Song:My Reverie
Album:Lausanne 1960
Though trombonist Melba Liston rarely recorded as a leader, she was a major contributor to jazz as an arranger with among others Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones and Randy Weston. And as you will see in this video, she could play. She was born Jan. 13, 1926 in Kansas City, MO. Her mom bought her a trombone at age 7. Her family moved to Los Angeles and she was classmates with Dexter Gordon. She joined Gerald Wilson's big band in 1943 and got into bebop with Gordon and Gillespie. In the 50s, she came off the road and started teaching. She still played local clubs and sessions. My Reverie is based on the Claude Debussy classical piece Reverie. Larry Clinton added lyrics and scored a hit with it in 1938. Today it's a jazz standard. Melba wrote an arrangement of Reverie for the 1956 Dizzy Gillespie album World Statesman. A couple of years later while touring Europe with her own band, Quincy Jones hired her for his band. He was living in Europe at the time. But he was about to become an executive at Mercury Records. The video clip is from a 1960 concert in Lausanne, Switzerland. The concert is out of print on DVD but it is available on CD. Melba started arranging for Randy Weston and she worked for him for 40 years. She was largely responsible for his use of African rhythms. She also worked with Milt Jackson, Clark Terry, Johnny Griffin and Ray Charles. In 1973, Melba moved to Jamaica and opened a music school. She returned to the US in 1979. A 1985 stroke left Melba unable to play the trombone. But she continued to write arrangements until her death on Apr. 23, 1999 at 73. For more on Melba Liston, check out the documentary Girls In The Band which you can stream for free on Kanopy if you have a library card. I watched it a couple of weeks ago. Here's Melba Liston with The Quincy Jones Big Band performing My Reverie in Lausanne, Switzerland May 20, 1960.
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