Milt Jackson - American Jazz Vibraphonist - Assignment Example

Dizzy Gillespie was instrumental in bringing this great jazz artist to the forefront and Gillespie, hearing his performance at a Detroit nightclub, brought Milt to New York to perform with his sextet and later with his big band. Milt also had the opportunity to work with great artists such as Howard McGee, Thelonius Monk, Charlie Parker, and Woody Herman in the late 1940s. Again he worked with Dizzy between 1950 and 1952, while also recording some Quartet sides with John Lewis, Percy Heath, and Kenny Clarke. The big band renamed The Modern Jazz Quartet in 1952, played a major role in the next twenty-two years of Milt’s career, and the quartet, which recorded over thirty albums and toured all over the world, also had a prominent place in his career.

“By 1974 the MJQ disbanded, and Jackson started a career as a leader of his groups, performing blues and gospel-oriented Jazz, away from the musical policy of the MJQ. He became associated with producer Norman Granz and recorded some twenty albums with some of the finest musicians associated with the producer’s label, like Oscar Peterson, Count Basie, Ray Brown, Dizzy Gillespie, etc. In 1981 the MJQ was reunited to perform in Japan and since then Jackson has been combining his projects with occasional touring with the MJQ.” (Milt Jackson: Biography) Therefore, the career development as well as a biography of the vibes player Milt Jackson centered on his accomplishments in jazz and this paper undertakes such a biographical account of this great vibraphonist, focusing on his achievements in jazz.

As the first vibraphonist to use a slow vibrato, Milt Jackson revolutionized and extended the limits of the vibraharp. The use of a slow vibrato helped him in the creation of impulsive outbursts of short notes as well as better control of the dynamics. “He discovered new possibilities in his instrument, influencing every vibraphonist to follow. With his gift for melodic improvisation, Jackson is a master of ballad interpretation, and remains one of the most soulful players in the history of Jazz.” (Milt Jackson: Biography) Born in Detroit and Died as one of the most soulful players in the history of Jazz, Jackson had become a conspicuously important musician by the middle of his teen-age years and he started to learn guitar at the age of 7, piano lessons at 11, and mastered drums, tympani, violin, guitar and xylophone by the time he reached his high school. Milt was such a talented young man that he also sang in the choir and picked up the vibraphone by the age of 16. Later he established himself as one of the most prominent figures of the jazz quartet called the Four Sharps.

All through his career, Milt’s came from Charlie Parker, rather than Hampton, his most prominent precursor on the instrument. He also attempted to attain a hornlike legato with his mallets, while he adopted many of Parker’s rhythmic traits. Through his sheer quality as a vibraphonist, Milt became the first authentic bebop musician on the vibraphone and was one of the greatest musicians of Gillespie’s band. His career with The Modern Jazz Quartet which began in 1952 had a prominent place in the development of Milt Jackson’s achievements in jazz. “The group wore tailored suits and practiced every aspect of their public presentation, from walking on stage to making introductions to the powerfully subdued arrangements in their playing. They wanted to bring back to jazz the sense of high bearing it had been losing as the popularity of the big bands was slipping and jazz became more of a music predicated on the casual jam-session.” (Ratliff)

Therefore, The Modern Jazz Quartet had a most fundamental influence on Milt Jackson’s achievements in jazz, and the band conceived and recorded albums on Atlantic Records through the next two decades of his career. The group was able to appeal to the audiences by the authority of their quietness and it became one of the few jazz bands embraced by an audience much wider than jazz fans. The MJQ broke up for a few years in the 1970s, but it reformed in 1981 and continued to tour regularly until 1997. “In between, Jackson co-led a band with Ray Brown, fronted numerous of his groups, (some with other co-leaders such as pianist Hank Jones,) and appeared as a guest star on dozens of festivals, concerts, and recordings, all of them proving that until the last months of his life, he remained a supremely talented improviser and a brilliant soloist.” (Milt Jackson: 1923 – 1999)

In conclusion, Milt Jackson is a celebrated vibes player who made several accomplishments in jazz and contributed to the popularity of jazz. He is also the recipient of several international awards which confirm his pertinent role as a great vibraphonist and some of his awards include the New Star Award (Esquire Magazine, 1947), The National Music Award (1989), the French Bicentennial Award (1989), and the Jazz Masters Award (1996). All these achievements reveal the wonderful reputation of the great vibraphonist and the career as well as the biography of Milt mainly centered on his accomplishments in jazz. Read More