Modern Jazz 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 originally comprised Milt Jackson (Milton Jackson, 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, d. 28 April 2005, Southampton, New York, 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. They recorded for the Prestige Records, Atlantic Records, Verve Records, United Artists Records and Apple Records labels between 1952 and the start of the 70s. 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. From 1982 onwards they continued to play concert and festival dates, and recorded several more albums on the Pablo and Atlantic labels. By the early 90s the ailing Kay had been replaced by Mickey Roker (b. 3 September 1932, Miami, Florida, USA). Following Kay's death in 1994, Percy Heath's brother Al "Tootie" Heath (b. Albert Heath, 31 May 1935, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA) played drums for the quartet but Milt Jackson's death in 1999 effectively meant the end of the MJQ. John Lewis passed away in March 2001 and Percy Heath four years later. Among the most sophisticated of all bop ensembles, the MJQ's directing influence was always Lewis, whose sober performing and composing style was never more apparent than in this context. Lewis' interest in classical music was 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 worked, was 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.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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