Milt Hinton

Jazz musician

• Born: June 23, 1910
• Birthplace: Vicksburg, Mississippi
• Died: December 19, 2000
• Place of death: Queens, New York

As a double-bass player, Hinton expanded the time-keeping role of the jazz bassist and was influential in stressing the harmonic imperatives within the rhythm section. His impressive sound and unerring sense of time consequently were enhanced by his comprehension of harmony. These attributes contributed to his stalwart reputation and ultimately led him to become a harbinger of modern jazz bass players.

Early Life

Milton John Hinton grew up in a musical family in city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. His mother, who served as his initial musical influence, worked as pianist for their church choir. Because of the racial unrest of early twentieth century American South, the family moved to Chicago in 1919. Four years later, Hinton began his formal musical education, which focused on Western European classical music. Although he chose the violin as his primary instrument, he also experimented with bass saxophone and tuba. His interest in the latter led him to become the tuba player in the Wendell Phillips High School band and the Chicago Defender Brass Band. By his senior year, Hinton had taken up the string bass, as was customary for most tuba players at the time, as a member of the All-City High School Orchestra. Shortly after graduating from Wendell Phillips, Hinton secured his first professional job with trumpeters Guy Kelly and Freddie Keppard.

In 1930, Hinton began working with pianist and bandleader Tiny Parham, with whom he recorded a notable tuba solo on “Memphis Mamie.” Hinton continued his musical training for two years at Crane Junior College while playing with bandleader and violinist Erskine Tate, but ultimately chose to forgo his education in order to pursue his profession as a performer. He subsequently found work with trumpet virtuoso Jabbo Smith in late 1931.

Life’s Work

Hinton continued to freelance within the Chicago club circuit during the 1930’s, including a stint with drummer Zutty Singleton’s small group at the Three Deuces. His tenure with Singleton lasted throughout 1935, after which Hinton joined Cab Calloway’s big band. This exposure, in conjunction with his developing, explosive tone, fostered Hinton’s reputation as a stalwart of the big band’s rhythm section. His association with Calloway afforded Hinton greater performing and recording opportunities, including a chance to work with quintessential swing-era pianist Teddy Wilson. Between 1936 and 1939, Hinton accompanied Billie Holiday, saxophonist Chu Berry, and vibraphonist Lionel Hampton.

In 1951, Hinton chose to leave the security of Calloway’s ensemble for were chosen. While in New York, he played with Count Basie’s big band and—perhaps most important—with Louis Armstrong’s All Stars. Subsequent engagements included more work with Holiday and occasional stints with “King of Swing” Benny Goodman. Before the end of the decade, Hinton was called to accompany several seminal recording sessions; these included affiliations with saxophone titan Coleman Hawkins, vocalist Jimmy Rushing, jazz violinist Joe Venuti, and pop singer Bobby Darin.

As rock and roll came to the fore during the 1960’s, Hinton’s work prospects dimmed. He was forced to tour throughout the Midwest and participated for many years in Dick Gibson’s Colorado Jazz Party along with festival engagements such as the Odessa Jazz Festival in Texas. During the 1970’s, his touring expanded overseas to accompany such luminaries as crooner Bing Crosby. Upon his return to the United States, Hinton procured a coveted position as the house bassist at Michael’s Pub in New York City. There, he found himself in familiar territory accompanying Wilson, Venuti, and vibraphonist Red Norvo.

With the advent of jazz scholarship during the 1970’s, Hinton found himself in demand as an educator. He taught at Hunter and Baruch colleges of the City University of New York (CUNY), toured widely to give workshops, and served on national and international educational advisory panels. Along with sharing his knowledge of jazz, Hinton began to host exhibitions of his work as a jazz photographer, a passion that paralleled his life as a musician. As the importance of this activity came to be recognized, selections from his many thousand photographs appeared in two books (the first presenting his autobiography) and in magazine articles, major exhibitions, museum collections, and the film A Great Day in Harlem (1995).

During the early 1980’s, Hinton toured widely in celebration of his seventy-fifth birthday. He played with Benny Carter at the Chicago Jazz Festival in 1989 and was featured at the Nice and New York festivals in 1990. Perhaps in order to propagate the spirit of jazz and cement his place in its rich history, Hinton recorded an autobiographical documentary in twenty-eight episodes for WRTI-FM in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

As he approached his mid-eighties, Hinton joined Lionel Hampton’s Golden Men of Jazz and toured with clarinetist Buddy DeFranco, vibraphonist Terry Gibbs, and guitarist Herb Ellis in a sextet devoted to Benny Goodman’s small-combo swing repertory.

Hinton received many awards in his later years, including a number of honorary doctorates and, in 1993, the American Jazz Master Fellowship. He died in Queens, New York, at the age of ninety, leaving a rich legacy spanning and affecting the jazz canon—from Chicago jazz and swing to the complexities of the bebop generation.

Significance

Hinton was one of the most sought-after bassists in the history of jazz, known for his unflagging sense of time and exploratory harmonic inventions. A forward-thinking musician, Hinton was one of the few bassists to bridge the evolutions within the jazz canon, adapting and adopting new melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic conventions for the double bass.

Bibliography

Chevan, David. “The Double Bass as a Solo Instrument in Early Jazz.” The Black Perspective in Music 17, nos. 1/2 (1989): 73-92. Although this article focuses on Jimmy Blanton, it also discusses Hinton’s work and is a useful reference for understanding the double bass’s place in the context of jazz.

DeVeaux, Scott. The Birth of Bebop: A Social and Musical History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997. Using oral history and research, DeVeaux traces the development and significance of bebop in the 1930’s and 1940’s. This excellent jazz resource analyzes the genre and examines its cultural impact.

Hinton, Milt, and David G. Berger. Bass Line: The Stories and Photographs of Milt Hinton. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1988. Hinton’s autobiography offers a compelling look at his life through prose and photographs.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Playing the Changes: Milt Hinton’s Life in Stories and Photographs. Nashville, Tenn.: Vanderbilt University Press, 2008. An expansive volume that adds greatly to the earlier monograph, Bass Line: The Stories and Photographs of Milt Hinton.