​Jimmie Blanton, a bassist best known for his time with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, was born on October 5, 1918 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Although his career was shortened by his early death, Blanton was important in jazz history as one of the first bassists to incorporate classical pizzicato and bowing techniques to the genre.

Blanton played violin as a child but switched to acoustic bass while a student a Tennessee State University in the mid-1930s. While matriculating there he played with a campus jazz group known as the Tennessee State Collegians during the school year and gigged with Fate Marable on Mississippi riverboats during summer breaks.

In 1938 Blanton left school and relocated to St. Louis where he played with the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra. A year later he was picked up by Duke Ellington’s orchestra and had an immediate impact on the group. Not too long after he joined Ellington, Blanton and the band leader made two sides that were the first commercially recorded piano-bass duets. In 1940 the two recorded additional duets and Blanton was increasingly featured in live performances and on records by the Ellington band. Blanton was put front and center on the bandstand at live performances and was often featured as a soloist. Along with tenor saxophonist Ben Webster, Blanton was such an important member of the orchestra that it is sometimes referred to as the Blanton-Webster band.

When possible, Jimmie Blanton also participated in some of the late-night jam sessions at Minton’s Playhouse where bebop was being incubated. In late 1941 Blanton’s health began to deteriorate, and he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. He was hospitalized at a sanatorium in Duarte, California and died there on July 30, 1942. Historian J. Bradford Robinson wrote of Blanton that “until the advent of the styles of Scott LaFaro and Charlie Haden in the 1960s all modern bass players drew on his innovations."

Here is a link to one of the Ellington/Blanton duets recorded in 1940:

"MR. J.B. BLUES"