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African American Biography (Oxford)

Oscar Pettiford

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By David Spies | Jan 1, 2008
(30 Sept. 1922 -- 8 Sept. 1960), composer and musician, was born in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, the son of Harry “Doc” Pettiford, a veterinarian and amateur guitarist of African American and Cherokee descent, and Leontine Bell, a music teacher and pianist who was a full-blooded Choctaw. Pettiford's father gave up his career in the 1920s, and the family moved to Minneapolis to form what later became an outstanding regional band. All eleven children contributed, the older ones generally playing instruments and the younger singing. Ira, on the trumpet, eventually worked with EarlHines and Benny Carter; Marjorie, on the clarinet, flute, and saxophone, went on to become a member of the Sweethearts of Rhythm; and Alonzo later performed with LionelHampton and JayMcShann. Oscar began with the band at age three as a vocalist and drummer. He learned to play piano in 1933 and played trumpet and trombone as well; he also made occasional appearances with the band as a singer, dancer, and baton twirler until the age of fourteen.

In 1936 Oscar's father lent him a string bass that was in storage with the Pettifords at the time. Pettiford immediately began to play the instrument, and when the bass was reclaimed, his father purchased one. After an absence from the band for several months, Pettiford returned, as a bassist, to performing. He was able to finish high school, although his ambition to study medicine remained unfulfilled. He began to enjoy the band, which worked steadily in Minneapolis and toured the Midwest and South, performing primarily new material, and he was even auditioned by DukeEllington. Brief mention of the band in the November 1938 issue of Down Beat acknowledged the band's popularity.

Pettiford and other family members would attend jam sessions in Minneapolis after finishing the evening's work. It was there that he first heard of JimmyBlanton, bassist with Ellington and the father of modern bass playing. Pettiford's style evolved much in the manner of Blanton's, featuring florid, facile, hornlike solo passages. Other bass players who influenced Pettiford are Milt Hinton (with CabCalloway), Billy Taylor (with Duke Ellington), Moses Allen (with JimmieLunceford), and Israel Crosby (with FletcherHenderson). The Minneapolis bassist Adolphus Alsbrook, who performed with both Ellington and CountBasie, suggested that Pettiford consider moving to New York as a freelance musician.

In 1941 the family band, down to five pieces and unsuccessful in locating work, finally split up. Pettiford played with several local groups during that time, but by 1942 he'd abandoned the bass and worked for five months as a tailor in a war plant. When Milt Hinton, during a visit to Minneapolis with Calloway's band, discovered that Pettiford was no longer playing, he urged him to return.

In January 1943 Pettiford auditioned for Charlie Barnet, who was looking to replace the bassist Chubby Jackson. Pettiford was hired and soon after composed a “Concerto for Two Basses,” which made Jackson and Pettiford a two-bass team until May 1943, when the group reorganized in New York. Pettiford still attended jam sessions while playing with Barnet and once even carried his bass two miles in subzero weather to join a jam session in a Chicago hotel with CharlieParker and DizzyGillespie.

In 1943 Pettiford worked Minton's Playhouse with TheloniousMonk for four months. Later that year he played with RoyEldridge for sixteen weeks at the Onyx. In December Pettiford recorded for the first time with Leonard Feather's All-Stars, which included the saxophonist ColemanHawkins and the pianist ArtTatum. Other early recordings were “The Man I Love” and “Crazy Rhythm” with Coleman Hawkins. Pettiford won top honors as bassist in the 1943 Esquire magazine Critics' Poll, the 1944 Metronome and Esquire polls, and the 1945 Esquire poll.

On 18 January 1944 Pettiford performed in a Metropolitan Opera House jam session. Listed in the band were BillieHoliday, vocals; LouisArmstrong, trumpet and vocals; Jack Teagarden, trombone and vocals; BarneyBigard, clarinet; Coleman Hawkins, saxophone; Roy Eldridge, trumpet; Art Tatum, piano; Al Casey, guitar; Lionel Hampton, vibraphone and drums; SidneyCatlett, drums; and Pettiford on double bass.

In the winter of 1943 -- 1944 Pettiford formed a group, along with Gillespie, that was considered the first bop combo on Fifty-second Street and included DonByas on tenor saxophone, George Wallington on piano, and MaxRoach on drums. This group played in a bop style inspired by Pettiford in which the horns (usually trumpet and tenor) play lines in unison rather than a single line accompanied by a horn playing whole notes. Pettiford composed several charts about this time, including “Max Is Making Wax / Something for You” for Max Roach, which Pettiford recorded in January 1945 with a big band called Oscar Pettiford and His 18 All-Stars, which included Gillespie, and “Bass Face,” which became the standard “One Bass Hit,” recorded in 1946 by Gillespie and the bassist Ray Brown. After only four months, however, Pettiford and Gillespie had artistic differences and Pettiford left the group in 1944.

For the rest of the year Pettiford continued to work along Fifty-second Street, leading groups at the Onyx, Spotlite, Yacht Club, and Three Deuces. During this time Pettiford met Harriet Noren, who later became his wife. They had a son.

In January 1945 Pettiford recorded “Interlude (A Night in Tunisia)” and “March of the Boyds” with the Boyd Raeburn band. Later that year he had a long stint at Billy Berg's in Hollywood, California, with Coleman Hawkins's band, which included HowardMcGhee, Sir Charles Thompson on piano, DenzilBest on drums, Hawkins, and Pettiford; they recorded “Stuffy” and “Hollywood Stampede.” In October 1945 Pettiford headed his own trio, working California and Nevada for five months.

Pettiford joined Duke Ellington on 10 November 1945, remaining with the band until 11 March 1948. Pettiford became disillusioned with Ellington's band; most of the players he wished to perform alongside had already quit, and the dance book proved too repetitive.

After he left Ellington, Pettiford joined ErrollGarner on piano and J.C.Heard on drums in a trio and subsequently gigged around New York City with Lucky Thompson on saxophone, JohnLewis on piano, BennieHarris on trumpet, and Denzil Best. Later, the pianist George Shearing, Pettiford, and KennyClarke played the Clique. After turning the trio over to Shearing, Pettiford put together a short-lived all-star group that included MilesDavis and FatsNavarro on trumpet, Kai Winding on trombone, Lucky Thompson and DexterGordon on tenor sax, MiltJackson on vibes, BudPowell on piano, and Kenny Clarke.

Pettiford joined Woody Herman's orchestra in February 1949, which at the time included Stan Getz, Serge Chaloff, and Zoot Sims on saxophone, Ernie Royal on trumpet, Terry Gibbs on vibes, and Red Rodney. Pettiford performed with them for five months before he broke his arm pitching softball on Herman's team. The next eighteen months of recovery allowed Pettiford to reorient his playing approach toward increased tone production and projection. He also began to play the cello, pizzicato style, similar to how he played bass.

After his recovery Pettiford toured with a group led by Louis Bellson and CharlieShavers. Late in 1951 he led his own group on a USO tour through Korea and Japan and throughout the Pacific. After an altercation at Okinawa, Pettiford was ordered home on 7 January 1952.

From 1952 -- 1958 Pettiford was active in New York City with his own small group and big band. Kenny Clarke, the pianist Dick Katz, the trumpeter Art Farmer, the alto saxophonist GigiGryce, the reed player Jerome Richardson, and the pianist HoraceSilver were just a few of the members of Oscar's bands. Among the works Pettiford wrote during that time were “Bohemia after Dark,” “Swingin' till the Girls Come Home,” “The Pendulum at Falcon's Lair,” “Now See How You Are,” and “Blues in the Closet (Collard Greens and Black-Eyed Peas).”

Pettiford left the United States for England in September 1958, never to return. He worked throughout France, Austria, and Germany before finally settling in Copenhagen in June 1959. In 1958 he was hospitalized in Vienna after an automobile accident; he had multiple injuries, including a skull fracture, a concussion, and severe face and mouth lacerations. Pettiford worked with Stan Getz at the Café Montmartre from the summer of 1959 to early 1960 and then led his own group of Scandinavian musicians. He made his last recording in July 1960.

On 4 September 1960 Pettiford entered Fiedfrederiksberg Hospital in Copenhagen after playing at an art exhibition, complaining of a sore throat similar to a strep infection. By 7 September Pettiford was completely paralyzed, and he died the next day. The fatal virus was apparently not polio, but its exact identity was never determined.

Pettiford was the foremost bassist of the late 1940s and 1950s. As a composer he was responsible for many standards of the bop repertoire; as a performer his innovations with the horn line led to one of bebop's significant style characteristics. In addition, his performing style helped change the role of the bass in the rhythm section. Pettiford's innovative melodic style on bass, similar to CharlieChristian's approach to the electric guitar, presented long eighth note passages that featured frequent turning around of meter, rhythmic patterns, and melodic figures, with a clarity and power not unlike Charlie Parker's on alto saxophone.

Copyright © 2005 by Oxford University Press, Inc.

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