Jimmy Blanton
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| Jimmy Blanton | |
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| Origin | Chattanooga, Tennessee |
| Years active | 1936–1942 |
| Genres | Jazz |
Jimmy Blanton (October 5, 1918–July 30, 1942) was an influential American jazz double bassist. Blanton originated melodically conceived pizzicato bass solos.
Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Blanton originally learned to play the violin, but took up the bass while at Tennessee State University, performing with the Tennessee State Collegians from 1936 to 1937, and during the vacations with Fate Marable. After leaving university in order to move to St Louis and play full time with the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra (with whom he made his first recordings), he joined Duke Ellington's band in 1939.
Despite staying with Ellington for only two years, Blanton made an incalculable contribution in changing the way the double bass was perceived in jazz. Until his emergence, the double bass was rarely used to play anything but quarter notes in ensemble or solos. By playing the bass more like a horn, Blanton began sliding into eighth- and sixteenth-note runs, introducing melodic and harmonic ideas that were totally new to the instrument. His virtuosity put him in a different class from his predecessors, making him the first true master of the jazz bass and demonstrating the instrument's unsuspected potential as a solo instrument. Such was his importance to Ellington's band at the time, together with the tenor saxophonist Ben Webster, that it became known as the Blanton–Webster band. Blanton also recorded a series of bass and piano duets with Ellington.
Unexpectedly in 1941, Blanton was diagnosed with tuberculosis, cutting short his tenure with Ellington. He died the following year after retiring to a sanatorium in California.
[edit] Sources and external links
- Carr, Ian, Digby Fairweather, & Brian Priestley. Jazz: The Rough Guide. London: Rough Guides. ISBN 1-85828-528-3
- Jimmy Blanton — by Richard S. Ginell, from the All Music Guide
- "Jimmy Blanton". African American Almanac. 9th ed. Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center. Thomson Gale. 11 April 2006
