Little Niles - Music

Oscar Pettiford B. Okmulgee Oklahoma September 30 1922 D. Copenhagen Denmark September 8 1960 Was An American Jazz Bassist Cellist And Composer Known Particularly For His Pioneering Work In Bebop. In 1942 He Joined The Charlie Barnet Band And In 1943 Gained Wider Public Attention After Recording With Coleman Hawkins On His "The Man I Love." He Also Recorded With Earl Hines And Ben Webster Around This Time. He And Dizzy Gillespie Led A Bop Group In 1944. In 1945 Pettiford Went With Hawkins To California Where He Appeared In The Crimson Canary A Mystery Movie Known For Its Jazz Soundtrack. He Then Worked With Duke Ellington From 1945 To 1948 And For Woody Herman In 1949 Before Working Mainly As A Leader In The 1950s. As A Leader He Inadvertently Discovered Cannonball Adderley . After One Of His Musicians Had Tricked Him Into Letting Adderley An Unknown Music Teacher Onto The Stand He Had Adderley Solo On A Demanding Piece On Which Adderley Performed Impressively. Pettiford Is Considered The Pioneer Of The Cello As A Solo Instrument In Jazz Music. In 1949 After Suffering A Broken Arm Pettiford Found It Impossible To Play His Bass So He Experimented With A Cello A Friend Had Lent Him. Tuning It In Fourths Like A Double Bass But One Octave Higher Pettiford Found It Possible To Perform During His Rehabilitation During Which Time His Arm Was In A Sling And Made His First Recordings With The Instrument In 1950. The Cello Thus Became His Secondary Instrument And He Continued To Perform And Record With It Throughout His Career. read less