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Milt Hilton celebrated at the Vail Jazz Festival
By vailjazzteam
Vail Jazz is pleased to celebrate the remarkable work of legendary jazz bassist and photographer Milt Hinton. A three-part celebration includes a digital photography exhibit, to be displayed August 3rd – September 5th, a Documentary screening and a multi-Media Tribute to Hinton both on September 2nd .
One of the most recorded musicians of the 20th century, he also managed to take more than 60,000 photographs to document his career. Since his passing in 2000, Directors David G. Berger, Holly Maxson and Kate Hirson bring Milt Hinton’s music and photographs back to life as curators of the Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection.
Born in 1910 in the deep south of Mississippi, Milt faced extreme poverty and racism, but turned to music where he would find his community. Showing incredible talent at a young age, Milt would find his break with Cab Calloway, touring across the country for almost fifteen years. While balancing family and professional life, Milt toured with Louis Armstrong and from the mid 1950s-70s, was among the first African-Americans to be called in for regular studio session work. Known for recording and performing with a diverse roster of artists including Billy Holiday, Johnny Mathis, Barbra Streisand, Benny Goodman or Bing Crosby, Milt soaked up the jazz scene up until the late 1990s.
While many people put session musicians in the background, it was hard for Milt Hinton to stay there. Mastering a profound musicianship and extensive harmonic knowledge, Milt blew other artists out of the water, where his technical diversity and strengths benefitted sessions greatly. It was in 1935 when Milt received his first camera for his 25th birthday and showed a love for photography, (a 35 mm Argus C3 back then) would spend the rest of his life documenting festivals, studio sessions, tour life, and iconic legends in a beautiful and sentimental way. Whether Milt knew at the time or not that his music and photography would one day play such an important part of American jazz history, is truly an answer many jazz heads want to know.
Watch Clips from the documentary here:
http://milthinton.com/film.html
Don’t miss this rare documentary being shown at the Vail Jazz party in the Grand Ballroom at the Vail Marriott, tickets available for $20 https://vailjazz.org/tickets/vail-jazz-party-tickets/