01-20 - Francis Poulenc's Gloria is premiered in Boston
01-27 - Pianist Bill Evans and alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley record Know What I Mean?
01-31 - Composer George Russell records The Stratus Seekers (including trombonist David Baker)
02-07 - Tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin records Change of Pace with French hornist Julius Watkins
02-12 - The Miracles' "Shop Around" becomes Motown's first million-selling single
02-13 - Frank Sinatra forms his own record label, Reprise Records, which would later release recordings by The Beach Boys, Ella Fitzgerald, The Kinks and Jimi Hendrix.
02-14 - The Platters file a lawsuit against Mercury Records for breach of contract after the record company refuses to accept recordings on which Tony Williams does not sing lead. The group's lawsuit contends that their contract does not require Williams to sing lead
02-23 - Clarinetist Pee Wee Russell and tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins record Jazz Reunion
02-23 - Oliver Nelson records The Blues and the Abstract Truth with Eric Dolphy, Freddie Hubbard and Bill Evans.
03-04 - Trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie’s Big Band records Carnegie Hall Concert
03-20 - Tenor saxophonist John Coltrane makes his last recording with trumpeter Miles Davis, Someday My Prince Will Come
03-21 - The Beatles perform at the legendary Cavern Club for the first time
03-25 - Elvis Presley performs a benefit show at the Block Arena in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The show raised $62,000 for the U.S.S. Arizona memorial fund
03-26 - Tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley records Workout with pianist Wynton Kelly, guitarist Grant Green, bassist Paul Chambers and frummer Philly Joe Jones
04-04 - Trumpeter Booker Little records Out Front with Max Roach and Eric Dolphy.
04-09 - Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard records Hub Cap with saxophonist Jimmy Heath
04-15 - Trumpeter Miles Davis’s Quintet records In Person: Saturday Night At the Blackhawk
05-23 - Saxophonist John Coltrane records Greensleeves with a large ensemble including trumpeters Booker Little, Freddie Hubbard and reedman Eric Dolphy
05-31 - Chuck Berry opened 'Berry Park', an amusement complex near St Louis. The park had it's own zoo, golf course and ferris wheel.
05-31 - First performance of Krystoff Penderecki's Threnody in Memory of the Victims of Hiroshima for strings, in Warsaw.
06-01 - FM multiplex stereo broadcasting was tested for the first time in Schenectady, NY, Los Angeles and Chicago. Developed FCC standards for FM-stereo compatible transmission which began in 1962.
06-05 - Roy Orbison went to No.1 on the US chart with 'Running Scared'.
07-16 - Saxophonist/bass clarinetist/flutist Eric Dolphy and trumpeter Booker Little record at the Five Spot
07-31 - I Like It Like That recorded by Chris Kenner peaks at #2 on the Top 100 chart for 3 weeks.
08-01 - Drummer/composer Max Roach records Percussion Bittersweet
08-07 - Patsy Cline hit No. 1 with "I Fall to Pieces"
08-14 - Premiere of Cowell's "Scherzo" (from "Air and Scherzo") for saxophone and piano, at the Camp Kinhaven in Weston, Vt., by saxophonist Sigurd Rascher; Cowell later arranged this work for saxophone and chamber orchestra
08-16 - Premiere of Kodály's Symphony (dedicated to the memory of Arturo Toscanini), at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland
08-18 - Jimmy Dean recorded "Big Bad John," which hit No. 1 on both the pop and country charts
08-19 - Premiere of Peggy Glanville-Hicks: opera "Nausicaa," in Athens, Greece.
08-20 - Premiere of John Harbison's "Duo" for flute and piano, at the Brooklyn Museum, with flutist Neil Zaslaw and pianist Juliette Arnold
08-28 - Wooden Heart recorded by Joe Dowell begins a run of 1 week at #1 on the US charts.
09-06 - Premiere of Elliott Carter's Double Concerto for Harpsichord and Piano with Two Chamber Orchestras, in New York during the Eight Congress of the International Musicological Society, with Gustav Meier conducting and harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick and pianist Charles Rosen as the soloists.
09-08 - Premiere of Earle Brown's "Available Forms I" for 18 players, in Darmstadt
10-04 - English tenor saxophonist Tubby hayes records in New York with Clark Terry and Horace Parlan
12-17 - Pianist Bud Powell records A Portrait of Thelonious with drummer Kenny Clarke
