"The Judge" holding court on the bass
C. Calloway Brooks on Milton
Hinton--
Milt "the Judge" Hinton is one of the greatest people I've ever known.
It was an honor to be a pallbearer at his funeral, and to have the Cab Calloway
Orchestra perform, at his memorial service the pieces I've discovered from my
Grandfather's historic repertoire that are dedicated to him, and were never
recorded.
It was also a privilege to work with him on some of these pieces while he
was still living. Milton was so
instrumental in the development of the Orchestra and gave us so much support.
The Cab Calloway Orchestra probably wouldn't be around today if it weren't for
Milt and his incredible wife Mona. She's like the honorary Dutchess of the
Cab Calloway Orchestra.
All I can say about Milt is that musicians would do well to study everything
about him both on and off stage, he became the most-recorded bass player in
history, and there are some good reasons for why that happened-- he did it ALL,
with style. --CB
Born June 23, 1910, in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and raised in Chicago, Milton
John Hinton received his first music lessons from his mother, whom he describes
as a "home style" music teacher. He also studied violin at Wendell Phillips High
School, gravitating to bass saxophone, tuba, and cello before settling on the
bass violin. One of the most compelling family portraits in his possession is
that of his grandmother, a former slave of Jefferson Davis.
She taught him the value of looking out for one's own, a tenet he's exercised
in his career.
Hinton graduated in 1929, and the release that year of The Jazz Singer, the
motion picture feature with sound, markedly altered his career choices. Movie
theaters dismissed their pit orchestras wholesale, and legions of live
accompanists, including many black violinists, were forced to seek work
elsewhere. Jazz combos gradually began to anchor their sound with the string
bass, phasing out the bellows-like sound of the tuba.
Continuing his musical studies at Crane Junior College and Northwestern
University, Hinton became a private pupil of Dmetri Shmuklovsky. As he recalled,
"Some white teachers wouldn't even want to teach me because I was black, but the
first time he listened to me, he agreed to." When he wasn't tossing newspapers,
Hinton worked wherever he could.
Traveling to California in the early '30s with violin great Eddie South,
Hinton performed in clubs and also made some of his earliest recordings in
Chicago. While in Chicago, Hinton witnessed an instance of a black musician
accompanying a white singer while concealed behind a screen. Hinton was
undeterred by this exclusionist norm, shrugging off similar affronts until they
ran their course. While in a band with no drums, Hinton perfected a more complex
technique of slapping the bass because "older guys were doing it on their solos
and I wanted to take it one step further."
In addition to Eddie South, Hinton gained added bandstand experience with
Freddie Keppard, Johnny Long, Cassino Simpson, Jabbo Smith, Erskine Tate, Art
Tatum and Joe Venuti.
By 1935, Hinton had established himself as Chicago's premier bass player as a
member of drummer Zutty Singleton's band. Singleton was respected for his work
with Louis Armstrong's Hot Five, Earl Hines and others.
One night, a rakishly dressed Cab Calloway scouted Hinton at the Three
Deuces, conferring with his boss after their set. The next morning, with
Singleton's blessing, Hinton became Calloway's new bass player, the band's
youngest musician.
While with Calloway's band, Hinton worked alongside Danny Barker, Chu Berry,
Cozy Cole, Dizzy Gillespie, Illinois Jacquet, Jonah Jones, Ike Quebec and Ben
Webster. Gillespie, the affable, creative firebrand, became a lifelong friend of
the bassman. The pair would rehearse on the roof of New York's Cotton Club after
a performance, then walk to Minton's in Harlem to attend jam sessions. One can
say he was both artificer and witness to the new bop music.
The challenging practice regimen developed by his bandmates from 1936 through
1951--rearranging tunes, rehearsing in pairs and small groups--coupled with his
ability to read charts, provided invaluable preparation for Hinton's later
session work, where spontaneity, musicianship and adaptability were the order of
the day. After Calloway's orchestra disbanded in '51, Hinton became one of the
first black full-time studio musicians in New York City. There he secured
numerous studio bookings, and entertained and succored fellow musicians at the
home which he and his wife, Mona Clayton Hinton, purchased in Queens in 1948.
In his heyday, Hinton recorded numerous jingles, film soundtracks, and radio
and television programs. Using bow, rapid-fire fingering or percussive
"slapping" techniques, Hinton's formidable skills cut to the quick like a razor,
his the emotional precision of his sound has him in demand to the present day.
Hinton's studio punctuality spawned his nickname, "The Judge." "I'd always be
the first guy at recording sessions," he remembered. "Then the producer would
arrive and say, `Well, we can start the session now, "The Judge" is here.'"
Hinton's technical skills served him in good stead for marathon stretches. "I'd
do three record dates a day...10 a.m. to 1 p.m., 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. to
10 p.m." For several years running, his most noted cohorts were Hank Jones, Osie
Johnson and Barry Galbraith--the famed New York Rhythm Section--who performed in
an off-duty combo and appeared on diverse numerous projects.
"Bass players have made more improvement than players of any other instrument
in the last 40 years," observed Hinton, who absorbed the time-keeping
innovations introduced by Ellington's bassist Jimmy Blanton firsthand in the
'30s. The lowest voice in the orchestra became a liberated and expressive one.
Jimmy Blanton, Oscar Pettiford, Ray Brown, Scott LaFaro, Charles Mingus, and Ron
Carter are a part of a continuum that "the oldest bass player standing" can
appreciate.
Hinton hasn't only championed jazz with his tutelage of younger players. When
the recording industry was thriving in the '50s and '60s, Hinton made efforts to
keep jazz musicians--turned studio players--in touch with their jazz roots. He
held Sunday rehearsals in the basement of his home, affectionately known as "The
Trap," where a devoted cadre of fellow musicians purchased charts with pooled
funds, practiced jazz arrangements and kept their technical skills fresh. For a
few to whom it mattered, the dignity of the music was preserved with monk-like
devotion.
Since 1935, Hinton has documented jazz life with his camera. His collection
of candid photographs of jazz luminaries on the road, in recording sessions, in
segregated Pullman cars and facilities, parties and other settings, has grown to
more than 35,000 images. With the assistance of sociologist David G. Berger, and
paper conservator Holly Maxson, Hinton's work has appeared in individual and
group exhibits in the United States and Europe. His photographs have also
appeared in magazines, documentary films, and have been published in Bass
Line: The Stories And Photographs Of Milt Hinton (Temple University Press),
and OverTime: The Jazz
Photographs Of Milt Hinton (Pomegranate).
As an educator, Hinton has taught jazz workshops at Hunter and Baruch Colleges in Manhattan. He holds
honorary doctorates from William Patterson College, Skidmore College, Hamilton
College, DePaul University and Trinity College. He has received the Living
Treasure Award from the Smithsonian Institution for his contributions to its
oral history project. He has been a panel member of the National Endowment Of
The Arts, and was awarded its prestigious American Jazz Master Fellowship. In
1980, to celebrate his 70th birthday, the Milton J. Hinton Bass Scholarship was
established in his name for promising jazz bassists.
With the subtle textures of LAUGHING AT LIFE, Hinton has retained a prime
instruction from his session playing, given right at the moment when he'd
absorbed a chart and conveyed exactly what was written to its composer: "Have
some fun with it, Milt." For a man who's played "Minnie The Moocher" a few
thousand times in his career, there can be no other way.
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