Vibraphonist Milt Jackson, best known for his years with the Modern Jazz Quartet, was born on New Year’s Day 1923 in Detroit, Michigan. Jackson started playing guitar when he was seven and piano at age 11. While attending Miller High School he played percussion, performed on violin and sang in the choir. Jackson became interested in learning vibraphone after hearing Lionel Hampton play with Benny Goodman’s group.

Dizzy Gillespie heard Milt Jackson play when the vibraphonist was 22 years old and hired him to join his sextet. Soon thereafter, Jackson was playing with Gillespie’s big band and then with ensembles led by Charlie Parker, Howard McGhee, Thelonious Monk and Woody Herman. The rhythm section in the Gillespie big band included Jackson, John Lewis on piano, Ray Brown playing bass and Kenny Clarke at the drums. The four began playing gigs on their own around 1950 as the Milt Jackson Quartet. By 1952 they had changed the name of the group to the Modern Jazz Quartet and Percy Heath had replaced Brown on bass. When Clarke left for Europe in 1955 Connie Kay became the new drummer and that lineup would continue until the MJQ broke up in 1974.

The MJQ reformed in 1981 and continued to play as a group until 1993. When not playing with that combo, Milt Jackson, known for his “unapologetically swinging” improvisation, toured with his own group. Jackson, known as “Bags,” also performed and recorded with Dinah Washington, Stanley Turrentine, Roy Eldridge, Quincy Jones, Benny Carter and Count Basie. Jackson received an honorary doctorate from the Berklee College of Music in 1989. He passed away from liver cancer in 1999 at the age of 76. The accompanying photo was taken during a performance in Seattle around 1980.

Here is a link to a 1982 performance of Bag’s Groove:

"BAG'S GROOVE"