1960s in jazz

Afro-Cuban jazz began as a movement in the mid-1950s as bebop musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie and Billy Taylor started Afro-Cuban bands influenced by such Cuban and Puerto Rican musicians as Xavier Cugat, Tito Puente, and Arturo Sandoval.

Bossa is generally moderately paced, with melodies sung in Portuguese or English.

The related term jazz-samba describes an adaptation of bossa nova compositions to the jazz idiom by American performers such as Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd.

Bossa nova was made popular by Elizete Cardoso's recording of Chega de Saudade on the Canção do Amor Demais LP, composed by Vinícius de Moraes (lyrics) and Antonio Carlos Jobim (music).

The resulting recordings by Charlie Byrd and Stan Getz cemented its popularity and led to a worldwide boom with 1963's Getz/Gilberto, numerous recordings by famous jazz performers such as Ella Fitzgerald (Ella Abraça Jobim) and Frank Sinatra (Francis Albert Sinatra & Antônio Carlos Jobim), and the entrenchment of the bossa nova style as a lasting influence in world music for several decades and even up to the present.

Herbie Hancock emerged as an influential pianist in the 1960s both as a leader and as part of Miles Davis 's "second great quintet". Later he became one of the most popular jazz fusion artists. Standards composed by him include " Watermelon Man " (1963), " Cantaloupe Island " (1964), " Maiden Voyage " (1965) and " Chameleon " (1973).
Wayne Shorter 's compositions that have become standards include " Mahjong " (1964), " Speak No Evil " (1965) and " Footprints " (1966).
Jazz-Optimisten - Jamboree (1962)
Billy Strayhorn