2020 in jazz
This is a timeline documenting events of jazz in the year 2020.
Events
May
- May 6 - Gregory Porter's brother Lloyd dies of COVID-19, two months after the singer is forced to interrupt his world tour by the pandemic.
June
- June 26 - Immanuel Wilkins signs with Blue Note Records
August
- August 6-8 - The Newport Jazz Festival is replaced by a programme of virtual events created by founder George Wein.
Deaths
- January 10 – Wolfgang Dauner, 84, German jazz pianist
- February 10 – Lyle Mays, 66, American jazz fusion keyboardist
- February 16 – Graeme Allwright, 93, New Zealand-French folk and jazz singer-songwriter
- February 18 – Jon Christensen, 76m Norwegian jazz drummer
- March 2 – Susan Weinert, 54, German jazz fusion guitarist
- March 6 – McCoy Tyner, 81, American jazz pianist
- March 10 – Marcelo Peralta, 59, Argentine jazz saxophonist
- April 1 - Ellis Marsalis, Jr., 85, American jazz pianist and educator
- April 15 - Lee Konitz, 92, American jazz saxophonist
- October 17 - Toshinori Kondo, 71, Japanese jazz and jazz fusion trumpeter
- October 31 – Marc Fosset, 71, French jazz guitarist
- November 1 – Pedro Iturralde, 91, Spanish jazz saxophonist
- November 7 – Cándido Camero, 99, Cuban jazz percussionist
- November 11 – Andrew White, 78, American jazz saxophonist
- November 26 – Allan Botschinsky, 80, Danish jazz trumpeter
- December 30 – Eugene Wright, 97, American jazz bassist