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Oscar Pettiford

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Oscar Pettiford
Pettiford at the Aquarium, New York City, in 1946
Background information
Born(1922-09-30)September 30, 1922
Okmulgee, Oklahoma, U.S.
DiedSeptember 8, 1960(1960-09-08) (aged 37)
Copenhagen, Denmark
GenresJazz, bebop, third stream
Occupation(s)Musician, composer
Instrument(s)Double bass, cello
Years active1942–1960
LabelsDebut, Bethlehem, ABC

Oscar Pettiford (September 30, 1922 – September 8, 1960)[1] was an American jazz double bassist, cellist and composer. He was one of the earliest musicians to work in the bebop idiom.

Jazz bassist Christian McBride called Pettiford "probably the most important bass player of that bebop generation in terms of creating new language for the bass."[2]

Early life

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Pettiford (left) and Junior Raglin at the Aquarium of New York City, November 1946

Pettiford was born in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, United States.[1] His mother identified as being of Choctaw descent, and his father Harry "Doc" Pettiford identified as half Cherokee and half African-American.[3]

He grew up playing in the family band, in which he sang and danced before switching to piano at the age of 12, then to double bass when he was 14.[1] Jamela Pettiford, a singer in St. Paul, Minnesota, and a descendant of the Pettiford family, told Minnesota Public Radio in 2022 that the Pettiford family band traveled itinerantly for a time as road musicians before settling in north Minneapolis.[2]

Pettiford is quoted as saying that he did not like the way people were playing the bass, so he developed his own way of playing it. Despite being admired by the likes of Milt Hinton at the age of 14, he gave up in 1941 because he did not believe he could make a living. Five months later, he once again met Hinton, who persuaded him to return to music.

Career

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In 1942, Pettiford joined the Charlie Barnet band and in 1943 gained wider public attention after recording with Coleman Hawkins on his "The Man I Love".[1] Pettiford also recorded with Earl Hines and Ben Webster around this time.[1] After he moved to New York, he was one of the musicians (together with Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Kenny Clarke) who in the early 1940s jammed at Minton's Playhouse, where the music style developed that was later called bebop.[1] Pettiford and Dizzy Gillespie led a bop group in 1943.[1] In 1945, Pettiford went with Hawkins to California, where he appeared in The Crimson Canary, a mystery movie known for its jazz soundtrack, which also featured Josh White. 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.[1]

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.[4][5] He first played the cello as a practical joke on his band leader (Woody Herman), when he walked off stage during his solo spot and came back, unexpectedly with a cello and played on that. 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 the remainder of his career.[1]

He recorded extensively during the 1950s for the Debut, Bethlehem and ABC Paramount labels, among others. During the mid-1950s, he played on the first three albums that Thelonious Monk recorded for the Riverside label.

Between 1954 and 1958, Pettiford also led sextets, big bands and jazz orchestras which played dates in Manhattan venues like Birdland, where he continued to explore unusual instrumental voicing including French horns and harp. The reedist and composer Gigi Gryce collaborated with Pettiford on the novel arrangements for the orchestra's hi-fi albums.

In 1958, Pettiford moved to Copenhagen, Denmark,[1] and started recording for European companies. After his move to Europe, he often performed with European musicians, such as Attila Zoller, and also with other Americans who had settled in Europe, including Bud Powell and Kenny Clarke.

Death

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Pettiford died in 1960 in Copenhagen, shortly before his 38th birthday,[1] from a virus closely related to polio.

Discography

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Pettiford headlining with Erroll Garner and J. C. Heard at Three Deuces nightclub on 52nd Street, July 1948 (photograph by William P. Gottlieb).

As leader

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As sideman

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. p. 1945/6. ISBN 0-85112-939-0.
  2. ^ a b Nelson, Tim (September 30, 2022). "Born 100 years ago and raised in Minnesota, Oscar Pettiford changed the sound of American music". Minnesota Public Radio Archive. St. Paul, Minnesota. Retrieved May 25, 2024.
  3. ^ Goldsby, John (October 4, 2002). The Jazz Bass Book: Technique and Tradition. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 56. ISBN 9780879307165. Retrieved October 4, 2021 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ "Oscar Pettiford: Bass Beyond Bop". NPR.org. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
  5. ^ "Oscar Pettiford | Biography & History". AllMusic. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
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