Search - Milt Jackson :: Early Modern

This package--planned prior to Milt Jackson's death in late 1999--revisits the prehistory of the Modern Jazz Quartet, when MJQ stood for Milt Jackson Quartet. Indeed, the Modern Jazz Quartet grew out of two Savoy recording sessions; one in 1951 with Jackson on vibraphone, John Lewis on piano, Ray Brown on bass, and Kenny Clarke on drums; the other in 1952 with Percy Heath replacing Brown on bass. Brown almost steals the show on the first session--dig his walk on "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea." But it was immediately apparent that Jackson and Lewis made for an ideal creative partnership. Lewis was a superb arranger with a classically refined sense of restraint; Jackson was a brilliant blues-drenched improviser who brought his instrument into the modern jazz age. That partnership lasted for 45 years, subtracting a non-MJQ break in the '70s. As for Early Modern's inclusion of a couple early sessions featuring Jackson with horns, consider them gravy. -- Rick Mitchell