Milt Hinton

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Milt Hinton
Courtesy the Fraser MacPherson estate
Background information
Birth name	Milton John Hilton
Born	June 23, 1910
Origin	Vicksburg, Mississippi, U.S.
Died	December 19, 2000 (90)
Genre(s)	Swing
Occupation(s)	Double bassist, Photographer
Instrument(s)	Double bass
Associated acts	Ruby Braff Cab Calloway

Milt Hinton born Milton John Hilton (Vicksburg, Mississippi, June 23, 1910; d. Queens, New York, December 19, 2000), "the dean of jazz bass players," was an American jazz double bassist and photographer.

Milt Hinton is regarded as one of the greatest jazz bassists of all time. He has been nicknamed "The Judge" for his outstanding musical ability. Hinton was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on June 23, 1910. He lived in Vicksburg until the age of eleven when he moved to Chicago, Illinois. He attended Wendell Phillips High School and Crane Junior College. While attending these schools, he learned to play the bass horn, tuba, cello and the double bass.

In the late 1920s and early 30s, he worked as a freelance musician in Chicago. During this time, he worked with famous jazz musicians such as Jabbo Smith, Eddie South, and Art Tatum. In 1936, he joined a band led by Cab Calloway. Members of this band included Chu Berry, Cozy Cole, Dizzy Gillespie, Illinois Jacquet, Jonah Jones, Ike Quebec, Ben Webster, and Danny Barker.

Hinton possessed a formidable technique and was equally adept and bowing, pizzicato, and "slapping," a technique for which he became famous while playing with the big band of Cab Calloway in the 1930s. Unusually for a double bass player, Hinton was frequently given the spotlight by Calloway, taking virtuosic bass solos in tunes like "Pluckin' the Bass." His work can be heard on the Branford Marsalis album Trio Jeepy.

Also a fine photographer, Hinton documented many of the great jazz musicians via photographs he took over the course of his career. Milt Hinton was one of the best friends of the great jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong.

Hinton played a rare Gofriller Double Bass during his latter career. The dimensions of the bass being much larger than that of a cello or violin, one could make many fine cellos or violins from the amount of wood required to make a single double bass. The bass was in pieces in a cellar in Italy and a musical agent arranged the purchase from the family for Hinton. Hinton in his autobiography "Bass Line" ascribed the tone as magnificent and said it was one of the reasons for his long success in the New York recording studios in the 50's, and 60's .

According to a search of The Jazz Discography (from http://www.lordisco.com/), Hinton is the most-recorded jazz musician of all time, having appeared on 1,174 recordings.

Hinton passed away in 2000 at the age of 90.