Modern Jazz Quartet
Encyclopedia
The Modern Jazz Quartet was established in 1952 by Milt Jackson
(vibraphone
), John Lewis
(piano
, musical director), Percy Heath
(double bass
), and Kenny Clarke
(drum
s). Connie Kay
replaced Clarke in 1955. The quartet performed in several jazz styles, including bebop
, cool jazz
, and third stream
.
orchestra from 1946 to 1950. Together with Ray Brown
they played during interludes designed to give the trumpeters time to recover from the challenging upper register trumpet
parts. This line-up recorded as the Milt Jackson Quartet in 1951.
Bassist Percy Heath
joined the line-up in 1952 and the group became known as The Modern Jazz Quartet after John Lewis took over as Musical Director, a position which Jackson and Lewis had previously shared.
In their middle years the group often played with classical musicians, but their repertoire consisted mainly of bop
and swing
era standards. Among the original compositions from the band's book are "Django" by Lewis (a tribute to the Belgian jazz guitar player Django Reinhardt
), "Afternoon In Paris," also by Lewis, and Jackson's "Bags' Groove
", the latter borrowing its composer's nickname.
The group was first signed by Prestige
and later in the fifties with Atlantic
. In the late 1960s, in between their two periods with Atlantic, they signed with Apple
, the Beatles' label (the sole jazz group on the label), and released two albums: Under the Jasmine Tree (1968) and Space (1969). Both Apple albums were re-released on one CD at the end of October 2010, with a previously unreleased rendition of the Beatles' "Yesterday
" (recorded during sessions for Space) added as a bonus track. The MJQ came to Apple through the first head of the label, Ron Kass. Kass was a jazz fan, and Under The Jasmine Tree was recorded in America prior to signing with Apple. The second Apple album Space was recorded at London's Trident Studios under the supervision of Apple A&R man, Peter Asher (of Peter and Gordon).
Jackson left the group in 1974 partly because he liked a freer flowing style of playing and partly because he was tired of playing for little money (compared to rock and roll stars). As there could be no Modern Jazz Quartet without the two principals Lewis and Jackson, the group disbanded after going out with a rollicking concert in November at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall
. In 1981 the MJQ reorganized to play festivals and later on a permanent six months per year basis. The MJQ's last recording was issued in 1993. Heath, the last surviving member, died in 2005.
counterpoint
. Their approach to jazz attracted promoters who sponsored "jazz packet" concerts during the 1950s. One show would consist of several contrasting groups. The MJQ were ideal participants because no other group sounded like them. They provided a visual contrast as well, formally attired in their customary tuxedos.
The group played blues
as much as they did fugue
s, but the result was tantalising when one considered the hard-swinging potential of each individual player. Their best-selling record, Django
, typified their neo-classical approach to polyphony
.
Milt Jackson
Milton "Bags" Jackson was an American jazz vibraphonist, usually thought of as a bebop player, although he performed in several jazz idioms...
(vibraphone
Vibraphone
The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family....
), John Lewis
John Lewis (pianist)
John Aaron Lewis was an American jazz pianist and composer best known as the musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet.- Early life:...
(piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, musical director), Percy Heath
Percy Heath
Percy Heath was an American jazz bassist, brother to tenor saxophonist Jimmy Heath and drummer Albert Heath, with whom he formed the Heath Brothers in 1975...
(double bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
), and Kenny Clarke
Kenny Clarke
Kenny Clarke , born Kenneth Spearman Clarke, nicknamed "Klook" and later known as Liaqat Ali Salaam, was a jazz drummer and an early innovator of the bebop style of drumming...
(drum
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
s). Connie Kay
Connie Kay
Connie Kay was an American jazz drummer.Kay was a member of the Modern Jazz Quartet from 1955 until the group's dissolution in 1974...
replaced Clarke in 1955. The quartet performed in several jazz styles, including bebop
Bebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...
, cool jazz
Cool jazz
Cool is a style of modern jazz music that arose following the Second World War. It is characterized by its relaxed tempos and lighter tone, in contrast to the bebop style that preceded it...
, and third stream
Third stream
Third Stream is a term coined in 1957 by composer Gunther Schuller, within a lecture at Brandeis University, to describe a musical genre which is a synthesis of classical music and jazz...
.
History
Milt Jackson, John Lewis, and Kenny Clarke had originally played together in a quartet while in the Dizzy GillespieDizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
orchestra from 1946 to 1950. Together with Ray Brown
Ray Brown (musician)
Raymond Matthews Brown was an American jazz double bassist.-Biography:Ray Brown was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and had piano lessons from the age of eight. After noticing how many pianists attended his high school, he thought of taking up the trombone, but was unable to afford one...
they played during interludes designed to give the trumpeters time to recover from the challenging upper register trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
parts. This line-up recorded as the Milt Jackson Quartet in 1951.
Bassist Percy Heath
Percy Heath
Percy Heath was an American jazz bassist, brother to tenor saxophonist Jimmy Heath and drummer Albert Heath, with whom he formed the Heath Brothers in 1975...
joined the line-up in 1952 and the group became known as The Modern Jazz Quartet after John Lewis took over as Musical Director, a position which Jackson and Lewis had previously shared.
In their middle years the group often played with classical musicians, but their repertoire consisted mainly of bop
Bebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...
and swing
Swing (genre)
Swing music, also known as swing jazz or simply swing, is a form of jazz music that developed in the early 1930s and became a distinctive style by 1935 in the United States...
era standards. Among the original compositions from the band's book are "Django" by Lewis (a tribute to the Belgian jazz guitar player Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture...
), "Afternoon In Paris," also by Lewis, and Jackson's "Bags' Groove
Bags' Groove (composition)
"Bags' Groove" is a jazz composition by Milt Jackson and first recorded by Miles Davis's quintet in 1954. The recording was released on the 1957 album Bags' Groove...
", the latter borrowing its composer's nickname.
The group was first signed by Prestige
Prestige Records
Prestige Records was a jazz record label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock. The company was located at 203 South Washington Avenue in Bergenfield, New Jersey, and recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz musicians of the day, sometimes issuing them under the names of several...
and later in the fifties with Atlantic
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
. In the late 1960s, in between their two periods with Atlantic, they signed with Apple
Apple Records
Apple Records is a record label founded by The Beatles in 1968, as a division of Apple Corps Ltd. It was initially intended as a creative outlet for the Beatles, both as a group and individually, plus a selection of other artists including Mary Hopkin, James Taylor, Badfinger, and Billy Preston...
, the Beatles' label (the sole jazz group on the label), and released two albums: Under the Jasmine Tree (1968) and Space (1969). Both Apple albums were re-released on one CD at the end of October 2010, with a previously unreleased rendition of the Beatles' "Yesterday
Yesterday (song)
"Yesterday" is a song originally recorded by The Beatles for their 1965 album Help!. The song first hit the United Kingdom top 10 three months after the release of Help!. The song remains popular today with more than 1,600 cover versions, one of the most covered songs in the history of recorded...
" (recorded during sessions for Space) added as a bonus track. The MJQ came to Apple through the first head of the label, Ron Kass. Kass was a jazz fan, and Under The Jasmine Tree was recorded in America prior to signing with Apple. The second Apple album Space was recorded at London's Trident Studios under the supervision of Apple A&R man, Peter Asher (of Peter and Gordon).
Jackson left the group in 1974 partly because he liked a freer flowing style of playing and partly because he was tired of playing for little money (compared to rock and roll stars). As there could be no Modern Jazz Quartet without the two principals Lewis and Jackson, the group disbanded after going out with a rollicking concert in November at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall
Avery Fisher Hall
Avery Fisher Hall is a concert hall, in New York City and is part of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts complex. It is the home of the New York Philharmonic, with a capacity of 2,738 seats.-History:...
. In 1981 the MJQ reorganized to play festivals and later on a permanent six months per year basis. The MJQ's last recording was issued in 1993. Heath, the last surviving member, died in 2005.
Style
The enigma of the MJQ's music-making was that each individual member could improvise with an exciting vibrancy but in toto the group specialised in genteel baroqueBaroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
counterpoint
Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
. Their approach to jazz attracted promoters who sponsored "jazz packet" concerts during the 1950s. One show would consist of several contrasting groups. The MJQ were ideal participants because no other group sounded like them. They provided a visual contrast as well, formally attired in their customary tuxedos.
The group played blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
as much as they did fugue
Fugue
In music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....
s, but the result was tantalising when one considered the hard-swinging potential of each individual player. Their best-selling record, Django
Django (Modern Jazz Quartet album)
Django is an album by The Modern Jazz Quartet, first released on LP in 1956. The actual sessions for the LP took place in June 1953, December 1954, and January 1955, and were first released on two different ten-inch discs...
, typified their neo-classical approach to polyphony
Polyphony
In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ....
.
Discography
- 1952: The Quartet (Savoy RecordsSavoy RecordsSavoy Records is an American record label specializing in jazz, R&B and gospel. Starting in the mid 1940s, Savoy played an important part in popularizing bebop.Savoy Records is an American record label specializing in jazz, R&B and gospel. Starting in the mid 1940s, Savoy played an important part...
- Nippon Columbia) - 1952: M.J.Q. (Prestige RecordsPrestige RecordsPrestige Records was a jazz record label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock. The company was located at 203 South Washington Avenue in Bergenfield, New Jersey, and recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz musicians of the day, sometimes issuing them under the names of several...
) - 1955: ConcordeConcorde (album)Concorde is an album by The Modern Jazz Quartet. First released in 1955 as an LP. Recorded in New York, New York on July 2, 1955. Originally released on Prestige . Includes liner notes by Ira Gitler. The album was reissued in 2008 as part of the Rudy Van Gelder Remasters collection.This Album is...
(Atlantic Jazz) - 1956: Django (Atlantic Records), recorded 1953-55
- 1956: FontessaFontessaFontessa is a 1956 album by the Modern Jazz Quartet released on Atlantic Records. It was the first of their albums released on Atlantic.-Track listing:#"Versailles" - 3:22#"Angel Eyes" - 3:48...
(Atlantic Records) - 1956: At Music Inn - Guest Artist: Jimmy Giuffre (Atlantic Records)
- 1958: The Modern Jazz Quartet Plays One Never Knows - Original Film Score for "No Sun in VeniceNo Sun in VeniceNo Sun in Venice is a 1957 French-Italian drama film directed by Roger Vadim. It was entered into the 7th Berlin International Film Festival.-Cast:* Françoise Arnoul - Sophie* Christian Marquand - Michel Lafaurie* Robert Hossein - Sforzi* O. E...
" - 1957: Modern Jazz Quartet: 1957
- 1958: At Music Inn - Guest Artist: Sonny Rollins (Atlantic Records)
- 1958: The Modern Jazz Quartet Live
- 1959: Odds Against Tomorrow
- 1959: Longing for the Continent
- 1960: Pyramid (Atlantic Records)
- 1960: Third Stream Music (Atlantic Records) with The Jimmy Giuffre 3, the Beaux Arts String Quartet and Gunther Schuller
- 1960: Immortal Concerts
- 1960: European Concert (Atlantic Records)
- 1960: Modern Jazz Quartet in Concert, recorded in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, May 27, 1960
- 1960: Modern Jazz Quartet Live and at Its Best
- 1960: Patterns (United Artists)
- 1961: Compact Jazz
- 1961: The Modern Jazz Quartet & Orchestra
- 1962: Lonely Woman (Atlantic Records)
- 1962: The Comedy (Atlantic Records)
- 1963: In a Crowd [Live]
- 1964: The Modern Jazz Quartet with Laurindo Almeida: Collaboration (Atlantic Records)
- 1964: The Sheriff (Atlantic Records)
- 1966: Place Vendôme The Modern Jazz Quartet and The Swingle SingersPlace Vendôme (Swingle Singers with MJQ album)Place Vendôme is an album released by the Swingle Singers performing with the Modern Jazz Quartet...
(Philips RecordsPhilips RecordsPhilips Records is a record label that was founded by Dutch electronics company Philips. It was started by "Philips Phonographische Industrie" in 1950. Recordings were made with popular artists of various nationalities and also with classical artists from Germany, France and Holland. Philips also...
) - 1966: Blues at Carnegie Hall
- 1966: Plays George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess
- 1969: Under the Jasmine Tree (Apple RecordsApple RecordsApple Records is a record label founded by The Beatles in 1968, as a division of Apple Corps Ltd. It was initially intended as a creative outlet for the Beatles, both as a group and individually, plus a selection of other artists including Mary Hopkin, James Taylor, Badfinger, and Billy Preston...
) - 1969: Space (Apple Records)
- 1971: Plastic Dreams
- 1972: The Legendary Profile (Atlantic Records)
- 1973: The Art of The Modern Jazz Quartet/The Atlantic Years, 2-LP Anthology (Atlantic Records)
- 1973: In Memoriam (Little David Records)
- 1973: Blues on Bach (Atlantic Records)
- 1974: The Complete Last Concert
- 1981: Paul Desmond with The Modern Jazz Quartet, The Only Recorded Performance, recorded live 1971 at Town Hall, NYC (Finesse)
- 1981: Reunion at Budokan
- 1982: Together Again! Modern Jazz Quartet Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival 1982 (Pablo RecordsPablo RecordsPablo Records was a record label founded by Norman Granz in 1972, some ten years after he had sold his jazz labels to MGM Records....
) - 1984: Echoes
- 1987: Three Windows - The Modern Jazz Quartet with The New York Chamber Symphony (Atlantic Jazz)
- 1988: For Ellington (EastWest)
- 1988: The Best of The Modern Jazz Quartet
- 1994: MJQ & Friends - A 40th Anniversary Celebration (Atlantic Jazz)
- 1995: Dedicated to Connie, released 1995, recorded live in Slovenia in 1960
- 2001: Ben WebsterBen WebsterBenjamin Francis Webster , a.k.a. "The Brute" or "Frog," was an influential American jazz tenor saxophonist. Webster, born in Kansas City, Missouri, was considered one of the three most important "swing tenors" along with Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young...
and The M.J.Q.: 1953: An Exceptional Encounter (The Jazz Factory), live recording - 2001: A Night at the Opera (Jazz DoorJazz DoorJazz Door was a record label that released live and studio recordings from prominent names in jazz, including Miles Davis and Joe Henderson....
) - 2006: La Ronde: A Proper Introduction to the Modern Jazz Quartet
- 2009: Monterey Jazz Festival (Douglas Records)
Filmography
- 2005: The Modern Jazz Quartet: 35th Anniversary Tour
- 2007: 40 Years of MJQ
- 2008: Django