• 1980s onwards •
A return to mainstream jazz while others explore more experimental sounds, fusing traditional jazz idioms with contemporary popular styles. Smooth jazz, popularised by the likes of Kenny G, wins mass appeal.
• 1982 •
The release of Pat Metheny’s Offramp, including the trademark Are you going with me?
• 1983 •
Herbie Hancock releases RockIt, leading to jazz infiltrating mainstream music.
• 1984 •
Wynton Marsalis wins a Grammy for jazz and classical albums in the same year.
• 1984 •
The reinvention of the big band. Loose Tubes introduces jazz to a new generation in the UK.
• 1986 •
The reinvention of jazz dance. Gilles Peterson, in part, helps to create what becomes known as “acid-jazz” – plundering and recontextualising the jazz archive along with a driving beat.
• 1987 •
Wynton Marsalis founds the Lincoln Center Jazz Programme.
• 1994 •
Officium, a fusion of 14th and 15th century early vocal music and Jan Garbarek’s saxophone improvisations, becomes one of ECM’s best-selling albums.
• 2009 •
Ornette Coleman curates the Meltdown Festival.