Pilgrimage to Music Part 9 : 1938 -1939 Music Facts & Events

1938 John Hammond stages the "Spirituals To Swing" concert in New York City Carnegie Hall to highlight black musical styles. The stars of the show are the duo of singer Big Joe Turner and pianist Pete Johnson who kick off a national "boogie woogie" craze.

Saxophonist Louis Jordan leaves Chick Webb's band to form the Tympany Five, a slimmed down group that begins the rhythm & blues revolution.



CBS buys USA's Columbia

1939 Leo Mintz opens The Record Rendezvous in Cleveland, Ohio, a store specializing in race music. 12 years later he will convince DJ Alan Freed to start playing those records on the air which launches the rock 'n' roll era.

The Panoram visual jukebox is invented
(plays short films of records, the first music videos)










Moonlight Serenade was composed by Glenn Miller with lyrics added later by Mitchell Parish. The recording reached no. 3 on Billboard and was the no. 5 record on the 1939 Billboard year-end list of the top recordings of 1939.



For a most detailed music timeline, you can visit www.scaruffi.com/music