Milton Jackson (January 1, 1923 – October 9, 1999), known as "Bags," was an American jazz vibraphone player. He is best known for his smooth, rhythmic solos while part of the Modern Jazz Quartet and for his interest in working with musicians who played hard bop and post-bop styles.

Jackson was a highly expressive musician who stood out by focusing on changes in harmonics and rhythm. He often performed slow versions of the twelve-bar blues. Occasionally, he also sang and played the piano.

Biography

Jackson was born on January 1, 1923, in Detroit, Michigan, United States. He was the son of Manley Jackson and Lillie Beaty Jackson. Like many people his age, he was exposed to music early in life, especially from religious meetings. He once said, "Everyone wants to know where I got that funky style. Well, it came from church. The music I heard was open, relaxed, and spontaneous soul music" (as noted in Nat Hentoff's liner notes to Plenty, Plenty Soul). He began playing guitar at age seven and piano at age 11.

While attending Miller High School, he played drums, timpani, and violin, and also sang in the choir. At 16, he sang professionally in a local touring gospel group called the Evangelist Singers. He started playing the vibraphone at 16 after hearing Lionel Hampton perform the instrument in Benny Goodman's band. Jackson was discovered by Dizzy Gillespie, who hired him for his sextet in 1945 and later for his larger ensembles. Jackson gained experience working with important jazz musicians of the time, including Woody Herman, Howard McGhee, Thelonious Monk, and Charlie Parker.

In Gillespie's big band, Jackson became part of a small group that later led to the formation of the Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ). Gillespie kept a tradition of having a small group within a big band, including Jackson, pianist John Lewis, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Kenny Clarke (a pioneer of a drumming style that became central to bop and later jazz). When the group decided to work independently around 1950, they were first known as the Milt Jackson Quartet and later became the Modern Jazz Quartet in 1952. By then, Percy Heath had replaced Ray Brown.

At first, the MJQ focused on Jackson's blues-based improvisations, but over time, the group balanced these with John Lewis's more complex musical ideas. By 1955, Lewis became the group's musical director, and Clarke was replaced by Connie Kay, shifting the quartet's style to a more refined, lyrical approach that highlighted the contrast between Lewis's detailed compositions and Jackson's strong, rhythmic playing.

The MJQ had an independent career lasting about two decades until they disbanded in 1974, when Jackson left the group. They reunited in 1981 and continued until 1993. After that, Jackson performed in smaller ensembles but agreed to occasional MJQ reunions. From the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, Jackson recorded for Norman Granz's Pablo Records, including Jackson, Johnson, Brown & Company (1983), which featured Jackson with J. J. Johnson on trombone, Ray Brown on bass, and others.

In 1989, Jackson received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music. His composition "Bags' Groove" is a well-known jazz standard. "Bags" was a nickname given to him by a bass player in Detroit, referring to the bags under his eyes. Jackson was featured on the NPR radio program Jazz Profiles. Other notable compositions include "The Late, Late Blues" (from his album Bags & Trane), "Bluesology" (a staple of the MJQ), and "Bags & Trane."

Jackson died of liver cancer in Manhattan, New York, at the age of 76. He was married to Sandra Whittington from 1959 until his death; the couple had one daughter.

Discography

• I/We Had a Ball (Limelight, 1965) – recorded in 1964
• All Star Bags (Blue Note, 1976)[2LP] – recorded between 1952 and 1957
• Milt Jackson (Quintessence Jazz Series) (Pickwick, 1979)
• The Best of Milt Jackson (Pablo, 1980)

• Vendome (Prestige, 1952)
• Modern Jazz Quartet, II (Prestige, 1955)
• Concorde (Prestige, 1955)
• Fontessa (Atlantic, 1956)
• The Modern Jazz Quartet at Music Inn (Atlantic, 1956)
• The Modern Jazz Quartet (Atlantic, 1957)
• The Modern Jazz Quartet and the Oscar Peterson Trio at the Opera House (Verve, 1957)
• The Modern Jazz Quartet Plays No Sun in Venice (Atlantic, 1958) – film score recorded in 1957
• The Modern Jazz Quartet at Music Inn Volume 2 (Atlantic, 1958)
• Music from Odds Against Tomorrow (United Artists, 1959) – soundtrack
• Third Stream Music (Atlantic, 1960) – recorded between 1959 and 1960, including Sketch for Double String Quartet (1959)
• Pyramid (Atlantic, 1960)
• The Modern Jazz Quartet & Orchestra (Atlantic, 1960)
• European Concert (Atlantic, 1960) – live recording
• The Comedy (Atlantic, 1962) – recorded between 1960 and 1962
• Lonely Woman (Atlantic, 1962)
• A Quartet is a Quartet is a Quartet (Atlantic, 1963)
• Collaboration with Laurindo Almeida (Atlantic, 1964)
• The Modern Jazz Quartet Plays George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess (Atlantic, 1965) – recorded between 1964 and 1965
• Jazz Dialogue with the All-Star Jazz Band (Atlantic, 1965)
• Concert in Japan '66 (Atlantic [Japan], 1966)
• Blues at Carnegie Hall (Atlantic, 1966)
• Place Vendôme with The Swingle Singers (Philips, 1966)
• Under the Jasmin Tree (Apple, 1968) – recorded in 1967
• Space (Apple, 1969)
• Plastic Dreams (Atlantic, 1971)
• The Legendary Profile (Atlantic, 1972)
• In Memoriam (Little David, 1973)
• Blues on Bach (Atlantic, 1974) – recorded in 1973
• The Last Concert (Atlantic, 1974)
• The Only Recorded Performance of Paul Desmond With The Modern Jazz Quartet with Paul Desmond (Finesse/Columbia, 1981) – recorded in 1971
• Reunion at Budokan 1981 (Pablo, 1981)
• Together Again: Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival '82 (Pablo, 1982)
• Echoes (Pablo, 1984)
• Topsy: This One's for Basie (Pablo, 1985)
• Three Windows (Atlantic, 1987)
• For Ellington (East West, 1988)
• MJQ & Friends: A 40th Anniversary Celebration (Atlantic, 1994) – recorded between 1992 and 1993
• Dedicated to Connie (Atlantic, 1995) – live recording from 1960
• Lost Tapes: Germany 1956–1958 (Jazzhaus, 2013) – live recordings from 1956–1958

• CTI All-Stars, CTI Summer Jazz at the Hollywood Bowl (CTI, 1991)[2CD] – recorded in 1972