Milt Hinton
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Milt Hinton born Milton John Hilton (Vicksburg, Mississippi, June 23, 1910; d. Queens, New York, December 19, 2000), "the dean of jazz bass players," was an American jazz double bassist.
Milt Hinton is one of the greatest jazz bassists to ever live. He has been nicknamed "The Judge" for his outstanding musical ability. Milt was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on June 23, 1910. He lived in Vicksburg until the age of eleven when he moved to Chicago, Illinois. He attended Wendell Phillips High School and Crane Junior College. While attending these schools, Milt learned to play the bass horn, tuba, cello and the bass violin.
In the late 1920's and early 30s, Milt continued to live in Chicago, and he worked as a free lance musician. During this time, he worked with famous jazz musicians such as Jabbo Smith, Eddie South, and Art Tatum. In 1936, he joined a band led by Cab Calloway. Members of this band included Chu Berry, Cozy Cole, Dizzy Gillespie, Illinois Jacquet, Jonah Jones, Ike Quebec, Ben Webster, and Danny Barker.
Hinton possessed a formidable technique and was equally adept and bowing, pizzicato, and "slapping," a technique for which he became famous while playing with the big band of Cab Calloway in the 1930s. Unusually for a double bass player, Hinton was frequently given the spotlight by Calloway, taking virtuosic bass solos in tunes like "Pluckin' the Bass." His work can be heard on the Branford Marsalis album Trio Jeepy.
Also a fine photographer, Hinton documented many of the great jazz musicians via photographs he took over the course of his career. Milt Hinton was one of the best friends of the great jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong.
Hinton played a rare Gofriller Double Bass during his latter career. The dimensions of the bass being much larger than that of a cello or violin, one could make many fine cellos or violins from the amount of wood required to make a single double bass. The bass was in pieces in a cellar in Italy and a musical agent arranged the purchase from the family for Hinton. Hinton in his autobiography "Bass Line" ascribed the tone as magnificent and said it was one of the reasons for his long success in the the New York recording studios in the 50's, and 60's .
