AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Milt Jackson

Artist:Milt Jackson

Song:I Should Care

Album:Bags of Soul

This is part of my series of classic jazz for beginners. The only requirements are a performance video clip and a CD appropriate for beginners. Milt Jackson was the first bebop vibraphonist. Up until then, Lionel Hampton was the best known vibraphonist. Jackson was a member of The Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ). But he also recorded as a leader and he recorded I Should Care on one of his own albums and performed it live with MJQ. MJQ never recorded it in the studio. Jackson was born Jan. 1, 1923 in Detroit. He started playing guitar at age seven and switched to piano at age 11. Jackson says his major musical influence was in church. While in high school, Jackson played drums, tympani and violin and he also sang in the gospel quartet The Evangelist Singers. Then he heard Hampton play the vibraphone in Benny Goodman's band and that was it. Jackson was discovered in 1945 by Dizzy Gillespie and that's where he learned bebop in Gillespie's band and playing with Howard McGhee, Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker. Out of the Gillespie band, Jackson formed The Milt Jackson Quartet in 1950 with John Lewis on piano, Ray Brown on bass and Kenny Clarke on drums. They became MJQ in 1952 with Percy Heath replacing Brown. Connie Kay replaced Clarke in 1955. And that was MJQ until they split up in 1974. Lewis liked to mix jazz with classical themes and Jackson like to mix swing and bebop. So it's not surprising that Jackson had a career as a leader separate from MJQ. I Should Care is from Jackson's first album as a leader Milt Jackson Quartet. It was his only album for Prestige Records.The band is MJQ with Horace Silver subbing for Lewis on piano along with Heath and Kay. It was probably supposed to be an MJQ record as they were on Prestige at the time. I Should Care was written by Sammy Cahn, Axel Stordahl and Paul Weston for the 1944 Esther Williams musical Thrill of a Romance. It was performed in the film by Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra. Stordahl was Frank Sinatra's musical director so Sinatra recorded it in 1945. It was then recorded by Peggy Lee, Harry James and Bud Powell and is now a jazz standard. Jackson signed with Savoy Records and recorded five albums for them. Those recordings are what you will find on this 4CD budget box set from the British label Proper. MJQ and Jackson both signed with Atlantic. MJQ stayed with Atlantic until the 1974 split. Jackson left Atlantic in 1961 and recorded for Verve, Impulse, Riverside, Limelight and later CTI, Pablo and Qwest. MJQ reformed in 1981. So Jackson continued to record and tour with MJQ and his own band until he died on Oct. 9, 1999 at age 76. Here's Milt Jackson with Modern Jazz Quartet performing I Should Care on the Italian TV network RAI 1961.