Happy birthday, Milt Buckner!

Milt Buckner

Milt Buckner, born in St. Louis on July 10, 1915, had a long and productive career as one of the handful of jazz musicians to enjoy success and demonstrate equal facility as both a pianist and an organist.

Though born in the Gateway City, Buckner was raised in Detroit, and got his first professional job with McKinney's Cotton Pickers before he was out of his teens. Later, he went on to work with famed vibist Lionel Hampton for many years. He also recorded a number of albums as a leader, and later in his career worked as a session musicians and sideman with Illinois Jacquet, Roy Eldridge, Jo Jones, Buddy Tate, Arnett Cobb and many other artists, moving freely between the worlds of jazz, R&B and pop. These brief biographies and this three-part discography provide an overview of Buckner's work, with the latter including some interesting photos of vintage record labels and covers and some pictures of the man himself.

As a pianist, Buckner was one of the early proponents of the "locked hands" style of playing later made famous by George Shearing. As an organist, he built on the work of Fats Waller and "Wild Bill" Davis, often using the organ orchestrally to make a small ensemble sound like a big band, and putting more emphasis on a variety of tonal colors than on fleet-fingered solo runs. Jimmy Smith cited Buckner as an early influence, although at 5'2" tall, Buckner's legs were too short to enable him to even attempt the fast-moving pedal bass lines that became one of Smith's trademarks.

An exuberant performer who connected instinctively with an audience, Buckner contined to record and tour, often in Europe, until shortly before his death in Chicago on July 27, 1977. A good deal of his music is still in print, including compilations of his work from the 40s and 50s and some full length CDs recorded later in his career. Director David Lynch used Buckner's composition "The Beast" (Real Audio file) in the film Mulholland Drive, and several Buckner tracks from the 50s and 60s have appeared on various themed compilations of lounge and "space age pop" music.

(edited 7/11/05)