Quentin Jackson

A fixture with Duke Ellington's Orchestra in the 1950s, Quentin Jackson was Duke's best "wa-wa" trombonist (an expert with the plunger mute) post-Tricky Sam Nanton. His brother-in-law Claude Jones (who played with McKinney's Cotton Pickers) taught him trombone. Jackson played with Zack Whyte (1930), McKinney's Cotton Pickers (1931), Don Redman's Orchestra (1932-1940), Cab Calloway (1940-1948), and Lucky Millinder. He took occasional solos with those groups, and in the early days was a ballad singer. But most important were his contributions to Duke Ellington's music (1949-1960), both as a soloist and in the ensembles. After leaving Ellington, he toured Europe with Quincy Jones (1960), played with Count Basie (1961-62), recorded with Charles Mingus (1962), returned to Ellington (1963), and worked with the big bands of Louie Bellson and Gerald Wilson. Quentin Jackson was with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis orchestra (1971-1975) near the end of his life. His only session as a leader resulted in four titles, in 1959, that were reissued by Swing. ~ Scott Yanow, Rovi