Jazz Articles about Milt Jackson

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Milt Jackson: Sunflower

by John Kelman
February 6, 2011

With a series of mainstream dates to his credit dating back to the early 1950s—not to mention charter membership in the now-legendary Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ) and one-offs with everyone from bop saxophonist Charlie Parker to “new thing" saxophonist John Coltrane—vibraphonist Milt Jackson was the clear link between his instrument's swing era beginnings with Lionel Hampton and more progressive things to come with then-relative youngsters Gary Burton and Bobby Hutcherson. Still—and despite the label's centrist-leaning proclivities on one hand, balancing ...

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Milt Jackson: Da Capo

by Nic Jones
February 19, 2007

Milt Jackson was to the vibraphone what Bud Powell was to the piano, in terms of how he disseminated the expansive harmonic vocabulary of bebop. This set, featuring both his early small group work and a fledgling Modern Jazz Quartet, indicates just how expansive his music was in the first decades of his career.

“Baggy Eyes" and “Autumn Breeze (In A Beautiful Mood)" are the earliest tracks on offer here, dating from April of 1948. They catch Jackson at a ...

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Milt Jackson: Things are Getting Better; Bags Meets Wes

by Donald Elfman
October 21, 2005

Milt “Bags Jackson gained international notoriety as the vibraphonist and co-leader of the Modern Jazz Quartet, in which setting his rich and warm sense of the blues, his solid swing and his mastery of technique on his instrument provided a somewhat more animated complement to the slightly more delicate and ethereal playing of pianist John Lewis (though it must be said that Lewis could swing and dig into the blues with the best of them!). These qualities enabled Jackson to ...

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The Modern Jazz Quartet: The Music Inn

by Elliott Simon
November 5, 2003

...in our desire for beauty in all things we are open, and one in our search for that little city of gold where the flute-player never wearies, and the spring never fades, and the oracle is not silent, that little city which is the house of art, and where, with all the Music of the Spheres, and the laughter of the gods, Art waits for her worshippers-Oscar Wilde In 1950, while Senator McCarthy spearheaded his anti-artistic witch hunts, ...

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Milt Jackson/Wes Montgomery: Bags Meets Wes

by David Rickert
March 1, 2002

It’s unfair to blame Wes Montgomery for the soulless work of those who claim him as an influence; his trademark octave runs became a cash cow for the smooth jazz associated with the piped-in music of doctor’s offices and grocery stores. In reality, Montgomery was a much sought-after player by many; even Coltrane played with him for a time. Montgomery gives the impression that playing the guitar requires no less concentration than tying your shoes, fashioning a style admired (and ...

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Milt Jackson: Soul Route

by C. Michael Bailey
January 1, 2002

Two late great bluesmen.

Soul Route is a funky little confederation that brings together perhaps the two most sensitive blues sensibilities in jazz on a single recording— the late Milt Jackson and the late Gene Harris. Recorded during the former's productive ten-year association with Norman Granz and Pablo Records, Soul Route may be credited with sparking the reemergence of Idaho pianist Harris, who had spent a number of years in retirement following his long and successful leadership of The Three ...

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Milt Jackson: Wizard of the Vibes

by AAJ Staff
October 1, 2001

The pairing of the Modern Jazz Quartet and Blue Note Records seems somehow incongruent. Blue Note was the home of hard bop--blues- and gospel-influenced, down to earth and funky. The MJQ navigated the Third Stream--sophisticated, refined, classically oriented and formal. They even performed in tuxedoes.

But there was a hefty dose of blues to the MJQ's Bach, most of it courtesy of vibraphonist Milt Jackson. Jackson's masterful blues-oriented improvisations are on fine display here on his only Blue Note outing. ...