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.
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] He 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.
In 1942, he 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.[3][4] 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.
Pettiford died in 1960 in Copenhagen, shortly before his 38th birthday,[1] from a virus closely related to polio.
Duke Ellington: Carnegie Hall Concert January 1946 (Prestige)
Duke Ellington: Carnegie Hall Concert December 1947 (Prestige); 1947–1948 (Classics), 1949–1950 (Classics), Great Times! (OJC, 1950) (includes "
Perdido", "Blues for Blanton")
Tal Farlow: Jazz Masters 41 (Verve 1955–58); Finest Hour (Verve, 1955–58)