Fifty, forty, thirty, twenty and ten years ago in music...

Selected by piero scaruffi | Discographical research by Rocco Stilo | Back to Music
History of Rock and Dance Music | History of Jazz Music | History of Avantgarde Music | 20th Century


JANUARY
  • January 1964: Jazz pianist Andrew Hill records "Judgement" with vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, bassist Richard Davis and drummer Elvin Jones that "merged hard bop with modal jazz and free jazz" (Read from my book: http://www.scaruffi.com/jazz/hill.html and listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKeWRHpMdg0 )
  • January 1974: Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece release the first album by the first electronic ensemble of rock music (Borden says Jan 1974 is the real release date, Wikipedia as usual is wrong) (Read from my book: http://www.scaruffi.com/avant/borden.html and listen to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMuSj1OxKg0 )
  • January 1984: The Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic record "Magnetic Flip" of progressive rock with a "triple-keyboard barbaric (almost hardcore) attack" (Read from my book: http://www.scaruffi.com/vol4/birdsong.html and listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqUj8mC1LwE )
  • January 1994: Unsane release "Total Destruction", a "work drenched in superhuman angst, another bleak, claustrophobic, painful vision of subhuman life" (Read from my book: http://www.scaruffi.com/vol5/unsane.html and listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDulzkRMO4A )
  • January 2004: Japanese band Ghost release "Hypnotic Underworld", "the crowning formal achievement of a group of visionary jazz-rock musicians" (Read from my book: http://www.scaruffi.com/vol6/ghost.html and listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYJ76O6e6Qo )

FEBRUARY
  • February 1964:
    • Jazz clarinetist Tony Scott records "Music For Zen Meditation", a collaboration with koto player Shinichi Yuize and shakuhachi flute player Hozan Yamamoto that launched the vogue of "West meets East" music (Read my from book http://www.scaruffi.com/jazz/scott.html and listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp1J8aYzMno )
    • Eric Dolphy records "Out to Lunch" with vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, bassist Richard Davis and drummer Tony Williams. a "masterpiece of dissonant free-jazz that sounded remarkably organic and structured" (Read my from book http://www.scaruffi.com/jazz/dolphy.html and listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2MfbhWYGM8 )
    • Albert Ayler records "Spirits/ Witches and Devils", a masterpiece of free jazz that "sounded like it was coming from a distant past, from a remembered childhood, as it incorporated simple, naive, catchy melodies... the performance was ferocious, though, as if Ayler wanted to contrast innocence and experience, or European order and African disorder" (Read my from book http://www.scaruffi.com/jazz/ayler.html and listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-82MFprE6o )
    • Milton Babbitt premieres "Philomel" (listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SMR5WIgSUg )
  • February 1974:
    • Tangerine Dream released "Phaedra", that injected a pulsing sequencer beat to a trio of electronic keyboards (Read from my book http://www.scaruffi.com/vol3/tangerin.html and listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ndOHPxYGQM )
  • February 1984: The Swans record "Cop", whose music "was born at the intersection of a Kafka tale, a Freud treatise, a black hole, a medieval exorcism, the first wails of a robot and the last spasms of a serial killer on the electric chair" (Read from my book http://www.scaruffi.com/vol4/swans.html and listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1JOf3QHvf4 )
  • February 1994: Keith Tippett's Mujician record "Poem About The Hero", a 71-minute symphonic work for jazz orchestra (Read from my book http://www.scaruffi.com/vol3/tippett.html and listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxjNQG5xa-w )
  • February 2004:
    • Kanye West releases "The College Dropout", one of the most personal concept albums of the era (Read from my book http://www.scaruffi.com/vol7/west.html and listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTjugAgCR6M )
    • Thomas Ades premieres "The Tempest" (Read Alex Ross' analysis http://www.therestisnoise.com/2004/04/thomas_ads_temp.html and listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnMbYHm-WkU )

MARCH
  • March 1964:
    • Benjamin Britten premieres his "Cello Symphony" (check out the list of best symphonies at http://www.scaruffi.com/music/symphony.html and listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3VhIvqSA_U )
    • The Beach Boys release "Fun Fun Fun" that "fuses Chuck Berry's ringing guitar riff and doo-wop's vocal harmonies " (Read my from book http://www.scaruffi.com/vol1/beachboy.html and listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDHErN3dOkc )
  • March 1974:
    • Todd Rundgren releases "Todd", that "completed the assimilation of electronics and of hard-rock, while setting his chamaleon-like musical persona on the stage of an imaginary music-hall" (Read from my book http://www.scaruffi.com/vol3/rundgren.html and listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J17v-1rDl1M )
    • Dollar Brand records the 23-minute "Kalahari" with "three wild horns undermining Brand's bluesy piano" (Read from my book http://www.scaruffi.com/jazz/brand.html and listen to http://www.divshare.com/download/6773474-036 )
    • Sam Rivers employs a 64-piece orchestra for "Crystals" (Read from my book http://www.scaruffi.com/jazz/rivers.html and listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK6wBT2Fi4Y )
    • Eric Dolphy records the 15-minute "Jim Crow" (Read from my book http://www.scaruffi.com/jazz/dolphy.html and listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8RUkIY_nYY )
  • March 1984:
    • Nick Cave records "From Her To Eternity" which "created a unique style of emphatic, metaphysical storytelling... revealed Cave as a preacher of the moral apocalypse" (Read from my book http://www.scaruffi.com/vol6/nickcave.html and listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiSpXLkjIOY )
    • Julian Cope releases "World Shut Your Mouth" (Read from my book http://www.scaruffi.com/vol6/cope.html and listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeKLydy_nTM )
    • Prince records "Purple Rain"
    • Bruce Springsteen records "Born In The USA"
  • March 1994:
    • Myra Melford releases "La Mezquita Suite" (Read from my book http://www.scaruffi.com/jazz/melford.html and listen to http://www.drivehq.com/folder/p8104346/11196596245.aspx )
    • Soundgarden releases "Superunknown" (Read from my book http://www.scaruffi.com/vol5/soundgar.html and listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwdjreJKggg )
  • March 2004: Bill Alves composes ("Concerto for Violin and American Gamelan" (check out the list of best violin concertos at http://www.scaruffi.com/music/violin.html and listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q_nS2hK_Co )

APRIL
  • April 1964:
    • Charles Mingus' sextet with Eric Dolphy records the extended live jams of The Great Concert of Charles Mingus (Read from my book http://www.scaruffi.com/jazz/mingus.html and listen to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6VyvNR5gzg )
    • Wayne Shorter with Lee Morgan on trumpet, McCoy Tyner on piano, Reggie Workman on bass and Elvin Jones on drums (Jones and Tyner being both members of the Coltrane quartet) record "Night Dreamer" (Read from my book http://www.scaruffi.com/jazz/shorter.html and listen to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4LCX34P3BM )
  • April 1974:
    • The Residents release "Meet The Residents", "... a multimedia show whose antics transposed the music-hall into the new wave and whose sound emphasized a collage-style approach to composition" (Read from my book http://www.scaruffi.com/vol4/resident.html and listen to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsGRasyHEEg )
    • Joe McPhee's duets with John Snyder's synthesizer on "Pieces Of Light", thereby "finding a place for electronic music in jazz improvisation" (Read from my book http://www.scaruffi.com/jazz/mcphee.html and listen to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcX_-QP2HAc )
    • Keith Jarrett composes "Luminessence" for saxophone and string orchestra (Read from my book http://www.scaruffi.com/jazz/jarrett.html and listen to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSUhr9Yf9Y8 )
  • April 1984:
    • The Minutemen record the double album "Double Nickels On The Dime", "one of the most ambitious recordings of the decade, a veritable encyclopedia of musical styles revisited from the point of view of a spastic genius reminiscent of Captain Beefheart and the Pop Group" (Read from my book http://www.scaruffi.com/vol4/minuteme.html and listen to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXdGjdYQh4k )
    • Jane Siberry releases "No Borders Here", that mixes "romantic ballads, oneiric meditations and lugubrious psychodramas" (Read from my book http://www.scaruffi.com/vol4/siberry.html and listen to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7MB9Mvzycg )
  • April 1994:
    • Wynton Marsalis premieres the colossal oratorio "Blood on the Fields" that "draws from the entire history of black music" (Read from my book http://www.scaruffi.com/jazz/marsalis.html and listen to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OH8qpvLDt4 )
  • April 2004:
    • Tristan Murail composes "Terre d'Ombre" for large orchestra and electronics (See the list of orchestral works http://www.scaruffi.com/music/symphony.html and listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBWporBd4gM )

MAY
  • May 1964:
  • May 1974:
  • May 1984:
  • May 1994:
  • May 2004:

JUNE
  • June 1964:
  • June 1974:
  • June 1984:
  • June 1994:
  • June 2004:

JULY
  • July 1964:
  • July 1974:
  • July 1984:
  • July 1994:
  • July 2004:

AUGUST
  • August 1964:
  • August 1974:
  • August 1984:
  • August 1994:
  • August 2004:

SEPTEMBER
  • September 1964:
  • September 1974:
  • September 1984:
  • September 1994:
  • September 2004:

OCTOBER
  • October 1964:
  • October 1974:
  • October 1984:
  • October 1994:
  • October 2004:

NOVEMBER
  • November 1964:
  • November 1974:
  • November 1984:
  • November 1994:
  • November 2004:

DECEMBER
  • December 1964:
  • December 1974:
  • December 1984:
  • December 1994:
  • December 2004: