Jimmy Blanton

Jimmy Blanton ( born October 5, 1918 in Chattanooga, Tennessee; † 30 July 1942 in Los Angeles, California ) was an American jazz double bassist, who in his time in the Duke Ellington band ( 1939-1941 ) one of the most influential bass players the history of jazz was.

Life and work

Jimmy Blanton's mother was a pianist and led a local band; He learned violin and originally had the age of eight performances, but moved to Tennessee State University to double bass. Music theory lessons he had with an uncle. During his studies in 1936 and 1937 he played in the university orchestra and during the holidays with Fate Marable in his riverboat orchestra. After graduating, he went to St. Louis in late 1937 (Missouri ) to Jeter Pillars Orchestra, created with the also recordings.

In late 1939, he joined Duke Ellington's orchestra at. Ellington had heard him with Fate Marable in Coronado Hotel Ballroom in St. Louis. Blanton's predecessor at Ellington, Billy Taylor, suffered from the degradation of the second bassist and left in 1940 when the band in the Southland Cafe occurred in Boston, the Ellington Orchestra in anger: "I 'm not ready to play here next to a boy who so good bass playing, I do not let me embarrass. "

Although Blanton played there for only two years, he revolutionized with quick counter - melodies, the bass playing, paving the double bass as a solo instrument " socially acceptable ". According to him and the equally brillierenden Ben Webster this year the Ellington band are also referred to as the Blanton -Webster years. Among the most important recordings of the Ellington band with Blanton include "Across the Truck Blues ," " Jack the Bear ", " Ko-Ko ", " Harlem Air Shaft" and " Conga Brava ". During this time he also took some duets with Ellington on piano how " Plucked Again", " Pitter Panther Patter ", " Mr. J. B. Blues "and " Body and Soul ". He can be heard in the recording of the legendary concert in Fargo, North Dakota 1940.

"But it was not just his solos, demonstrating a fuller, richer way of the bass game ," wrote the biographer James Lincoln Collier Ellington, " he also changed the cooperation of the rhythm section. Although he stressed every four clock parts for about half the time, he sometimes played only on the first and third and then again only on the second and fourth beat. Sometimes he left the clock keep quite and phrased with the band. He also was not simply the chords up and down, but chose the notes carefully in order to produce musically intelligent connections between the chords. "

Blanton in 1941, an ( innate ) tuberculosis is diagnosed; he left the band ( he was succeeded by Oscar Pettiford ) and died in a sanatorium in California a few months later in 1942.

Blanton, the " called the father of modern bass game" Percy Heath to the influenced with his game a generation of subsequent bassists Oscar Pettiford so, Red Callender, Ray Brown, Charles Mingus, and later Paul Chambers. He was also involved in the early sessions of the musicians in Minton 's Playhouse; Leonard Feathers believes Jimmy Blanton was chosen to belong to the inner circle to Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.

Swell

• James Lincoln Collier: Duke Ellington. Genius of Jazz. Ullsteinhaus, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-548-35839- X
• Martin Kunzler: Jazz Encyclopedia. Rowohlt, Reinbek 2002 ( 2nd edition ), ISBN 3-499-16512-0 Vol 1; ISBN 3-499-16317-9 Vol 1