1963 in jazz

This is a timeline documenting events of Jazz in the year 1963.

Events

; January13 – Sonny Clark, American pianist.16 – Ike Quebec, American tenor saxophonist.
; February6 – Specs Wright, American drummer.14 – Castor McCord, American saxophonist.16 – Jimmy Reynolds, American pianist.20 – Addison Farmer, American bassist.23 – June Clark, American trumpeter and cornetist.28 – Bobby Jaspar, Belgian saxophonist, flautist, and composer.
; March10 – Irving Aaronson, American pianist and big band leader.17 – Lizzie Miles, Creole blues singer.
; April3 – Gene Sedric, American clarinetist and tenor saxophonist.9 – Eddie Edwards, American trombonist.11 – Arvid Gram Paulsen, Norwegian saxophonist and trumpeter.12 – Herbie Nichols, American pianist and composer.
; May24 – Elmore James, American guitarist.
; June3 – Skinnay Ennis, American bandleader and singer.12 – Bob Scobey, American trumpeter.
; July25 – John Adriano Acea, American jazz pianist.31 – Curtis Counce, American upright bassist.
; August23 – Glen Gray, American saxophonist, Casa Loma Orchestra.
; September20 – Pete Brown, American alto saxophonist and bandleader.

; November4 – Joe Gordon, American trumpeter.29 – Ernesto Lecuona, Cuban composer, pianist and bandleader.
; December14

* Dinah Washington, American singer.
* Lodewijk Parisius "Kid Dynamite", Surinamese-Dutch tenor saxophonist.22 – Roy Palmer, American trombonist.
Unknown date
Jon Ballantyne, Canadian pianist and composer.
Naftule Brandwein, Jewish clarinetist and influential klezmer musician.

; January7 – Christine Tobin, Irish vocalist and composer.17 – Cyrus Chestnut, American pianist, composer and producer.
; February2

; March5 – Ralph Alessi, American trumpeters and composer.18 – Yoko Kanno, Japanese composer, arranger, keyboarder, pianist, and accordionist.23 – Nelson Faria, Brazilian guitarist.24

* Dave Douglas, American trumpeter and composer.
* Eric Vloeimans, Dutch trumpeter.30 – Ximo Tebar, Spanish guitarist and composer.

; April1 – Antoine Roney, American saxophonist.4 – Benny Green, American pianist.7 – Fredrik Lundin, Danish saxophonist, composer, and bandleader.8 – Tine Asmundsen, Norwegian upright bassist.17 – Peter Havlicek, Austrian kontragitarrist, guitarist, composer, and vocalist.24 – Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez, Cuban drummer and percussionist.
; May2 – Eric Person, American saxophonist.4 – Gerald Cleaver, American drummer.9 – Ron Miles, American trumpeter, cornetist, and composer.4 – Jack Cooper, American composer, arranger, multireedist, and music educator.16 – Nikki Iles, English composer, pianist and accordion player.27 – Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Cuban composer and pianist.28 – Marc Antoine, French guitarist.
; June9 – Gilad Atzmon, British saxophonist and writer.20 – Jeff Beal, American trumpeter, flugelhornist, keyboarder, and composer.28 – Tierney Sutton, American singer.
; July5 – Russ Lorenson, American singer and actor.23 – Renato Borghetti, Brazilian folk musician and composer.
; August7 – Marcus Roberts, American pianist.10 – Christine Ott, French composer, pianist, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist.12

* Karen Briggs, African-American violinist.
* Nigel Mooney, Irish singer, guitarist, and songwriter.23 – Stephanie Biddle, Canadian musician.31 – Baard Slagsvold, Norwegian singer and multi-instrumentalist.

; September2 – Sherrie Maricle, American drummer.6 – Thulla Christina Wamberg, Danish singer.
; October3 – Niels Lan Doky, Danish pianist and record producer.
; November1 – Martin Pizzarelli, American upright bassist.2 – Jens Johansson, Swedish pianist and keyboarder.8 – Russell Malone, American guitarist.16 – Steve Argüelles, English drummer.20 – Don Braden, American tenor saxophonist.24

; December10 – Ole Amund Gjersvik, Norwegian upright bassist.14 – Dalia Faitelson, Israeli composer, vocalist, guitarist, and DJ DaFa.29 – Dave McKean, English photographer, graphic designer, filmmaker, and pianist.
; Unknown date