Biography
A haunting parallel links the trajectories of Jimmy Blanton and Charlie Christian. Each instrumentalist joined a prominent big band during autumn 1939, redefined the expressive range of his instrument, never fronted sessions under his own name, participated in the forward-looking after-hours gatherings at Minton’s Playhouse that incubated bebop, and succumbed to the same disease before reaching thirty, all within the same calendar year. In Blanton’s instance, he dismantled the rigid 4/4 pulse that had previously confined bassists. His ample, rounded sonority, supple command of the instrument, exceptional rhythmic buoyancy, and imaginative fluency on both arco and pizzicato enabled the bass to weave independent lines around the ensemble and to articulate phrases with horn-like freedom, all while preserving the harmonic and rhythmic bedrock.
Blanton first worked professionally on bass in Chattanooga ensembles directed by his mother, a pianist. Following a brief enrollment at Tennessee State College, he relocated to St. Louis, where he performed with the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra and with Fate Marable’s riverboat groups. Duke Ellington encountered him in that setting and recruited him into the Ellington orchestra. Blanton’s presence helped launch a highly fertile period for the band; he delivered some of jazz’s earliest significant bass solos on Ellington pieces such as “Ko Ko,” “Jack the Bear,” and “Concerto for Cootie.” He also cut a sequence of piano-and-bass duets with Ellington, the most remarkable being the buoyant “Pitter Panther Patter.” In 1941, after a diagnosis of congenital tuberculosis, Blanton entered a sanatorium in California and died there several months later. His approach served as the template for bassists throughout the following two decades; Charles Mingus, Oscar Pettiford, and Ray Brown each show his imprint. His contributions are well represented on the two-CD set The Indispensable Duke Ellington, Vols. 5 & 6 (1940) (RCA Black and White Series).
Blanton first worked professionally on bass in Chattanooga ensembles directed by his mother, a pianist. Following a brief enrollment at Tennessee State College, he relocated to St. Louis, where he performed with the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra and with Fate Marable’s riverboat groups. Duke Ellington encountered him in that setting and recruited him into the Ellington orchestra. Blanton’s presence helped launch a highly fertile period for the band; he delivered some of jazz’s earliest significant bass solos on Ellington pieces such as “Ko Ko,” “Jack the Bear,” and “Concerto for Cootie.” He also cut a sequence of piano-and-bass duets with Ellington, the most remarkable being the buoyant “Pitter Panther Patter.” In 1941, after a diagnosis of congenital tuberculosis, Blanton entered a sanatorium in California and died there several months later. His approach served as the template for bassists throughout the following two decades; Charles Mingus, Oscar Pettiford, and Ray Brown each show his imprint. His contributions are well represented on the two-CD set The Indispensable Duke Ellington, Vols. 5 & 6 (1940) (RCA Black and White Series).