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Milt Jackson
Vibraphonist Milt Jackson, a member of the PAS
Hall of Fame, died of liver cancer on October 9, 1999.
Born in Detroit on Jan. 1, 1923, he began playing xylophone
and marimba while attending high school. He took up
the vibraphone after hearing Lionel Hampton and developed
a personal approach that was strongly based on the
blues. His improvisations were characterized by dynamic
contrasts and rhythmic variety in which long, legato
phrases were punctuated by short, fast flurries of
notes. He also slowed down the oscillators on his vibraphone,
giving the instrument a warmer sound. In 1945, trumpeter
Dizzy Gillespie heard Jackson in Detroit and invited
him to move to New York and join his band. Soon he
was working and recording with a variety of prominent
jazz musicians including Tadd Dameron, Thelonious Monk,
Woody Herman and Coleman Hawkins. He also formed the
Milt Jackson Quintet, and in 1952 that group evolved
into the Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ). The group performed
the "cool" jazz of the period as well as third-stream
music that combined European art music with improvisation.
The group broke up in 1974 but reunited in 1981, and
were the only group in jazz history to have played
together with the same personnel for over 40 years.
Jackson also continued to tour and record as a leader,
and he is one of the five most-recorded jazz soloists
of all time. He was also a noted jazz composer, and
several of his compositions became jazz standards,
including "Bags Groove," "Bluesology," "The Cylinder" and "Ralph's
New Blues." Among Jackson's many honors was an Honorary
Doctorate degree from the Berklee College of Music.
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