Milt Jackson Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Milt Jackson - Essay Example As a member of a Gospel Quartet, Milt got the first chance to perform in public in which he sang tenor. Dizzy Gillespie was instrumental in bringing this great jazz artist to the forefront and Gillespie, hearing his performance at a Detroit night club, 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 as The Modern Jazz Quartet in 1952, played a major role in the next twenty-two years 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 own groups, performing blues and gospel-oriented Jazz, away from the musical policy of the MJQ. He became associated with producer Norwman 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 own projects with occasional touring with the MJQ." (Milt Jackson: Biography) Therefore, the career development as well as 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 a slow vibrato helped him in the creation of impulsive outbursts of short notes as well as a 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 importantmusician by the middle of his teen-age years and he started to learn guitar at the age of 7, piano lessons at11, 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 thanHampton, his most prominent precursor on the instrument. He also attempted to attain a hornlike legato with his mallets, while he adopted many ofParker's rhythmic traits. Through his sheer quality as a vibraphonist, Milt became the first authentic bebopmusician on the vibraphone, and was one of the greatest musicians of Gillespie'sown 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 publicpresentation, from walking on stage to making introductions to thepowerfully subdued arrangements in their playing. They wanted to bringback to jazz the