Milt Jackson

Milton "Bags" Jackson (January 1, 1923 – October 9, 1999) was an American

Milt Jackson
jazz vibraphonist, usually thought of as a bebop player, although he performed in
several jazz idioms. He is especially remembered for his cool swinging solos as
a member of the Modern Jazz Quartet and his penchant for collaborating with
several hard bop and post-bop players.

A very expressive player, Jackson differentiated himself from other

vibraphonists in his attention to variations on harmonics and rhythm. He was
particularly fond of the twelve-bar blues at slow tempos. He preferred to set the
vibraphone's oscillator to a low 3.3 revolutions per second (as opposed to Lionel
Hampton's speed of 10 revolutions per second) for a more subtle tremolo. On
occasion, Jackson sang and played piano professionally. [Need citation]

Jackson in New York, ca. 1947

Contents Background information

Birth name Milton Jackson
Biography
Discography Born January 1, 1923
With the Modern Jazz Quartet Detroit, Michigan,
As sideman U.S.
References Died October 9, 1999
External links (aged 76)
New York City,
New York, U.S.
Biography Genres Hard bop, Afro-
Jackson was born on January 1, 1923 in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Manley Cuban jazz,
Jackson and Lillie Beaty Jackson. Like many, he was surrounded by music from modal jazz,
an early age, particularly that of religious meetings: "Everyone wants to know mainstream jazz,
where I got that funky style. Well, it came from church. The music I heard was post-bop
open, relaxed, impromptu soul music" (quoted in Nat Hentoff's liner notes to Occupation(s) Musician, soloist,
Plenty, Plenty Soul). He started on guitar when he was seven, then on piano at composer,
11.[1] bandleader
Instruments Vibraphone,
While attending Miller High School, he played drums in addition to timpani and
piano
violin and also sang in the choir. At 16, he sang professionally in a local touring
gospel quartet called the Evangelist Singers. He took up the vibraphone at 16 Labels Impulse!, Atlantic,
after hearing Lionel Hampton play the instrument in Benny Goodman's band. CTI, Prestige,
Jackson was discovered by Dizzy Gillespie, who hired him for his sextet in Apple
1945, then his larger ensembles. Jackson quickly acquired experience working Associated acts John Coltrane
with the most important figures in jazz of the era, including Woody Herman,
Ray Charles
Howard McGhee, Thelonious Monk, and Charlie Parker.
Miles Davis
In the Gillespie big band, Jackson fell into a pattern that led to the founding of Dizzy Gillespie
the Modern Jazz Quartet: Gillespie maintained a former swing tradition of a Modern Jazz
small group within a big band, and his included Jackson, pianist John Lewis, Quartet
bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Kenny Clarke (considered a pioneer of the ride
Thelonious Monk
cymbal timekeeping that became the signature for bop and most jazz to follow)
while the brass and reeds took breaks. When they decided to become a working
Wes Montgomery
group in their own right, around 1950, the foursome was known at first as the
Milt Jackson Quartet, becoming the Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ) in 1952. By that time Percy Heath had replaced Ray Brown.

Known at first for featuring Jackson's blues-heavy improvisations almost exclusively, in time the group came to split the
difference between these and Lewis's more ambitious musical ideas (Lewis had become the group's musical director by 1955, the
year Clarke departed in favour of Connie Kay), boiling the quartet down to a chamber jazz style that highlighted the lyrical
tension between Lewis's mannered, but roomy, compositions and Jackson's unapologetic swing.

The MJQ had a long independent career of some two decades until disbanding in 1974, when Jackson split with Lewis. The group
reformed in 1981, however, and continued until 1993, after which Jackson toured alone, performing in various small combos,
although agreeing to periodic MJQ reunions. From the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, Jackson recorded for Norman Granz's Pablo
Records, including Jackson, Johnson, Brown & Company (1983), featuring Jackson with J. J. Johnson on trombone, Ray Brown
on bass, backed by Tom Ranier on piano, guitarist John Collins, and drummer Roy McCurdy.

In 1989, Jackson was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music.[2]

His composition "Bags' Groove" is a jazz standard ("Bags" was a nickname given to him by a bass player in Detroit. "Bags"
referred to the bags under his eyes).[3] He was featured on the NPR radio program Jazz Profiles. Some of his other signature
compositions include "The Late, Late Blues" (for his album with Coltrane, Bags & Trane), "Bluesology" (an MJQ staple), and
"Bags & Trane".

Jackson died of liver cancer in Manhattan, at the age of 76.[4] He was married to Sandra Whittington from 1959 until his death;
the couple had a daughter.[4][5]

Discography
1948: Howard McGhee and Milt Jackson (Savoy [1955]) with
Howard McGhee
1948–52: Wizard of the Vibes (Blue Note)
1952: Milt Jackson (Blue Note)[6]
1949–56: Roll 'Em Bags (Savoy)
1949–56: Meet Milt Jackson (Savoy)
1955: Milt Jackson Quartet (Prestige)
1956: Opus de Jazz (Savoy)
1956: Ballads & Blues (Atlantic)
1956: The Jazz Skyline (Savoy)
1956: Jackson's Ville (Savoy)
1957: Plenty, Plenty Soul (Atlantic)
1957: Bags & Flutes (Atlantic) Jackson at Bach Dancing &
1958: Soul Brothers – with Ray Charles (Atlantic) Dynamite Society, Half Moon Bay,
1959: Bean Bags – with Coleman Hawkins (Atlantic) California, 1980s.
1959: Bags' Opus (United Artists)
1960: Bags & Trane – with John Coltrane (Atlantic)
1960: The Ballad Artistry of Milt Jackson (Atlantic)
1961: Soul Meeting – with Ray Charles (Atlantic)
 1961: Vibrations (Atlantic)
1961: Very Tall – with Oscar Peterson Trio (Verve)
1961: Statements (Impulse!)
1961: Bags Meets Wes! – with Wes Montgomery (Riverside)
1962: Big Bags (Riverside)
1962: Invitation (Riverside)
1962: For Someone I Love (Riverside)
1963: Milt Jackson Quintet Live at the Village Gate (Riverside)
1964: Much in Common with Ray Brown (Verve)
1964: Jazz 'n' Samba (Impulse!)
1964: I/We Had a Ball (Limelight) - 1 track + 3 with Quincy Jones
1964: In a New Setting (Limelight)
1965: Ray Brown / Milt Jackson with Ray Brown (Verve)
1965: Milt Jackson at the Museum of Modern Art (Limelight)
1966: Born Free (Limelight)
1968: Milt Jackson and the Hip String Quartet (Verve)
1969: That's the Way It Is featuring Ray Brown (Impulse!)
1969: Just the Way It Had to Be featuring Ray Brown (Impulse!)
1969: Memphis Jackson with the Ray Brown Big Band (Impulse!)
1971: Reunion Blues with Oscar Peterson
1972: Sunflower (CTI)
1972: Cherry with Stanley Turrentine (CTI)
1973: Goodbye with Hubert Laws (CTI)
1974: Olinga (CTI)
1975: The Milt Jackson Big 4 (Pablo)
1975: The Big 3 with Joe Pass and Ray Brown (Pablo)
1976: Milt Jackson at the Kosei Nenkin (Pablo)
1976: Feelings (Pablo)
1977: Quadrant with Joe Pass, Ray Brown, and Mickey Roker
1977: Soul Fusion (Pablo)
1979: Milt Jackson (Quintessence Jazz Series) (Pickwick)
1979: Loose Walk (Palcoscenico)
1980: Night Mist (Pablo/OJC)
1981: Ain't But a Few of Us Left – with Oscar Peterson
1982: A London Bridge [live] (Pablo)
1982: Mostly Duke [live] (Pablo/OJC)
1982: Memories of Thelonious Sphere Monk (Pablo/OJC)
1983: Jackson, Johnson, Brown & Company – with J. J. Johnson
1983: Two of the Few with Oscar Peterson
1983: Soul Route (Pablo)
1993: Reverence and Compassion (Warner Bros.)
1994: The Prophet Speaks (Qwest)
1995: Burnin' in the Woodhouse
1998: The Very Tall Band with Oscar Peterson and Ray Brown (live from Blue Note)
1999: EXPLOSIVE! Milt Jackson Meets the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra (Qwest/Warner Bros.)
2002: At the Kosei Nenkin vol. 2: Centerpiece (Pablo; mostly unissued tracks from the 1976 Japanese live
session)

With the Modern Jazz Quartet

Vendome (1952, Prestige 851)
Modern Jazz Quartet, II (1954–55, Prestige 170) incl. "Django" (1954)
 Concorde (1955, Prestige 7005)
Fontessa (1956, Atlantic 1231) including
Versailles
The Modern Jazz Quartet Plays No Sun in
Venice (Atlantic, 1957)
The Modern Jazz Quartet (Atlantic, 1957)
Third Stream Music (1957, 1959–60, Atlantic.
1345) including Sketch for Double String
Quartet (1959)
The Modern Jazz Quartet and the Oscar
Peterson Trio at the Opera House (Verve,
1957)
The Modern Jazz Quartet at Music Inn
Volume 2 (Atlantic, 1958)
Music from Odds Against Tomorrow (United Jackson (left) in Seattle, Washington, c. 1980
Artists, 1959)
Pyramid (Atlantic, 1960)
European Concert (Atlantic, 1960 [1962])
Dedicated to Connie (Atlantic, 1960 [1995])
The Modern Jazz Quartet & Orchestra (Atlantic, 1960)
The Comedy (1962, Atlantic 1390)
Lonely Woman (Atlantic, 1962)
A Quartet is a Quartet is a Quartet (1963, Atlantic 1420)
Collaboration (Atlantic, 1964) – with Laurindo Almeida
The Modern Jazz Quartet Plays George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess (Atlantic, 1964–65)
Jazz Dialogue (Atlantic, 1965) with the All-Star Jazz Band
Concert in Japan '66 (Atlantic [Japan], 1966)
Blues at Carnegie Hall (Atlantic, 1966)
Place Vendôme (Philips, 1966) – with The Swingle Singers
Under the Jasmin Tree (Apple, 1968)
Space (Apple, 1969)
Plastic Dreams (Atlantic, 1971)
The Legendary Profile (Atlantic, 1974)
In Memoriam (Little David, 1973)
Blues on Bach (Atlantic, 1973)
The Last Concert (Atlantic, 1974)
Reunion at Budokan 1981 (Pablo, 1981)
Together Again: Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival '82 (Pablo, 1982)
Echoes (Pablo, 1984)
Topsy: This One's for Basie (Pablo, 1985)
Three Windows (Atlantic, 1987)
For Ellington (East West, 1988)
MJQ & Friends: A 40th Anniversary Celebration (Atlantic, 1992–93)

As sideman
With Cannonball Adderley

Things Are Getting Better (Riverside, 1958)

With Count Basie

Count Basie Jam Session at the Montreux Jazz Festival 1975 (Pablo, 1975)
With Benny Carter
 The King (Pablo, 1976)
With Kenny Clarke

Telefunken Blues (Savoy, 1955)

With Miles Davis

Bags' Groove (Prestige, 1954)

Quintet / Sextet (Prestige, 1955)
With Roy Eldridge

What It's All About (Pablo, 1976)

With Dizzy Gillespie

The Complete RCA Victor Recordings (Bluebird, 1937–1949, [1995])

Dee Gee Days: The Savoy Sessions (Savoy, 1951–52 [1976])
The Dizzy Gillespie Big 7 (Pablo, 1975)
Dizzy Gillespie Jam (Pablo, 1977)
Musician, Composer, Raconteur (Pablo, 1981)
With Quincy Jones

I/We Had a Ball (Limelight, 1965)

With Hank Mobley

Hank Mobley and His All Stars (Blue Note, 1957)

With Oscar Peterson

Reunion Blues (MPS, 1971)

The Oscar Peterson Big 6 at the Montreux Jazz Festival 1975 (Pablo, 1975)
With Don Sebesky

Giant Box (CTI, 1973)

With Stanley Turrentine

Cherry (CTI, 1972)

References
1. Heckman, Don; Oliver, Myrna (October 12, 1999). "Milt Jackson; Vibraphonist With Modern Jazz Quartet" (http://
articles.latimes.com/1999/oct/12/news/mn-21585). Los Angeles Times.
2. Mattingly, Rick. "Milt Jackson (http://www.pas.org/about/hall-of-fame/milt-jackson)". PAS Hall of Fame.
Percussive Arts Society. pas.org; retrieved March 25, 2018.
3. Hard Bop: Jazz and Black Music 1955–1965. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505869-0.
4. Ratliff, Ben (October 11, 1999). "Milt Jackson, 76, Jazz Vibraphonist, Dies" (https://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/1
1/arts/milt-jackson-76-jazz-vibraphonist-dies.html). The New York Times.
5. Cotroneo, P. J. (January 2002). "Jackson, Milt". American National Biography. Oxford University Press.
doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1803666 (https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fanb%2F9780198606697.article.18
03666).
6. https://www.allmusic.com/album/milt-jackson-blue-note-mw0000202886

External links
 Milt Jackson (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/milt-jackson-mn0000489845) at AllMusic
Milt Jackson (http://members.tripod.com/~hardbop/milt.html) at the Hard Bop Homepage
Milt Jackson: Round Midnight (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5u7TZhL22U) on YouTube
Milt Jackson (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9903208) at Find a Grave

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