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A Look Back At How Virtuoso Jimmy Blanton Changed The Bass Forever

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Copyright 2018 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air . DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. One hundred years ago today, on October 5, jazz virtuoso Jimmy Blanton was born in Chattanooga, Tenn. Blanton played violin as a child before switching to the string bass in college. Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead says that, in a few short years on the scene, Blanton revolutionized the instrument. (SOUNDBITE OF DUKE ELLINGTON'S "JACK THE BEAR") KEVIN WHITEHEAD, BYLINE: Duke Ellington's orchestra was playing St. Louis in late October in 1939. Tipped off by a couple of scouts, after the show one night, Duke dropped by bandleader Fate Marable's gig. Marable had run the riverboat band 17-year-old Louis Armstrong had once played in. Now he was cultivating another precocious talent - a bass player who'd worked the boats and had just turned 21. Ellington sat in on piano for a couple of numbers, then told his host, he's my bass player now - even before Duke knew the young man's name. A few weeks

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