page_title: Milt Hinton
section_title: Growing up in Chicago (1919–1935)
hierarchical_section_title: Milt Hinton / Biography / Growing up in Chicago (1919–1935)
caption_attribution_description: English: Image of Milt Hinton from 1930 high school yearbook
context_page_description: Milton John Hinton was an American double bassist and photographer.
  Regarded as the Dean of American jazz bass players, his nicknames included "Sporty" from his years in Chicago, "Fump" from his time on the road with Cab Calloway, and "The Judge" from the 1950s and beyond. Hinton's recording career lasted over 60 years, mostly in jazz but also with a variety of other genres as a prolific session musician.
  He was also a photographer of note, praised for documenting American jazz during the 20th Century.
context_section_description: Hinton moved with his extended family to Chicago, Illinois, in the fall of 1919, which created opportunities for him. Chicago was where Hinton first encountered economic diversity among African-Americans, about which he later noted, "That's when I realized that being black didn't always mean you had to be poor." It was also where he experienced an abundance of music, either in person or through live performances on the radio. During this time he first heard concerts featuring Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, Earl Hines, Eddie South, and many others.
  Music was a fixture at home. His mother and other relatives regularly played piano. He received his first instrument – a violin – in 1923 for his thirteenth birthday. In addition to taking lessons on the violin, Hinton and his mother attended performances at the Vendome Theater every Sunday, featuring the orchestra of Erskine Tate with Louis Armstrong as a feature soloist. While attending Wendell Phillips High School, he played violin in the school orchestra and learned peck horn in order to play in the school's ROTC marching band that was directed by Major N. Clark Smith. He soon transitioned from peck horn to bass saxophone and then to tuba, while also being accepted into the citywide brass band sponsored by The Chicago Defender, where he played with Lionel Hampton.
  After graduating from high school, Hinton attended Crane Junior College for two years, during which time he began receiving regular work as a freelance musician around Chicago. He performed with Freddie Keppard, Zutty Singleton, Jabbo Smith, Erskine Tate, and Art Tatum. His first steady job began in the spring of 1930, playing tuba (and later double bass) in the band of pianist Tiny Parham. His recording debut on November 4, 1930 was on tuba with Parham's band on a tune titled "Squeeze Me." After graduating from Crane Junior College in 1932, attended Northwestern University for one semester, then dropped out to pursue music full-time. He received steady work from 1932 through 1935 in a quartet with violinist Eddie South, with extended residencies in California, Chicago, and Detroit. With this group he first recorded on double bass in the spring of 1933.
caption: Milt Hinton from his high school yearbook (1930), from the Milton J. and Mona C. Hinton Collection, Oberlin Conservatory Library special collections
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