associated_acts death_date death_place years_active birth_place name background birth_date instrument genre article_title birth_name occupation
duke ellington july 30 , 1942 -lrb- aged 23 -rrb- california , u.s. 1936 & ndash ; 1942 chattanooga , tennessee , united states jimmie blanton non_vocal_instrumentalist october 5 , 1918 double bass , violin jazz , big band jimmy blanton
 jimmie blanton double bassist
jimmy blanton

jimmie blanton -lrb- october 5 , 1918 -- july 30 , 1942 -rrb- was an influential american jazz double bassist .
blanton is credited with being the originator of more complex pizzicato and arco bass solos in a jazz context than previous bassists .
born in chattanooga , tennessee , blanton originally learned to play the violin , but took up the bass while at tennessee state university , performing with the tennessee state collegians from 1936 to 1937 , and during the vacations with fate marable .
after leaving university to play full-time in st louis with the jeter-pillars orchestra -lrb- with whom he made his first recordings -rrb- , he joined duke ellington 's band in 1939 .
though he stayed with ellington for only two years , blanton made an incalculable contribution in changing the way the double bass was used in jazz .
previously the double bass was rarely used to play anything but quarter notes in ensemble or solos but by soloing on the bass more in a ` horn like ' fashion , blanton began sliding into eighth - and sixteenth-note runs , introducing melodic and harmonic ideas that were totally new to jazz bass playing .
his virtuosity put him in a different class from his predecessors , making him the first true master of the jazz bass and demonstrating the instrument 's unsuspected potential as a solo instrument .
such was his importance to ellington 's band at the time , together with the tenor saxophonist ben webster , that it became known as the blanton -- webster band .
blanton also recorded a series of bass and piano duets with ellington .
in 1941 , blanton was diagnosed with tuberculosis , cutting short his tenure with ellington .
his last recording session was cut on september 26 , 1941 in hollywood .
blanton died the following year after retiring to a sanatorium in california , aged 23 .
