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Oscar Pettiford

Oscar Pettiford born in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, was a double bassist, cellist and composer known particularly for his pioneering work in bebop.

Pettiford's mother was Choctaw and his father was half Cherokee and half African American. Like many African Americans with Native American ancestry, his Native heritage was not generally known except to a few close friends (which included David Amram).

In 1942 he joined the Charlie Barnet band and in 1943 gained wider public attention after recording with Coleman Hawkins on his "The Man I Love." He also recorded with Earl Hines and Ben Webster around this time. He and Dizzy Gillespie led a bop group in 1943. in 1945 Pettiford went with Hawkins to California, where he appeared in The Crimson Canary, a mystery movie known for its jazz soundtrack. He then worked with Duke Ellington from 1945 to 1948 and for Woody Herman in 1949 before working mainly as a leader in the 1950s.

As a leader he inadvertently discovered Cannonball Adderley. After one of his musicians had tricked him into letting Adderley, an unknown music teacher, onto the stand, he had Adderley solo on a demanding piece, on which Adderley performed impressively.

Pettiford is considered the pioneer of the cello as a solo instrument in jazz music. In 1949, after suffering a broken arm, Pettiford found it impossible to play his bass, so he experimented with a cello a friend had lent him. Tuning it in fourths, like a double bass, but one octave higher, Pettiford found it possible to perform during his rehabilitation (during which time his arm was in a sling) and made his first recordings with the instrument in 1950. The cello thus became his secondary instrument, and he continued to perform and record with it throughout his career.

He recorded extensively during the 1950s for the Debut, Bethlehem and ABC Paramount labels among others, and for European companies after he moved to Copenhagen in 1958.

His best known compositions include "Tricrotism" (frequently misspelled "Tricotism"), "Laverne Walk," "Bohemia After Dark," and "Swingin' Till the Girls Come Home."

Oscar Pettiford died of what doctors described as a "Polio- like virus".

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21
Album Review

Thelonious Monk: Brilliant Corners

Read "Brilliant Corners" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci


Writing about being “lost for words" is not the ideal way of starting a review, but it may be the plain truth. Perhaps Thelonious Monk is an acquired taste. Perhaps not. Whatever the case, this particular release of Brilliant Corners is just that--brilliant.The whole package is superb and really defines Craft Recordings “Small Batch" vinyl series. The technical literature accompanying the recording says “Each edition is cut from its original analog tapes by Bernie Grundman and pressed on ...

6
Reassessing

New Faces - New Sounds

Read "New Faces - New Sounds" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


The jazz name Wynton Kelly is typically associated with other artists' endeavors, such as John Coltrane's Giant Steps (Atlantic, 1959), Miles Davis' Kind of Blue (Columbia, 1959) or Wes Montgomery's Smokin' at the Half Note (Verve, 1965), just to mention three landmark recordings. While he always seemed best cast in supporting roles, Kelly did have a highly respectable solo career, and while it was neither as productive, nor considered as critically important as his sideman roles, it is still worthy ...

3
Album Review

Oscar Pettiford & Jan Johansson: In Denmark 1959-1960

Read "In Denmark 1959-1960" reviewed by Chris Mosey


Oscar Pettiford was born in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, in 1922, of a Choctaw Indian mother and a half Cherokee, half African American father. He became one of the most influential bass players in the history of jazz, building on the innovations of Jimmie Blanton to make the bass a genuine solo instrument. He jammed with the founders of bebop at Minton's Playhouse then followed Blanton by joining the Duke Ellington Orchestra from 1945-48. In 1958 ...

6
Album Review

Oscar Pettiford & Jan Johansson: In Denmark 1959-1960

Read "In Denmark 1959-1960" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard


If anyone should doubt how much it has meant to the Danes that a number of prominent American jazz musicians have lived in Denmark for a shorter or longer time, they just need to walk around the streets of Copenhagen. Here you will find street names such as Ben Webster Street, Ernie Wilkins Street and Kenny Drew Street. Another jazz street is named after bassist Oscar Pettiford. Pettiford, along with Swedish pianist Jan Johansson, is the subject ...

606
Album Review

Oscar Pettiford: The Complete Big Band Studio Recordings

Read "The Complete Big Band Studio Recordings" reviewed by Michael Steinman


Whether playing bass or cello, Oscar Pettiford was an extraordinary soloist and ensemble player with a singlar sound and focused attack who levitated sessions with Coleman Hawkins, Miles Davis and Duke Ellington, among many others. In '56 and '57, when Swing Era big bands had given way to small groups and singers, it may have seemed defiant to assemble a jazz orchestra of well-known and presumably costly soloists, but the OP assemblage made two records and appeared at Birdland. This ...

196
Album Review

Oscar Pettiford: The New Oscar Pettiford Sextet

Read "The New Oscar Pettiford Sextet" reviewed by Derek Taylor


Pettiford and Mingus together, reason enough alone to rush out and purchase this disc. A chance to hear these two string giants on the same session is a rare occasion and should not be passed up. Previously only available in part on the exhaustive Complete Mingus Debut Recordings box set these recordings have been long overdue for reissue in their original form. The fact that the rest of the players along with the music they tackle are of equally high ...

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Video / DVD

Backgrounder: Lucky Thompson + Oscar Pettiford

Backgrounder: Lucky Thompson + Oscar Pettiford

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

After I posted Tuesday on saxophonist Lucky Thompson, the emails poured in. So I decided to make my Backgrounder this week one of the Thompson albums I love dearly: Lucky Thompson Featuring Oscar Pettiford. The material was recorded in January and February 1956. The four January tracks are Bo-Bi My Boy, OP Meets LT, Tricotism and Body and Soul. The trio was Lucky Thompson (ts), Skeeter Best (g) and Oscar Pettiford (b). The four February tracks are Tom-Kattin, Old Reliable, ...

Video / DVD

Oscar Pettiford: Gentle Art of Love

Oscar Pettiford: Gentle Art of Love

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Oscar Pettiford was one of jazz's most lyrical bassists and an exceptional composer. Among his finest pieces was The Gentle Art of Love, first recorded in June 1956. To give you a sense of how widely Pettiford was admired, here are the New York all-stars who was in his band for the session: Ernie Royal and Art Farmer (tp), Jimmy Cleveland (tb), Julius Watkins and David Amram (fhr), Gigi Gryce (as,arr), Lucky Thompson (ts,arr), Jerome Richardson (ts,fl), Danny Bank (bar), ...

Video / DVD

Perfect Album: Pettiford in Hi-Fi

Perfect Album: Pettiford in Hi-Fi

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Back in the 1940s and '50s, Oscar Pettiford was one of the finest jazz bassists and cellists in New York. In the mid-1950s, he formed a big band with top musicians and arrangers and recorded two albums for Creed Taylor's ABC-Paramount label. The albums were Oscar Pettiford Orchestra in Hi-Fi, Vol 1. and Vol. 2. The first was recorded in June 1956. The compositions and arrangements on each and every track remain spectacular. The first of the three sessions for ...

Recording

Oscar Pettiford: 1955-'58

Oscar Pettiford: 1955-'58

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

In the spring of 1956, bassist Oscar Pettiford (pictured above with cello), in tandem with producer Creed Taylor, began assembling musicians and arrangers for what would become one of the hippest and sexiest big bands of the mid-decade period. Two albums were recorded a year apart for ABC-Paramount, where Creed was head of jazz A&R. Back in 2008, when I interviewed Creed, I asked him about the two Pettiford orchestral recordings: JazzWax: The Oscar Pettiford Orchestra in Hi-Fi albums were ...

Recording

Manhattan Jazz Septette

Manhattan Jazz Septette

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

In 1956, jazz and pop record labels began to issue 12-inch albums. The format was an upgrade from the 10-inch LP and would remain a staple until the saturation of the marketplace by CDs 40 years later. The new 12-inch LP meant up to 25 minutes of music on each side, allowing for six songs per side at three minutes and change each. To fill the sides, A&R executives at labels turned to crack arrangers and top sight-reading musicians who ...

Ed Bennett
bass, acoustic
Chuck Israels
bass, acoustic
Frank Tusa
bass, acoustic
Ken Lister
bass, acoustic
Nicolas Rageau
bass, acoustic
Jodi Michelle Proznick
bass, acoustic
Adam Armstrong
bass, acoustic
Abraham Pollack
bass, acoustic
Inbar Paz
bass, acoustic
Marco Rottoli
bass, acoustic
Jaehyun Cho
bass, acoustic
Affinity Trio
band / ensemble / orchestra
Jodi Proznick
bass, acoustic
Karan Khosla
guitar, electric

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Brilliant Corners

Craft Recordings
2023

buy

Brilliant Corners

Craft Recordings
2023

buy

In Denmark 1959-1960

Stunt Records/Sundance Music
2016

buy

The Complete Big Band...

Lone Hill Jazz
2006

buy

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