In the early 1800's, the concept of "Bands" is not yet fully understood. Very small groups of (usually Amateur) musicians are employed for a specific function, and then discharged.

By the mid-1800s, Minstrel groups and other shows now use a "group" of musicians as part of the traveling troupe.

From about 1880 on, there are no "dance bands" yet, but there are the New Orleans "Dixieland Bands" - later called "Jazz" bands. The music starts in New Orleans, and moves north via the Mississippi Riverboats and the Railroad. In these early "Jazz" bands, the Violin, Cornet and Trombone form the "front line", with piano, banjo and tuba forming the "back line", now called the rhythm section.

"Popular" music is still mostly Rags and show-tunes.

1826 "Wedding March", by Felix Mendelssohn (he was age 17)

1830 Tim D. Rice appears on stage in Blackface. Introduces song called
             "Jump Jim Crow", inspired by antics of young negro boy he saw near
           the stage door, while taking a fresh air break from the show.

1840 Saxophone invented by Adolphe Sax, a Belgian national.

1843 First Minstrel Show.

1855 Leon Scott invents "Phonautograph". World's first phonograph. It is not commercially viable. (See 1880 and Edison's Wax Cylinder)

1848 Steven Foster's "Oh, Susannah" published.
           California Gold Rush starts.

1850 California admitted to the Union as the 31st state
           Levi Strauss designs "bibless overalls" (introduced in San Francisco.)
           Famed singer Jenny Lind engaged by P.T. Barnum for an American tour

1851 "Old Folks at Home", by Stephen Foster
           I.M. Singer patents his sewing machine
           New York Times begins publication

1852 "Do They Miss Me at Home?", by S. M. Grannis
           Elisha Graves Otis invents the safety elevator

1852 Wells, Fargo, & Co. founded.

1853 "My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night", by Stephen Foster

1854 "The Monastery Bells", by Louis Alfred Lefebure-Wely

1855 "Slavery is a Hard Foe to Battle", by Judson

1856 "Darling Nelly Gray", by Benjamin Russell Hanby

1858 "Ocean Telegraph March", by Francis H. Brown

1863 "When Johnny Comes Marching Home", by Louis Lambert

1864 Songwriter Stephen Foster Dies (1864)

1865 "Beautiful Dreamer", by Stephen Foster
           Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll published.

1866 Fisk Jubilee Singers from group.
           KKK founded in Pulaski, TN. (to America's Shame!)

1867 "The Blue Danube", by Johann Strauss

1868 "QWERTY" keyboard typewriter patented (1868)

1870 DNA discovered
           First all-metal bicycle patented

1871 "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane", by William Shakespeare Hays
     Oleomargarine (butter substitute) invented in Germany
     The great Chicago Fire destroys 3.5 square miles of city.
     Jesse James robs his first passenger train.

1873 "Silver Threads Among the Gold", by H.P. Danks

1876 Custer's Last Stand at the Little Big Horn.
     Player Piano invented.
     Alexander Graham Bell invents the Telephone.

1877 Thomas Edison invents his Phonograph.
           Chief Joseph and 750 Nez Perce tribespeople surrender in the Montana Territory.

1878 "Break the News Gently to Mother", by C. Nole
     Lightbulb by Thomas Edison

1880 Edison introduces the Wax Cylinder for Sound recording. Soon the first Five Cent "Jukebox" appears.

1880 "Cradle's Empty, Baby's Gone", by Harry Kennedy
     France annexes island of Tahiti.

1881 Famous gunfight at the OK Corral.
     President Garfield assasinated.
     Billy the Kid killed in New Mexico Territory

1883 Robert Louis Stevenson's book, -Treasure Island
     Life' magazine begins publication

1884 "Louisville Slugger" Baseball bat introduced.

1885 General Grant's Funeral March, by Geo. Maywood
     Kodak Box Camera introduced by George Eastman.
     Karl-Friedrich Benz builds First gasoline-powered auto (Germany)

1886 Coca Cola Company formed.
     Geronimo captured
     Statue of Liberty dedicated Oct. 28, 1886
     [ Buddy Bolden Band ], Playing in New Orleans
     Streets and amusement parks. Bolden's is the Legendary Original Jazz Orch.

1887 Emile Berliner (Inventor of the Microphone) patents a gramophone
     that plays discs, not cylinders. Also patents a Matrix system for
     making unlimited copies of the disc from a "master".

1888 [ The Jack "Papa" Laine Band. ], a Jazz Orch.
     Parker Pen Company formed.
     First Classical Music is recorded. Because the quality is so appallingly bad,
     many Classical musicians are loathe to record fearing their reputation will
     be hurt..

     "Gang" recording is the commercial reproduction technique, - a group of
     individual machines are "ganged" together making multiple copies. Average
     outputis 200 copies per day.

     &mil Berliner produces his "Master Disc", -125mm (5 inch) rubber disc,
     recorded one side only, with the song lyric printed on the reverse side.
     Later, the rubber is replaced with Shellac made from crushed Malayasian
     Beetles.

     Berliner's representatives form EMI in London, England. Company produces
     HMV discs, and use the " Nipper " Trademark. (small dog listening to
     large horn speaker)

1889 "Oh, Promise Me!", by Reginald De Koven
     The Eiffel Tower completed (Paris, France)
     The Wall Street Journal begins publication (In 2002, it has the largest
     circulation of any American newspaper)

1890 Dry cell battery ("Ever Ready" by the National Carbon Company)
     World's first 'Skyscraper' -erected in St. Louis, MO. 'The Wainright
     Building' by Louis Henry Sullivan.

Edison is recording Regimental Bands playing songs such as "The Old Oaken Bucket". Edison is now recording all types of music including Novelties, Comic, Sentimental, Military, Hymns and other religious themes.

1891 American Express Travelers Cheque
           Kinetoscope (early motion picture projector) by Thomas Edison

1892 "After the Ball", by Charles K. Harris
     General Electric Company formed.
     Shell Oil Company formed.
     "Book" Matches invented.
     The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by A. Conan Doyle published

1893 "Won't You Be My Sweetheart?", by H. C. Verner

1894 "Thy Beaming Eyes", by Edward MacDowell

1894 "Forgotten", by Eugene Cowles
        Hershey Chocolate Bar

1895 "King Cotton March", by John Philip Sousa
        Sigmund Freud founds Psychoanalysis

1896 "A Hot Time in the Old Town", by Theodore M. Metz. But he only put it down on paper. He heard it in Babe Connors' St. Louis Brothel. (He was probably only there for, er, er, ahem, cough, gag, ...artistic purposes.) The true composer remains unknown.

1897 [ Picou's Independence Band ]
        "Jell-O" invented

1898 "Stars and Stripes Forever", by John Philip Sousa
        Spanish-American War
           Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company formed.
1899 Original Rags, by Scott Joplin
1899 "Hello! Ma Baby", by Joseph E. Howard
1899 "Smoky Mokes"; "Cake Walk" and "Two-step", by Abe Holzmann
           Joplin's "The Maple Leaf Rag" published.

1900 The "Cakewalk" is a popular dance.

1901 "Mighty Lak' a Rose", composed by Ethelbert Nevin
           Instant Coffee developed.

Composer Verdi dies; Puccini is still active. HMV introduces "Red Label" recordings and record a young, unkown tenor from Naples, -Caruso.
     It was Caruso who helped to make gramophone recordings a popular
     world-wide phenomenon. Caruso had been earning a few Lira each night
     singing to Cafe patrons. He died in 1921, -unimaginably wealthy. HMV
     paid him a total of US$ 100 to record ten sides, and forbid him to
     record for any other firm. It was in 1902 that they recorded him in
     his Grand Hotel room in Naples. After this, his fame spread
     across Europe and America. Based solely on the records, he was
     booked into New York's Metropolitan Opera house. He sang at La Scala
     when he was just age 27. His recording of "Vesti La Giubba" was the
     world's first "Million Seller" recording. Before Caruso, the world
     of Classical Music was quite narrow, He opened Classical Music to
     all. It is said that the Gramophone "made" Caruso, and Caruso "made"
     the Gramophone.

1902 Opera's last living "Castrato", Alexandro Moreski, passed away.

1902 "Mr. Dooley", composed by Jean Schwartz
      "In the Good Old Summertime", by George Evans
      The Dinwiddie Colored Quartet records for Victor Talking Machine Co.
      Pepsi Cola Company
      Teddy Bear invented.

1903 Ford Motor Company formed
      Wright brothers' airplane flies at Kitty Hawk, N.C.
      Jack London's book, The Call of the Wild published.

1905 "What You Goin' To Do When the Rent Comes 'Round", by Harry Von Tilzer
      "In My Merry Oldsmobile", by vaudevillian Gus Edwards
      "Shade of the Old Apple Tree", by Egbert Van Alstyne
      First Movie Theater erected in Pittsburgh, PA.
      Einstein develops Theory of Relativity.

1906 Bert Williams, great black vaudevillian, sings and records "Nobody".
      First Radio Broadcast.
      San Francisco earthquake (and the end of "The Barbary Coast".

1907 "A New Rag, Dill Pickles", by Chas. L. Johnson
      [ Freddie Keppard Orch ]
      [ Freddie Keppard Orch - Ref:2]

1909 "My Pony Boy", by Charley O'Donnell

1910 [ Oscar Celestin Orch ]
      [ Oscar Celestin Orch ], At the tuxedo Dance Hall, NO, LA., Dixieland Jazz orch.

1911 Nat D.Ayer and Seymour Brown's "Oh You Beautiful Doll" published with conscious use of
      the 12 bar blues form is used in the opening verse.
      "Alexander's Ragtime Band", by Irving Berlin
      [ The Charlie Elgar (violin) Band ], playing at the Fountain Inn, Chicago. Dixieland type orch.
      [ Charlie Straight (piano) Band ], Dixieland type Jazz orch., at the Rainbow Gardens, Chicago.
      Chevrolet Motor Company
      Cellophane invented.

1912 "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee", by Lewis F. Muir
      1. W.C.Handy's "Memphis Blues" published.
      2. James R. Europe leads his Club Clef Symphony Orchestra at New
      York's Carnegie Hall.
      Murray Pilcer's American Sherbo Sextette, visits London, and plays in The Savoy Hotel;
      The Oxford Theatre and the Trocadero Restaurant. It's a Dixieland type Jazz orch.
      [ Earl Dabney Band, at Ziefeld's Roof, NYC.
      Basically a Dixieland type Jazz orch.
      [ Will Marion Cook and the Southern Syncopated Orchestra ], Visits London
      -and later will be known as 'Sidney Bechet and the Southern Syncopated
      Orch., a "Dixieland Jazz" Orch.
      [ Wilbur C. Sweatman Orchestra. ], Dixieland type Orch. 1912
      [ Erskine Tate Band ], in the Vendome Theatre, Chicago. An early Dixieland Jazz type orch.
      Universal Pictures Corporation formed.
      (Unsinkable) Titanic sinks when hits iceberg.

1913 "Peg o' My Heart", by Fred Fisher
      "He'd Have to Get Under - Get Out and Get Under (to Fix Up His Automobile)"
      , by Maurice Abrahams
      [ Art Hickman Orchestra. ], Long time resident of St Francis Hotel, San Francisco. An early
      Dixieland Jazz. But, Hickman's band is destined to lead the way into a more modern music.
      They will depart from the usual chorus after chorus into special band arrangements.

1914 [ Original Dixieland Jazz Band. ], REF 1,
      [ Original Dixieland Jazz Band ], Ref.2, (Nick La Rocca, leader.)
      Played Chicago 2 years later as Brown's Band and played in Reisenweber's
      Restaurant, New York City in 1917. First called "The Original Dixieland
      Jass Band" [ Durante's Jazz & Novelty Orch ], Yes it's "Jimmy, that
      well-dressed musician."
      "Keep the Home Fires Burning", song by Ivor Novello
      "When You Wore a Tulip and I Wore a Red Red Rose", was big hit song.
      World War I (1914-1918 America enters 1917)
      Women's Brassieres (Discovered???)
      American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) founded.

1915 Hush-a-bye, Ma Baby; Missouri Waltz, by John Valentine Eppel
      Scott Joplin's "Treemonisha" staged in New York City.
      Pyrex Glass invented.

1916 Black Vaudevillian Bert Williams joins Florenz Ziefeld's Follies.

1917 Orig. Dixieland Jazz Band, first Jazz band to record. Their recording of
      Jazz "Livery Stable Blues" sells a million copies (in 1917!!) and turns
      Jazz into popular music. (a Black bandleader, Freddie Keppard, had
      rejected an offer to record because he though others would copy his style.)
      "I Don't Know Where I'm Going, But I'm On My Way", by George Fairman
      U.S. declares war on Germany, enters WW1

1918 [ Paul Whiteman Orch ]
      "K-k-k Katy", by Geoffrey O'Hara
      [ Coon-Sanders Nighthawks ], remote broadcasts from Blackhawk Restaurant (Chicago).
      [ Kid Ory's Orig. Creole Jazz Band ]
      Influenza epidemic kills 21.64 million people in Europe, America, and the Orient.

1919 "Dreams, Just Dreams", by Richard Howard
       Radio Corporation of America (RCA) formed.

1920 "Mr. Harding We're All For You", by John L. McManus
       Prohibition begins with the 18th Amendment.
       19th Amendment allows women to vote.
       First (commercial) radio station - KDKA in Pittsburgh.
       National Football League organized.

The era of the "Roaring Twenties" is about to enter. "Pops" Whiteman will shortly form his first popular orchestra. The music is slowly becoming arranged and the old 'head' arrangements begin to fade. The music is now much more for dancing. The Dance Band era is nearing.

Women will hike their skirts, bob their hair, and roll down their stockings. The "Charleston" and the "Black Bottom" will become a world wide 'rage'. In the USA, the Prohibition Act will give rise to "Bath-tub" gin and to the "Speakeasy".

Prohibition also spelled the death of the "Great" restaurants. Prior to prohibition, a man would make reservations long in advance. Early on the selected evening (6 or 7 PM), he would show up with his wife, mistress, family, business partners, -whatever. Checking their heavy coats, parasols, and any other personal gear, they would be shown to their table. The family members would then spend the night visiting with other friends at other tables, listening to concerts by the resident band, perhaps dancing, and so forth. Late that evening -say 11 or 12PM, they would bid their friends and the owner farewell, have their carriage (or cab) called, and leave. They would have spent perhaps 5 or 6 hours at the restaurant. Prohibition Gangsters killed that world. All they wanted to do was to sell their bootleg "hooch". Restaurant guests were "urged" to drink up and get out, so that others could have a table. Great restaurants and their special ambience were gone.

ca1920

1920 1. First 'Race' Records appear. Mamie Smith on "Crazy Blues".
       2. Women get the vote.
       3. Westinghouse Corporation builds first Radio Station. (WLW)

1920 Paul Specht generally accepted as being the first band on radio.
      [ Sidney Bechet's Southern Syncopated Orchestra. ]. It's really "Will Marion Cook's
      Southern Syncopated Orchestra", touring Europe -again in 1921-
      under sponsorship of Ernst Ansermet.

1921 New Orlean's Rhythm Kings at Friar's Inn.

1921 Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake on Broadway with Shuffle Along show. The first show produced by Blacks with an all Black cast that included Josephine Baker and Florence Mills.

1921 Harry Pace forms Black Swan Records Corp. in Harlem. Best sellers
      included records by Bessie Smith and Mamie Smith. (No relation)

1922 [ Benny Moten's Kansas City Orchestra ]
      in '20's and '30's Earl Kenneth 'Fatha' Hines was the resident
      orch. at Chicago's Grand Terrace Cafe. Active into the 1940's

1922 King Oliver's band in residence at Chicago's Lincoln Gardens Dancehall.
       (Louis Armstrong comes north to join the band.)

1923 -- Perhaps the single biggest musical event of 1923 was the introduction of a song, -the "Charleston". That one song ushered in the wonderful "Roaring Twenties", the 'Jazzage", and the "Flapper"

1923 1. Bessie Smith records "Down Hearted Blues", and "Gulf Coast Blues".
      2. Ma Rainey records "Bo Weevil Blues".
      3. James P. Johnson's "Running Wild" starts Charleston dance craze.
      4. Fiddlin' John Carson records first hillbilly record: "Little Old
      Cabin in the Lane". (Okeh Records)

1923 King Oliver's Creole Jazz band cuts 37 recordings (with L. Armstrong)
1923 Duke Ellington arrives in New York city (from Washington, D.C.)

1923 [ King Oliver's Original Jazz Band ]
         [ King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band ], Ref 2

1923 [ Fletcher Henderson Band ] into Club Alabam, in NYC. 1924
         [ The Wolverine Orchestra ]

1924 George Gershwin's "Rhapsody In Blue" published.

1924 Louis Armstrong arrives in New York. Joins Fletcher Henderson band then
         playing at the Roseland Ballroom.

1924 [ Ben Bernie Orch. ] started orch at NYC Hotel Roosevelt.

1924 [ Gene Rodemich & his Brunswick Orchestra ], (A great St. Louis Orch)

1925 The dawn of Electrical Recordings with the invention of the Microphone. Acoustic recording begin to disappear.
      It is also the "birth of Crooners".... previously
      entertainers had to be able to "belt" out a song so that
      the customer in the very last row could hear.
      A new breed of entertainer could now softly "croon" into
      the microphone. It was the aural equivalent of a movie close-up.
      In the world of Classical Music, now a full orchestra could be
      recorded. The availability of recorded Classical music
      increased audience sizes, and for the first time, classical music
      lover could pick and choose what they wanted to hear.
      Louis Armstrong starts recording with his "Hot Five" and Hot Seven" Groups.

1925 "Duke" Ellington is playing. Calls band "The Washingtonians"
1925 'Small's Paradise' nightclub opens in Harlem.
1925 [ David H. Silverman Orchestra ], St. Louis 1925        [ Roger Wolfe Kahn Orchestra ]
1925 [ Buddy Rogers Calif. Cavaliers Orch ], at
       Hotel Pennsylvania Roof 1925
1925 [ Duke Ellington and the Washingtonians. ]
1925 Cliff "Ukelele Ike" Edwards and his Hot Combo. Basically a
       Red Nichols group. Miff Mole in there too, of course.
       
1925 [ Gene Rodemich Orch ], St. Louis
1925 [ Laurence Welk Ork ] started. WNAX, SD.

1926 NBC Coast-to-Coast network established.
Home radio receivers are becoming ubiquitous. Every home has one. Dance Bands broadcasting from Hotels, Dance Halls and radio studios, become the main commodity of radio stations. But the `Big Bands' have not arrived as yet.

But, starting now, the Leaders, who in the future will become household names, are starting their careers and orchestras.
           [ Hal Kemp Orch ]
           [ Kay Kyser Orch ]
1926 [ Ben Pollack Orch ]
1926 [ Red Nichols and his Five Pennies ]
1926 [ Conley - Silverman Orch ], St. Louis
1926 [ King Oliver and his Dixie Syncopaters ], working in Chicago.
1926 [ Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers ]
1926 [ Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers -Ref:2 ]
1926 [ Fletcher Henderson Orch. ]
           [ Ted Weems Orch ]

1926 1. Jelly Roll Morton records "Black Bottom Stomp"
           2. Duke Ellington records "East St. Louis Toodle-Ooo".

1926 The Savoy Ballroom opens in Harlem with Fletcher Henderson Orch.

1927 Duke Ellington band opens at the Cotton Club.

1927 1. Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein, II's 'Showboat' on Broadway. A musical milestone.
           2. The great Mississippi River flood.
           3. The world's first 'talkie' motion picture stars Al Jolson, seen in blackface.
           4. Charles A. Lindbergh flys solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

1927 [ Duke Ellington Orch ] was heard direct from the Cotton Club in New York City.
           [ Wayne King Orch ], (sax) from the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago

1927 [ Red Nichols & his Five Pennies. ]

1928 [ Allister Wylie Orch. ] St. Louis

1928 [ Rudy Vallee Orch. ]. Plays sax with Savoy Orpheans in London, then New York's Heigh-Ho Club
           [ Will Osborne Orch ]. Succeeds Rudy at the Heigh-Ho Club

1928 Leroy Carr publishes "How Long, How Long Blues".

1929 PANIC. On October 24, The New York Stock Market crashes. World Depression. The country's mood changes. We want music with emotion, with sentiment. We want Dance Music. Now the "Sweet" music bands enter the scene. Wayne King, Guy Lombardo, Eddy Duchin, etc.

1929 [ New Mayfair Dance Orch ]
           Ray Noble is musical director and leader for HMV Records (RCA)
           (New Mayfair Orch is owned by HMV - Noble is front man)
1929 Crooner Rudy Vallee stars in radio's Fleischman's Show. This led him to B'way
1929 [ McKinney's Cotton Pickers ]
192 [ Lofner-Harris Orchestra. ]. Phil Harris was the drummer/co-leader,

The era of the "1930's" begins. From here on, Dixieland/Jazz, starts to phase out and the era of the Dance Band is now starting.

1930's Bert Lown Orch.
           3 Chicago Orchs
           [ Dick Jurgens Orchestra ]
           [ Henry Busse Orchestra ]
           [ Clyde "Sugar" McCoy Orch ]

1931-5 [ Isham Jones Orch. ], Gordon Jenkins, Joe Bishop and Victor Young arrangers.
1931 [ Cab Calloway Orchestra ] - Cab Calloway goes into Cotton Club (after 'The Duke' leaves)

In 1931, Cornetist Bix Beiderbecke dies. Cornetist Buddy Bolden dies, and pianist Lil Hardin and husband Louis Armstrong separate. Lil then formed her own "All Girl" band.
1932 [ Little Jack Little Orch ]

1933
      1. John and Alan Lomax record Leadbelly who is serving time
      in the Louisiana State Penitentiary for murder.
      2. Prohibition repealed.
      3. F.D.Roosevelt starts "New Deal."

1933 [ Charlie Barnet Orch ]
1933 [ Benny Carter Orch ], Benny's own, not borrowed.
1934 Fletcher Henderson disbands (financial problems). Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday appears in film Symphony in Black. Jimmy and Tommy form The Dorsey Brothers Orchestra. The Quintet of the Hot Club of France give their first public performance at L'Ecole Normale de Musique, in Paris, France.
1934 [ Jimmy Lunceford Orch ], into the Cotton Club.
1934 [ Chick Webb Orch ], died 1939, age 30. Vocalist Ella Fitzgerald keeps the band going with
      Teddy McRae and Eddie Barefield as Musical Directors until 1941-2.
      [ Claude Hopkins Orch ] , A fine, swinging orch. now little remembered.
      [ Edgar Hayes Orch ]

1934 [ Dorsey Bros Orch ]
      Formed band w/Glenn Miller t'bone/arranger, and Ray McKinley
      on drums. Vocals by Bob Crosy and Kay Weber.

1934 [ Teddy Hill Orch ]
1934 [ Quintet of the Hot Club of France ]
1934 [ Bob Crosby Orch ], Re-formed from Ben Pollack's breakup.
1934 [ Ray Noble Orch - American Orch.]
1934 [ Ray Noble's New Mayfair Orch - British Orch.]
      Rainbow Room, 65 floor of RCA Bldg. NYC. for 1st time.

1934 [ Benny Goodman Orch ], Emerged as the King of Swing. 1935. Well Deserved Title.
      [ Glenn Miller Orch ]

"In the mid-30's, "Jazz" is still rooted in Dixieland and the Blues, with 'Boogie Woogie' as an offshoot."

The Swing Era is fast approaching. In the wings are such leaders as the great Benny Goodman, The Dorseys, and a great host of others. Swing is about to become the World's music. (Thanks to Fletcher Henderson and Benny Goodman.) Pianist/bandleader Benny Moten died and his pianist, Count Basie formed his own "Barons of Rhythm" with many of Moten's sidemen. George Gershwin's 3 act opera 'Porgy and Bess' opened at New York's Alvin Theater.

>>>>>>>> THEN,
In 1935, Goodman's band ended a cross-country tour in LA. The tour was very disappointing, but when the band opened in Los Angeles, the youngsters went wild. They absolutely loved the music. It is the "official" start of the SWING MUSIC era.

1935 George Gershwin's opera 'Porgy and Bess' staged in New York City.

1935 A Major riot occurs in New York's Harlem area. (Sparked by discriminatory hiring policies of retail stores in the area.) It's the end of the "Harlem Renaissance".

1935 [ Bob Crosby Orch ], starts orch. with big band Dixieland sound.
1935 Dorsey Bros (see 1934 for link) splits into
      [ Jimmy Dorsey Orch ], Keeps the original Dorsey Bros. orch.
      [ Tommy Dorsey Orch ], Buys the Joe Haymes orch., renamed Tommy Dorsey Orch.
1935 Ray Noble (Glenn Miller) Band makes it mark
1935 [ Matty Malneck Orchestra ]

1935 [ Mitchell Ayres & his Fashions in Music ]
1936 Benny Goodman integrates his orchestra. Hires two Black musicians,- Teddy Wilson is band's
      pianist, and Lionel Hampton is vibraphonist.
1936-'38 [ Hudson-De Lange Orch ]
1936 "Stuff" Smith - Jonah Jones Orch at Onyx Club, 52nd Streeet in New York City
      Wingy Manone band at Famous Door (NYC)
1936 [ Woody Herman Band ], formed.
1936 [ Dick Stabile Orch. ]
1936 [ Richard Himber Orch. ]
      [ Del Courtney Orch ]
      [ Hal Kemp Orch ]
1936 Erskine Hawkins & his 'Bama State Collegians, arrive in NYC
1936 [ Woody Herman Orch. ]
      It's the Isham Jones orch. re-formed as a co-operative
1936-42 [ Red Norvo Orch. ], Mr and Mrs Swing. Wife, Mildred Bailey, voc.
      [ Gus Arnheim & his Cocoanut Grove Orch ]
      [ Russ Columbo Orch. ]
       short-lived Smith Ballew Orch. formed
       3 singing leaders follow ----
      [ Dick Robertson Orch ]
      [ Ozzie Nelson Orchestra ]
      [ Orrin Tucker Orch. ], A singing leader with Wee Bonnie Baker, girl vocalist.
      Other leaders start their bands:
      [ Tommy Tucker Orch ]
      [ Eddie Duchin Orch ]
      [ Dick Stabile ]

1937 Bessie Smith dies as result of auto accident on Mississippi highway 61.

1937 [ Artie Shaw & his New Music Orchestra ]
1937 [ Glenn Miller Orch ], Unsuccessful, recorded for Brunswick

1938 Cornetist Joe "King" Oliver dies, -living in poverty and working as a pool-hall janitor.

1938 1. First Benny Goodman Orch. Jazz concert at Carnegie Hall, NYC.
      2. First 'Spirituals to Swing' Concert at Carnegie Hall. Big Bill Broonzy on hand.
1938 [ Glenn Miller Orch ], New. very successful
1938 [ Gene Krupa Orch ]
1938 [ Harry James Orch ], Harry leaves BG. His Boy singer is Frank Sinatra.

1939 Chick Webb dies and his vocalist Ella Fitzgerald becomes the leader. Singer Ma Rainey dies. Bandleader Artie Shaw retires. Glenn Miller forms successful orchestra.
1939 Jack Teagarden Orch (Trombone) A wonderful Warm tone.
1939 Charley Christian (guitar) joins the Benny Goodman Orch.
      Charlie Parker (playing at a Harlem jam session) begins experimenting
      with a style which will be called first ReBop, then BeBop, and finally
      just Bop. This failed experiment was one (there were many other) reason
   nbsp;  for the demise of good, solid Jazz and Swing music and songs.

A small break in the chronolgy here. Kansas City deserves a few lines.

A not too surprising source of Big Bands was: KANSAS CITY. Many of the early 'Dixielanders' had taken the trains north, to Chicago, and many of them stopped off in Kansas City. In addition, some of the Black Leaders from Texas also worked in Kansas City (the early Jazz band history of Texas is largely neglected). Probably the best known of the Kansas City groups is the Benny Moten Orchestra. After Benny's death, Count Basie continues the band into the modern age.

Now, these KC bands start to forsake the older New Orleans Dixieland style of playing. Skilled arrangers are scoring orchestrations. The orchestras are now referred to as "Hot" bands.

1923 [ Alplhonso Trent Orchestra ]
      [ Benny Moten Orchestra ]
      [ Andy Kirk & his Twelve Clouds of Joy ]
      [ Walter Page's Blue Devils Orchestra
1934 [ Harlan Leonard Orch ]
1936 [ Jay McShann Orchestra ]
(End of Kansas City Listings

1940 "Cootie" Williams leaves the Duke Ellington band and is replaced by Trumpeter/Violinist Ray Nance. ASCAP issues a recordings ban, which gives rise to competing BMI.
1940 [ Teddy Wilson Orch.], Left BG, 11 pc band featured Ben Webster on sax.
1940's Lionel Hampton Orch formed.
1940 Jay McShann Big Band. (one of the Kansas City crowd.)
1940 Count Basie opens at the Famous Door on 52nd St.
1940 Coleman Hawkins Orch. Tenor sax, 15 pc orch, cut some records
1940 Will Bradley-ray McKinley Orchestra. Freddie Slack on Piano.

Jelly "Roll Morton" dies.
1941 1. Japan attackes Pearl Harbor. America enters WW2.
      2. World's first Jet Aircraft designed.
      3. Alan Lomax records McKinley Morganfield (aka 'Muddy Waters').

1941 Freddie Slack Orch. (Ella Mae Morse and the Cow Cow Boogie)
1941 Stan Kenton Orch formed for Balboa Ballroom, CA 5/30

1942 1. Lionel Hampton records "Flying Home".
      2. The AFM (Amer. Fed. of Musicians) initiates a ban on all recordings due to dispute over royalties.
      Strike lasts until 1944. It was one of the key factors in ending the big band era.
      3. Duke Ellington's first Concert at New York's Carnegie Hall. He debuts his
      "Black, Tan and Beige", - a musical history of Blacks in America.

1944 A mechanical cotton picker is invented. Now only 5% of the Cotton crop will be picked by hand.

1945 [ Bunny Berigan Orch], A Short-lived flirtation.

1946 The American Musician's Union disastrous strike, and the WW2 years have taken their toll. The great "Swing Era" starts to die. In December 1946, 13-14 years after Benny Goodman invented swing, the bubble breaks. In December, 8 bands 'give up the ghost': Benny Goodman; Jack Teagarden; Ina Ray Hutton; Tommy Dorsey; Woody Herman; Harry James and Benny Carter, all call it quits.

RCA introduces 45RPM (3 minute) records. Very shortly afterward, Columbia introduces 33-1/3 (25 minute recordings) called "LP" (Long Play) and "Albums" because they can hold many 3 minute tunes.

1949 Leadbelly has concert in France.

The Recording industry is in "overdrive". Recordings make opera diva Maria Callas a 'superstar'. Much of her work in in studios.

1951 Musicians Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan, and Miles Davis form the "Cool School" of music (on the West Coast - in California- aka: "West Coast Jazz".

1951 Famed Black clarinetist Sidney Bechet relocates to Paris, other Blacks will follow, including Kenny Clarke, Arthur Taylor and Bud Powell.

1952 Claude Rains, the actor, appears in famous film 'The Invisible Man'.

Some echos of the big bands:
      1952 Sauter-Finegan Orch formed.
      1952 Gerry Mulligan Quartet formed

1954 George Wein, a pianist and singer invites musicians to Newport, R.I. It becomes the first of many 'Newport Jazz Festivals'.

1956 Famed vocalist Ella Fitzgerald records first of several "Songbook" recordings for the Verve Label, promoter Norman Granz's new label.

1959 "Bop" still popular. Some records this year include Miles Davis's "Kind of Blue", Ornette Coleman's "Shape of Jazz to Come", and John Coltrane's "Giant Steps".

1964 Time magazine christens Thelonious Monk the high priest of be-bop.

1969 "Bop" starts dying. Miles Davis's jazz-rock fusion recording of "Bitches Brew" sells 500,000 copies. (Hard-core Miles followers groan.)

1972-1977 Bop is dying a fast death (and the world says "Amen".) Jazz is now heard in New York city loft apartments. Musicians such as Joe Lovano and David Murray begin experiments with a post-bop style of music.

1979 On Jan. 5, Charles Mingus dies in Cuernavaca, Mexico, age 56.

1984 Wynton Marsalis, age 22, wins a Jazz Grammy for his "neo-bop" record "Think of One", and on the same night, he wins a Classical Grammy for his recording of trumpet concertos.

1991 Marsalis is appointed artistic director of Jazz at New York's Lincoln Center For The Performing Arts program. Many who hear his remarks claim that Marsalis is anti-modernist and anti-white.

1992 Another musical fusion - a new degree of jazz cool. In Britain, the "acid jazz" group 'Us3' begin by blending Electronic Sound samples with Hip-Hop. In Brooklyn (New York City), the hip-hop 'Digable Planets' recording of "Rebirth of Slick (Cool like Dat)," is also built around the electronically "sampled" horn lines of James Williams's "Stretchin.'"

1993 Joshua Redman, the Harvard summa cum laude saxophonist, chooses Jazz over Yale Law school. The critics praise his first two records, and the fans love Redman and his music.

June 1995 The Impulse record label is revived after a 21-year dormancy, - the seventh major Jazz label launched or re-launched in previous 10 years.