Jimmy Blanton

The next bassist I have chosen to research is Jimmy Blanton. Jimmy Blanton was an incredibly influential jazz double bassist. Born in October in Chattanooga Tennessee in 1918 he originally learned how to play the violin. He initiated his professional playing violin in Chattanooga as he grew up playing with groups that his mother who played the piano led.


He attended Tennessee State College where he started to play the stand-up bass. After he switched to the string bass he began to play with local bands led by Joe Smith and “Bugs” Roberts. He also played with the State Collegians. After attending college for three years he moved to St. Louis where he joined up with The Jeter-Pillars Orchestra. Two years later as he was playing a “gig” in St. Louis at The Coronado Hotel Ballroom with Miles Davis’ band, Duke Ellington happened to be in town and was very impressed with what he heard from Blanton. A quote from allmusic.com states ““…Blanton's bass could dance freely around the band and phrase like a horn, all without undermining the music's bass foundation.”[1] Duke Ellington immediately signed Blanton to play in his band. For the next two years Jimmy Blanton played as Ellington’s primary bassist in his band. Ellington wrote specific duets for Blanton to play on bass with tenor sax player Ben Webster. As the two became more popular Duke Ellington’s band was given a recording contract with Victor recording. A quote from allaboutjazz.com said “Jimmy Blanton immediately changed the sound and pulse of the orchestra. He had a fluent, buoyant sense of swing, matched with a unique sense of intonation. It was his quality of levitating the sound by his superior musicianship which inspired the other members of the band to rise to the occasion.”[2]


Jimmy Blanton unfortunately did not live a very long life. While on tour with Ellington’s band in Los Angeles, he became very sick and after spending some time in the hospital he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. He fought it for about a year and was eventually moved to the Duarte Sanitarium, close to Los Angeles. He passed away a few months later in the year of 1942 at an incredible young age. Even though he died young, Jimmy Blanton was still one of the most iconic jazz double bass players of his time and greatly influenced “be-bop”and according to www.jazz.com "Blanton contributed more to the jazz legacy before the age of twenty-five than most do in a lifetime."[3]


http://grooveshark.com/#!/search?q=Jimmy+Blanton

For my listening song for this week I picked a song with both Duke Ellington and Jimmy Blanton. I could not find this song on youtube so I copied the link above that should take you to it on Grooveshark. It is the first song on the list entitled Mr. J.B. Blues. This song starts off with just the Duke and Blanton playing a riff over and over again. After they repeat this 8 times and move on to a new riff I started the song over and noticed that it is indeed in AAB form, however they go with a different AAB on the next run. I found it amazing that both musicians both flow really well together but at the same time everything they do individually is relative simple. Jimmy starts to play with a "bow" on his bass around the 2:07 mark. This is the first time I have ever heard a bow used in a jazz song. Blanton seems to push the limits of what most bassists would do but continues to "bail" himself out of it with smooth transitions and phrasing in his playing. While this is a very basic and smooth piece, I think it shows just how talented both Jimmy Blanton and Duke Ellington were quite well.