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1930s - Consolidation and acceptance. The arrival in London of seminal American musicians, especially Louis Armstrong (1932) and Duke Ellington (1933), inspired the British jazz community, generating excited publicity, popular and professional interest – and occasional controversy.
- The Importance of Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club
- A Diverse Set of Influences
- Forging Their Own Sound
- The Outside World Takes Notice
- The Aftermath of The British Jazz Explosion
For Skidmore, the spark that lit the touchpaper for the British jazz explosion was when Ronnie Scott’s jazz club in London’s Gerard Street began presenting international jazz artists in the early 1960s. It allowed the saxophonist and other aspiring young jazz musicians to see and hear American players up close for the first time. “Ronnie Scott was ...
London had enjoyed a vibrant modern jazz scene before all of this. In the late 1950s, there was saxophonist/composer John Dankworth and the hard bop group, The Jazz Couriers (featuring saxophonists Ronnie Scott and Tubby Hayes). They were heavily influenced by the bebop style of American alto saxophonist Charlie Parker. A decade later, a new genera...
Despite (or perhaps because of) their wide array of influences, the young musicians involved in the British jazz explosion of the late 60s were able to forge individual musical approaches. The diversity of the tracks on Journeys In Modern Jazz: Britainis breathtaking, running the gamut from pointillistic soundscapes (The New Jazz Orchestra) to stor...
This phenomenal explosion of jazz talent didn’t go unnoticed by the record companies, many of which were flush with money from the huge sales of rock and pop records in the late 60s. Several of the UK majors had started their own boutique imprints to handle the boom in progressive music, which included contemporary jazz as well as psychedelic rock ...
But the British jazz explosion, which peaked around 1970, was short-lived: by 1973, the major labels’ fascination with jazz had waned significantly. Musical tastes were changing and the boom period of the swinging 60s which had filled the record companies’ coffers to bursting point was followed by a marked financial downturn. “In the 1960s, there w...
- Charles Waring
Mar 17, 2021 · 1930s – Consolidation and acceptance. The arrival in London of seminal American musicians, especially Louis Armstrong (1932) and Duke Ellington (1933), inspired the British jazz community, generating excited publicity, popular and professional interest – and occasional controversy.
However, young British musicians began to develop new approaches to modern jazz, often now influenced by rock music and eventually also rebelling against Scott’s, Hayes’ and Dankworth’s reliance on American musical models. These approaches came to be called ‘contemporary jazz’.
Explore the complete timeline of Jazz, showcasing key events, facts, and milestones that shaped its journey. Dive into history and uncover everything in one simple, engaging view.
The exhibition brings together painting, prints, cartoons, textiles and ceramics, moving film, instruments and the all-important jazz sound, to explicitly examine the influence of jazz on British art, design and wider society.
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Download the full British Jazz Timeline written by Roger Cotterrell and Digby Fairweather. Explore our online collections from across the timeline
