1961 in jazz

1961 in jazz
Decade	1960s in jazz
Music	1961 in music
Standards	List of post-1950 jazz standards
See also	1960 in jazz – 1962 in jazz

1961 in jazz:

Events

• Bengali Indian sitar player and composer Ravi Shankar and western jazz musicians Gary Peacock and Bud Shank collaborate on the album Improvisations. The album combines the use of sitar and jazz music and is considered an early example of fusion experiments with jazz and Indian classical music. In early 1961 John Coltrane begins listening to North Indian music and the music of Shankar becomes influential in his development as a musician.
• John Coltrane sells an estimated 30,000 copies of My Favorite Things in its first year of release
• June 25 - Bill Evans Trio records Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby during a two-week stay at The Village Vanguard in New York. The recording was made from five sets they played on June 25 and was the last time the trio would play before virtuoso bassist Scott LaFaro's death 10 days later.
• November 1 - John Coltrane begins recording his first live record Live! at the Village Vanguard.

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)
• Pisces - Art Blakey (Blue Note)
• Time Further Out - The Dave Brubeck Quartet (Columbia)
• Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation - Ornette Coleman (Atlantic)
• Coltrane Jazz - John Coltrane (Atlantic)
• My Favorite Things - John Coltrane (Atlantic)
• Live in Stockholm 1961 - John Coltrane (LeJazz)
• 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

See also: List of post-1950 jazz standards

Deaths

• Scott LaFaro, bassist
• Nick LaRocca, New Orleans cornetist, trumpeter
• Wilber Sweatman, clarinetist
• Booker Little (2 April 1938 – 5 October 1961)

Births

• Franck Amsallem, pianist
• Cris Barber, vocalist
• Ivan Božičević, pianist
• Rachelle Ferrell, vocalist
• Paul Hanmer, pianist
• Everette Harp, saxophonist
• David Kikoski, pianist
• Mornington Lockett, tenor saxophonist
• Arturo O'Farrill, 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)