarinet virtuoso; as a boy in Chicago he took two years of lessons from Franz Schoepp, a classically trained clarinettist who also taught Jimmie Noone and Buster Bailey.

The 'First Lady of Song', born in 1917, was a native of which state?

The 'First Lady of Song' was born in Newport News, Virginia, on 25 April 1917 and raised in Yonkers, New York; she was discovered after winning an Apollo Theater amateur night in November 1934.

Which Greenwich Village jazz club did Max Gordon open in a basement in 1935?

Max Gordon opened the Village Vanguard in 1935 in a wedge-shaped basement on Seventh Avenue South; the room switched to an all-jazz policy in 1957, and John Coltrane's November 1961 residency there yielded the album Live at the Village Vanguard.

Which New Orleans cornetist, key to the birth of jazz, left no recordings and spent his last decades in an asylum?

Bolden's band was at its peak from around 1900 to 1907, when an episode of alcoholic psychosis ended his career at age 30.

Which bebop trumpeter's horn had a bell bent upward at 45 degrees, after an accident at a 1953 party?

Dizzy Gillespie's trumpet was bent when dancers fell on it at a 6 January 1953 party for his wife Lorraine; he liked the sound so much he had horns custom-built with the upturned bell.

Which arranger's orchestral scores frame Miles Davis on Miles Ahead (1957) and Sketches of Spain (1960)?

Gil Evans arranged the 19-piece orchestra on Miles Ahead (1957) and scored Sketches of Spain (1960), which reworks Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez for Davis's trumpet and flugelhorn.

Which vocalist, called the 'First Lady of Song', was renowned for horn-like scat singing?

Ella Fitzgerald, the 'First Lady of Song', turned scat into horn-like improvisation on recordings such as 'Flying Home' (1945) and 'How High the Moon' (1947).

Coltrane's 1961 album 'My Favorite Things' showcased him on which newly adopted instrument?

Coltrane took up the straight soprano sax in 1960; its keening, Eastern-tinged sound on the title track of My Favorite Things became a signature of his classic quartet.

Which jazz musician was known by the nickname 'Satchmo'?

Louis Armstrong was affectionately known by the nickname 'Satchmo,' which is short for 'Satchelmouth,' often referencing his large mouth and cheerful demeanor.

The composition 'Take the 'A' Train' is famously associated with which big band leader?

'Take the 'A' Train' by Billy Strayhorn became the signature tune of the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

Which influential jazz pianist and composer was known for his angular style and distinctive hats?

Thelonious Monk, composer of 'Round Midnight' and 'Straight, No Chaser', played jagged, dissonant lines, was rarely seen without a hat, and made the cover of Time magazine in February 1964.

Which alto saxophonist, nicknamed 'Bird', led the development of bebop?

Parker's fast tempos, virtuosic technique and advanced harmonies defined bebop and reset how jazz musicians improvise.

Which schoolteacher wrote the anti-lynching song 'Strange Fruit' under the pseudonym Lewis Allan?

Abel Meeropol first published the words as the poem 'Bitter Fruit' in a New York teachers' union magazine in January 1937, before Billie Holiday recorded the song in 1939.

In what U.S. state is the renowned Newport Jazz Festival primarily held?

The Newport Jazz Festival, one of the oldest and most prestigious jazz festivals, is held annually at Fort Adams State Park in Newport, Rhode Island.

Scott Joplin, composer of 'The Entertainer', was the king of which jazz-precursor genre?

Ragtime, with its 'ragged' off-beat right hand over a steady left-hand march beat, was America's popular music from the 1890s to the 1910s; Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag was published in Sedalia, Missouri, in 1899.

Which jazz pianist and bandleader was known for his 'Kansas City swing' style?

Count Basie was a prominent jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer known for his distinctive Kansas City swing style and for leading one of the most famous big bands in jazz history.

The jazz standard 'Take Five' is written in which unusual time signature?

'Take Five,' composed by Paul Desmond and famously performed by the Dave Brubeck Quartet, is notable for its distinctive 5/4 time signature.

Which vocalist was nicknamed 'Sassy', 'The Divine One' and the 'Queen of Bebop'?

Sarah Vaughan was nicknamed 'Sassy' by pianist John Malachi in Billy Eckstine's band, and Chicago DJ Dave Garroway coined 'The Divine One'; she had won an Apollo Theater amateur night in 1942.

What instrument did Charles Mingus primarily play and compose for?

Charles Mingus was an influential jazz double bassist, composer, bandleader, and occasional pianist, known for his innovative compositions and fiery temperament.

Which pianist, self-taught and never able to read music, composed the ballad 'Misty'?

Erroll Garner composed 'Misty' in 1954 and first recorded it for his album Contrasts; the ballad later featured in Clint Eastwood's 1971 film Play Misty for Me.

Which pianist, a Miles Davis Quintet alumnus, formed the funk-driven band the Headhunters in 1973?

Hancock kept only reedman Bennie Maupin from his previous sextet, and the band's album Head Hunters became one of his best-known records.

Which band, active from 1970 to 1986, was co-led by keyboardist Joe Zawinul and saxophonist Wayne Shorter?

Weather Report's founders were both Miles Davis veterans, and bassist Miroslav Vitouš was the third original member.

What style emerged in the late 1960s and 1970s, blending improvisation with rock, funk and R&B?

Jazz fusion, often simply called fusion, emerged in the late 1960s and 1970s, characterized by its blend of jazz improvisation with the rhythms and electronic instrumentation of rock, funk, and R&B.

Which jazz label did Alfred Lion and Max Margulis found in New York in 1939?

Blue Note Records was founded in 1939 by Alfred Lion, a Berlin-born émigré, with writer Max Margulis; the label took its name from the 'blue notes' of jazz and the blues, and Francis Wolff soon joined Lion to run it.

What jazz term names the brief moment when the band stops and a soloist plays alone?

A break is a short passage, typically a couple of bars, in which the rhythm section drops out and the soloist plays unaccompanied; two-bar horn breaks are a hallmark of New Orleans jazz.

John Coltrane's 1964 suite 'A Love Supreme' is divided into how many movements?

A Love Supreme has four parts, Acknowledgement, Resolution, Pursuance and Psalm, recorded on 9 December 1964 with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones; its four-note bass motif is chanted as the album's title.

Which Coltrane composition gave its cyclic chord pattern the name 'Coltrane changes'?

'Giant Steps', recorded in 1959, cycles through three key centres a major third apart at breakneck tempo, and that substitution pattern became known as 'Coltrane changes'.

Which New Orleans-born trumpeter first won jazz and classical Grammys in the same year?

Wynton Marsalis was 22 when he did it in 1983, and he went on to become artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

What term describes the rhythmic device common in jazz where accents fall on normally unaccented beats?

Syncopation shifts stresses to where they wouldn't normally fall, a disturbance of the regular flow of rhythm that gives jazz its swing feel.

What blues-influenced 1950s offshoot of bebop had a more soulful, rhythmic feel?

Hard bop emerged in the mid-1950s as an extension of bebop, incorporating stronger influences from blues, gospel, and rhythm and blues, often with a heavier, more soulful groove.

Which bandleader claimed to be from Saturn, led the Arkestra, and pioneered Afrofuturism?

Sun Ra, born Herman Poole Blount in Birmingham, Alabama, took his name from the Egyptian sun god Ra and led the Arkestra from the mid-1950s until his death in 1993.

Which jazz pianist was known for his elegant trio work, including the album 'Waltz for Debby'?

Evans's trio with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian, formed in late 1959, is regarded as a seminal modern jazz group.

In jazz, a bassist's 'walking' line typically consists of a steady stream of which note value?

A walking bass line moves in steady quarter notes, one per beat, which players call a 'four feel'; it mixes scale tones, arpeggios and chromatic passing notes to outline the chords.

Which drummer led the Jazz Messengers for more than 35 years, until his death in 1990?

Art Blakey led the Jazz Messengers from the mid-1950s until his death in October 1990, and the band became an incubator for young talent including Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard.

Which jazz guitarist was famed for plucking with his thumb and doubling melodies an octave apart?

Wes Montgomery was an innovative jazz guitarist renowned for his distinctive use of octaves, often playing melodies by doubling them an octave higher, and his warm, soulful tone.

Which jazz subgenre, a reaction to bebop, favoured relaxed tempos and lyrical melodies?

Cool jazz, which emerged in the late 1940s and 1950s, was characterized by its relaxed tempos, lyrical melodies, and softer, often understated, instrumental tones, contrasting with the frenetic energy of bebop.

At which New York venue was the landmark 16 January 1938 concert, jazz's 'coming out party to respectable music'?

Benny Goodman's band played Carnegie Hall on 16 January 1938 after publicist Wynn Nathanson suggested the booking; the concert, issued on record in 1950, is often called the most important in jazz history.

Which saxophonist was nicknamed 'Prez' or 'Pres', short for 'President'?

Young in turn coined 'Lady Day' for the singer who had given him the presidential nickname, his close friend and musical partner.

Scott Joplin, composer of 'Maple Leaf Rag', was primarily a performer on which instrument?

Piano was his instrument; Joplin moved to Sedalia, Missouri, in 1894 and worked as a piano teacher, and 'Maple Leaf Rag' brought fame and a steady income after 1899.

Which early New Orleans pianist and composer famously claimed to have invented jazz in 1902?

Morton, of Louisiana Creole descent, was a pianist, bandleader and composer whose boast drew plenty of criticism from contemporaries.

Whose 1924 'Rhapsody in Blue' married a jazz band to classical concert form?

George Gershwin wrote Rhapsody in Blue for Paul Whiteman's 'Experiment in Modern Music' concert at New York's Aeolian Hall on 12 February 1924, with Ferde Grofé orchestrating it for piano and jazz band.

Which pianist-arranger composed the 1945 'Zodiac Suite', with each of its twelve parts dedicated to a musical colleague born under that sign?

Mary Lou Williams wrote the twelve-part Zodiac Suite in 1945 and recorded it for Asch Records; Geri Allen's Mary Lou Williams Collective revisited the work on a 2006 album.

In jazz, what does 'comping' refer to?

Comping means backing a soloist with chords and rhythms; the word is short for 'accompaniment' (or perhaps 'complement'), and it is almost always improvised from a chord chart or lead sheet.

Which tenor saxophonist was nicknamed 'The Sound' for his warm, lyrical tone?

Getz first drew wide attention as one of Woody Herman's 'Four Brothers' saxophonists and later scored a hit with 'The Girl from Ipanema'.

Which drummer's band became the Savoy Ballroom's house band in 1931 and featured a teenage Ella Fitzgerald from 1935?

Webb led the Savoy's battles of the bands against Benny Goodman and Count Basie; Buddy Rich cited his powerful technique as a major influence.

Gerry Mulligan was one of the leading jazz players of which saxophone?

Gerry Mulligan was the pre-eminent baritone saxophonist of cool jazz, leading a pianoless quartet with Chet Baker in 1952; he also arranged for Claude Thornhill, Miles Davis and Stan Kenton.

Which jazz singer and civil rights figure famously performed 'Mississippi Goddam'?

Nina Simone was an iconic singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist who famously performed 'Mississippi Goddam' and used her music to advocate for racial equality.

In a small jazz group, which players usually make up the rhythm section?

A rhythm section is drums, bass and a chordal instrument such as piano or guitar; its members improvise their parts from chord symbols rather than fully written-out notation.

Which jazz bassist and singer won the 2011 Grammy Award for Best New Artist?

Esperanza Spalding took Best New Artist at the 53rd Grammy Awards in February 2011, beating Justin Bieber and Drake, the first jazz artist to win the category.

Which Los Angeles saxophonist released the nearly three-hour triple album 'The Epic' in 2015?

Kamasi Washington's triple album The Epic (2015), about 173 minutes long, came out on Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder label the same year he arranged strings for Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly.

Which stride pianist and comic entertainer wrote 'Ain't Misbehavin'' and 'Honeysuckle Rose'?

Fats Waller wrote both songs with lyricist Andy Razaf in 1929, 'Ain't Misbehavin'' for the revue Hot Chocolates; both recordings were later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Which Harlem nightclub, run by gangster Owney Madden from 1923, featured Black entertainers but admitted only whites?

The Cotton Club, run by Owney Madden from 1923, staged 'jungle'-themed revues for whites-only audiences; Duke Ellington's residency there from 1927 and its radio broadcasts gave him a national profile.

Which tenor saxophonist practised on the Williamsburg Bridge walkway to spare a pregnant neighbour?

Rollins lived on the Lower East Side at the time, and his 1962 comeback album was titled The Bridge.

Trumpeter Chet Baker died in 1988 after a fall from a hotel window in which city?

Baker was found dead on 13 May 1988 on the street below his room at Amsterdam's Hotel Prins Hendrik, near Centraal station; a memorial plaque was later placed on the hotel wall.

Trumpeter Clifford Brown, 25, died in a 1956 crash on which highway?

Brown died on 26 June 1956 when the car driven by Nancy Powell skidded in rain on the Pennsylvania Turnpike; her husband, pianist Richie Powell, also died, and Benny Golson wrote 'I Remember Clifford' in tribute.

Which 1975 Keith Jarrett solo album was improvised on a substandard baby grand supplied by mistake?

The Köln Concert, recorded at the Cologne Opera House on 24 January 1975, was improvised on a worn baby grand the venue had supplied by mistake and went on to sell millions of copies for ECM.

Which show tune, sung by a 62-year-old trumpeter, ended the Beatles' 14-week Hot 100 reign in 1964?

Louis Armstrong's 'Hello, Dolly!', cut as a publishing demo and released by Kapp Records, topped the Hot 100 in May 1964 and won Jerry Herman the Grammy for Song of the Year.

The Montreux Jazz Festival, founded in 1967 by Claude Nobs, takes place in which country?

Montreux sits in Switzerland on the shore of Lake Geneva; a fire during a December 1971 Frank Zappa show at its casino inspired Deep Purple's 'Smoke on the Water'.

Which group made the first jazz recordings in 1917, including 'Livery Stable Blues'?

The Original Dixieland Jass Band, an all-white New Orleans group, was playing for dancers at Reisenweber's Cafe in Manhattan when Victor recorded 'Livery Stable Blues' on 26 February 1917.

Cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, a 1920s jazz icon, was a native of which Iowa city?

Bix Beiderbecke was born in Davenport, Iowa, in 1903; self-taught by ear, he used unorthodox fingerings and cut his celebrated 'Singin' the Blues' solo with Frankie Trumbauer in 1927.

Coleman Hawkins's landmark October 1939 tenor recording was of which standard?

Hawkins's 'Body and Soul', recorded on 11 October 1939 for Bluebird, runs two choruses that barely state the melody; he had used the tune as an encore during his five years in Europe.

Max Roach's 1960 protest album 'We Insist!' featured vocals by which singer, later his wife?

Abbey Lincoln sang on the Freedom Now Suite, written for the centenary of the Emancipation Proclamation, with lyrics by Oscar Brown Jr.

Which bassist's 2,221 recording sessions earned a 2015 Guinness World Record as jazz's most-recorded?

Ron Carter was certified by Guinness World Records in 2015 as the most-recorded jazz bassist, with 2,221 sessions; he anchored Miles Davis's Second Great Quintet and played on A Tribe Called Quest's 'Verses from the Abstract'.

Jaco Pastorius redefined which instrument with his fretless, chordal, harmonics-rich style?

Jaco Pastorius pulled the frets from a 1962 Fender Jazz Bass, sealed the fingerboard with epoxy and called it the 'Bass of Doom'; his fretless electric bass defined Weather Report's late-1970s sound.

UNESCO's International Jazz Day is celebrated every year on which date?

UNESCO proclaimed April 30 International Jazz Day in November 2011 at the urging of pianist Herbie Hancock, a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador; the first celebration was held in 2012.

Which pianist scored 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' and the early Peanuts TV specials?

Vince Guaraldi scored A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) and the Peanuts specials that followed until his death in 1976; his 'Linus and Lucy' became the de facto Peanuts theme.

Lee Morgan's surprise 1964 crossover hit, recorded as album filler, was which tune?

'The Sidewinder', a boogaloo-beat blues Morgan reportedly dashed off in the studio as filler, climbed to No. 25 on the Billboard album chart in 1964 and had Blue Note asking other artists for similar tunes.

Who was the first jazz musician nominated for the Best Actor Oscar, for 1986's 'Round Midnight'?

Dexter Gordon played Dale Turner, an expatriate saxophonist in 1950s Paris loosely modelled on Lester Young and Bud Powell, and lost the 1987 Best Actor Oscar to Paul Newman.

Which pianist's trio had a 1965 soul-jazz crossover hit with 'The In Crowd'?

Ramsey Lewis's trio recorded 'The In Crowd' live at Washington's Bohemian Caverns in 1965; the single reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won a Grammy for best small-group jazz performance.

Which vibraphonist co-founded the Modern Jazz Quartet alongside pianist John Lewis?

The group grew out of the Milt Jackson Quartet and lasted, with one hiatus, from 1952 to the 1990s, famous for tuxedos and chamber-jazz poise.

The word 'jazz' first appeared as slang around 1912 in which part of the United States?

The earliest known uses are in West Coast baseball writing, a 1912 Los Angeles Times item on a pitcher's 'jazz ball' and 1913 San Francisco Bulletin columns, meaning pep or energy, before the word attached to the music.

Which Cuban percussionist co-wrote the 1947 Afro-Cuban jazz landmark 'Manteca'?

Pozo supplied the layered Afro-Cuban ostinatos while his trumpet-playing co-writer added the bridge. Pozo was shot dead in Harlem in 1948.

Preservation Hall, a traditional jazz venue opened in 1961, sits in which part of New Orleans?

Preservation Hall stands at 726 St Peter Street in the French Quarter; newlyweds Allan and Sandra Jaffe took over running it in 1961 after visiting on their honeymoon.

Which 1970 Miles Davis double album became his first to be certified Gold?

Recorded over three days in August 1969, it reached Gold status only in 1976.

Which early electric guitarist rose to fame in a famous swing sextet from 1939, then died in 1942?

Charlie Christian's single-string, horn-like lines pulled the electric guitar out of the rhythm section during his 1939-41 stint in Benny Goodman's sextet; he died of tuberculosis in March 1942 aged 25.

Which player did most to popularise the Hammond B-3 organ in jazz, starting in the 1950s?

Smith began exploring the instrument in 1951 and became a link between jazz and 1960s soul.

Rahsaan Roland Kirk was famous for doing what in performance?

Rahsaan Roland Kirk was famous for playing three horns at once, tenor sax, manzello and stritch, hung around his neck; blind from early childhood, he used circular breathing to hold notes for minutes.

Belgian musician Toots Thielemans was a jazz virtuoso on which unlikely instrument?

Toots Thielemans made the chromatic harmonica a jazz voice and played it on the Sesame Street theme; he also whistled and played guitar, as on his tune 'Bluesette', whistling and strumming in unison.

Artie Shaw's 1938 breakthrough hit was his recording of which Cole Porter song?

Artie Shaw's 'Begin the Beguine', cut for Bluebird in July 1938 as a B-side, made his struggling band a sensation almost overnight and became his signature tune.

Jon Batiste, whose 'We Are' won Album of the Year, led the house band for which TV host?

Jon Batiste and his band Stay Human were the house band on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert from 2015 to 2022; he also co-scored Pixar's 'Soul', and 'We Are' won Album of the Year at the 2022 Grammys.

Whose 27-chorus sax solo at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival is credited with reviving Duke Ellington's career?

Paul Gonsalves blew the marathon mid-way through 'Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue', and it is captured on the album Ellington at Newport.