Description

Pianist/composer/musical director John Lewis, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, drummer Kenny Clarke (later replaced by Connie Kay), and bassist Percy Heath formed the Modern Jazz Quartet in the mid 1950s and were still together in the mid '90s (after a six-year break). The group's popular chamber-jazz sound was informed by Lewis's extensive studies in European compositional techniques. Jackson died in 1999, definitively closing the book on the long-lived, enormously influential quartet.

Biography

Often described as the greatest small group in jazz. In 1951, four musicians who had previously played together in the Dizzy Gillespie big band formed a small recording group. Known as the Milt Jackson Quartet, the group consisted of Jackson (b. 1 January 1923, Detroit, Michigan, USA, d. 9 October 1999, New York City, New York, USA; vibraphone), John Lewis (b. John Aaron Lewis, 3 May 1920, LaGrange, Illinois, USA, d. 29 March 2001, New York, USA; piano), Ray Brown (b. 13 October 1926, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; bass), and Kenny Clarke (b. 9 January 1914, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, d. 26 January 1985, Paris, France; drums). Brown's place was soon taken by Percy Heath (b. 30 April 1923, Wilmington, North Carolina, USA), and by the following year, the group had adopted the name Modern Jazz Quartet. Although initially only a recording group, they then began playing concert engagements. In 1955, Clarke dropped out to be replaced by Connie Kay (b. Conrad Henry Kirnon, 27 April 1927, Tuckahoe, New York, USA, d. 30 November 1994, New York City, New York, USA).
The new line-up of Jackson, Lewis, Heath and Kay continued performing as a full-time ensemble for the next few years, later reducing their collective commitments to several months each year. Seen as both a black response to the intellectualism of the Dave Brubeck quartet and New York's answer to west coast cool jazz, the MJQ were both very popular and very controversial, their detractors claiming that their music was too delicate and too cerebral. Whatever the case, there was certainly no denying that the group brought the dignity and professionalism of a classical quartet to their jazz performances. In 1974, the MJQ was disbanded, but re-formed once more in 1981 for a concert tour of Japan. The success of this comeback convinced the members to reunite on a semi-permanent basis, which they did in the following year.
Since 1982 they have continued to play concert and festival dates. Among the most sophisticated of all bop ensembles, the MJQ's directing influence has always been Lewis, whose sober performing and composing style was never more apparent than in this context. Lewis' interest in classical music was been influential in MJQ performances, thus placing the group occasionally, and possibly misleadingly, on the fringes of third-stream jazz. The playing of Heath and Kay in this, as in most other settings in which they work, is distinguished by its subtle swing. Of the four, Jackson was the most musically volatile, and the restraints placed upon him in the MJQ created intriguing formal tensions which were, in jazz terms, one of the most exciting aspects of the group's immaculately played, quietly serious music.
DISCOGRAPHY: Modern Jazz Quartet With Milt Jackson (Prestige 1953)****, Modern Jazz Quartet Vol. 2 (Prestige 1953)***, Django (Pres 1954)****, Concorde (Prestige 1955)****, Modern Jazz Quartet (Savoy 1955)***, The Artistry Of (Prestige 1956)****, The MJQ At Music Inn (Atlantic 1956)***, Django (Prestige 1956)****, Fontessa (Atlantic 1956)****, Live (Jazz Anthology 1956)***, One Never Knows (1957)***, MJQ (Atlantic 1957)****, Live At The Lighthouse (Atlantic 1957)****, At Music Inn: Vol. 2 (Atlantic 1958)***, Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)***, Longing For The Continent (LRC 1959)***, European Concert (Atlantic 1960)***, Patterns (United Artists 1960)***, Third Stream Music: MJQ And Guests (Atlantic 1960)***, Pyramid (Atlantic 1960)****, MJQ And Orchestra (Atlantic 1961)**, Lonely Woman (Atlantic 1962)***, The Comedy (Atlantic 1962)***, The Sheriff (Atlantic 1964)***, with Laurindo Almeida Collaboration (Atlantic 1964)***, A Quartet Is A Quartet Is A Quartet (Atlantic 1964)***, Plays Gershwin's Porgy And Bess (Atlantic 1965)***, Play For Lovers (Prestige 1966)***, Plays Jazz Classics (Prestige 1966)***, Jazz Dialogue (Atlantic 1966)***, Blues At Carnegie Hall (Atlantic 1967)***, Under The Jasmine Tree (Apple 1968)**, Space (Apple 1969)**, Plastic Dreams (Atlantic 1971)**, The Legendary Profile (Atlantic 1972)***, Blues On Bach (Atlantic 1974)****, The Complete Last Concert (Atlantic 1974)****, In Memoriam (1977)***, Together Again! (Pablo 1982)***, Together Again!: Echoes (Pablo 1984)***, Three Windows (Atlantic 1987)***, For Ellington (East West 1988)***, MJQ & Friends (Atlantic 1994)***, A Celebration (Atlantic 1994)***, In A Crowd 1963 live recording (Douglas Music 1998)***, European Concert 1960 recording (Label M 2001)***.
COMPILATIONS: MJQ 40 4-CD box set (Atlantic 1992)****, The Complete Modern Jazz Quartet Prestige And Pablo Recordings (Prestige 2003)***.
VIDEOGRAPHY: 40 Years Of MJQ (View Video 1995).

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